"We have to get up eventually."

"That does not mean now."

"You haven't eaten since morning."

"Neither have you."

"That is my point," and with one final shove, Diana firmly pushed her husband away so she could sit up. Ignoring his groan, she ran a hand through her loose hair, wilder than ever because someone could not keep their hands out of it, and reached for her robe. Slipping it on, she swatted Richard's hand away once more before ringing for Sarah and throwing him a bemused look. "What has got you so clingy?"

"Clingy," Richard snorted at the word, throwing an arm over his eyes and making a point to turn away from her.

Diana laughed, pulling him back onto his back. She pushed his arm off his eyes and kissed his nose. "Clingy," she confirmed.

"Brat," shot back Richard. Diana merely rested her chin on his bare chest, quirking up an eyebrow to show she still wanted an answer. Richard huffed. "I want to spend some time with my wife, that is all. Is it a crime?"

"A sin," said Diana seriously. Richard pinched her waist through her robe, and she yelped before swatting at his chest. "That hurt!"

"Liar. I've hurt you plenty worse before, and you've enjoyed it every time," Richard smirked as his words caused her to blush crimson, and she promptly hid her face in his chest. He chuckled and caressed her hair, tugging at her curls teasingly. "What, no smart answer to that?"

"You are horrible," she muttered. "I'm leaving."

Richard did not believe her at first, but as she slipped out of his arms and made to leave the bed, he caught her about the waist and held fast. By way of an apology, he kissed her hair. "Did I offend you, my love?"

Diana did not respond, keeping her face turned away. Richard kissed her hair again, and hid a smile as he let her go. Immediately, she scooted to the edge of the bed, glaring at him over her shoulder. "You are a dog, Richard Fitzwilliam."

"Your humble servant, madam," he replied cheekily. His wife was still scowling at him through narrowed eyes, but he merely lay back in bed and grinned, completely at ease.

And then, to his utter astonishment, Diana threw a pillow at him.

It hit him full in the face, and it took him over a minute to respond. "Did you just –" he spluttered for a second before giving up, tossing the pillow back to her. "Minx," he muttered.

"Is that a problem? I thought that was why you married me," Diana raised an eyebrow.

Richard snorted. "Clearly I did not know what I was getting myself into. Can a man not expect his wife to obey him once in a while?"

Diana snickered. "Many men do," she admitted, then added, "However, if this man wants to keep his wife happy, he will avoid using the word obey."

Richard sat up, twirling the sash of her robe around his fingers. His attempts to discreetly pull her closer via it were far from subtle, but Diana did not try to stop him. "How else will I get you to listen to me?"

"By asking me nicely," said Diana, in a tone that implied it was obvious.

"That would mean you've won."

Diana smirked. "Just this argument?"

"Does it matter?" a rather sharp tug resulted in Diana edging closer to him, to avoid her robe opening at the front.

"Darling, we are married," trying to ignore his actions, she rolled her eyes. "I will always win."

Richard smile went from teasing to adoring in a second, and his final tug resulted in Diana's face inches from his own. "You may win every battle, but I won the ultimate prize."

His words took her by surprise, and Diana had barely let out a laugh before he was kissing her, his aim clearly to coax her back into bed to avoid both of their social responsibilities for the entirety of the day. And for a while, she allowed herself to be distracted. Richard was an excellent kisser, and his warm hands clutched at her body with just the right amount of force to elicit certain noises from her mouth, which would have been highly scandalous had they not been husband and wife in the privacy of their bedroom. When his mouth pulled away from hers and began to inch down her neck, she realized she was not the only one being loud. The thought made her smirk in self-satisfaction even as her eyes rolled back into her head with pleasure, and Diana was tempted to simply allow Richard to take charge so they could spend the next several hours occupying themselves with the same – highly enjoyable – activity they had indulged in since that morning. It was nice, after all, to act like a newly-married couple helplessly in love and unable to keep their hands off each other. It was what they were, and as she felt Richard's teeth just barely graze the joint of her shoulder and neck, Diana had made up her mind that this particular distraction sounded like a very, very good idea right now.

And then Sarah knocked on the door.

Richard growled in frustration even as Diana let out a surprised laugh. The arm around her waist tightened, and he continued to press kisses to her neck, making no sign that he was willing to be interrupted. The fingers of his free hand had already undone the front of her robe before she realized what he was doing.

"She won't go away if we just ignore her," Diana tried to reason with him breathlessly.

"She will," his warm breath tickled the skin of her neck.

"Richard, we should –"

"Darling, if you are not quiet soon I will be forced to make you shut up."

"Make me –"

He cut her off with a searing kiss, and Diana gave up immediately. The knocking ceased soon after, but they were both too far gone by that point to pay attention.

!

"We could have eaten downstairs like normal people," said Diana. She watched her husband devour the luncheon that Sarah had thankfully left outside their room on a tray and swiped a piece of carrot from his plate. "I knew you were hungry."

"My hunger is quite satisfied," replied Richard, in that teasing tone of voice that always made Diana blush even though his words sounded completely innocent – until you thought about them. Diana threw her carrot at him, and it bounced off his temple harmlessly. Richard ignored her and pierced a slice of beef with his fork, turning to her and holding it out. "You, on the other hand, have not eaten anything since your tea this morning."

"And you're going to feed me, I suppose?" Diana raised an eyebrow in amusement.

Richard did not answer, merely held out the food with a look that said he would not leave her alone until she ate. Shrugging, Diana allowed him to feed her a few bites. Five minutes later, she was curled up into his side and picking at his plate sheepishly. "I knew you were hungry," said Richard smugly. Diana pinched his arm. Richard allowed her a few more minutes and when she finally seemed to be finished, he nudged her shoulder. "We need to talk, Diana," he said gently.

"About what?" she asked absently, still focused on the plate of food.

"Last night."

Almost immediately, she stiffened next to him. Richard glanced down at her, only to see her shaking her head firmly. "No," she said simply.

"No?" Richard raised his eyebrows.

"No, we do not need to speak of what happened. I already told you it was unfortunate, and I do not plan for it to happen again."

Richard ran a hand through his hair wearily. "Yes, it was unfortunate, but how do you plan for it to never happen again?"

She sniffed. "I simply need to control myself better."

"You can't think that blocking out all your emotions and not dealing with the problem at hand will make everything better, can you?"

"I am not blocking –"

"Yes, you are," interrupted Richard. Diana opened her mouth to retort, but he held up a hand. Giving her a look that told her they were not finished, he picked up the tray they had been eating from and deposited it outside the door, thereby ensuring they would not be disturbed during their conversation. When he returned to the sofa upon which they had been seated, he saw that Diana had wrapped her arms around her knees and was curled up at one end, further away from him than she had been before he had left. Ignoring her silent request for some space, Richard took a seat next to her and tugged at her arms, pulling her legs free and draping them over his lap before reaching for her hands. He held them tightly in his own and waited patiently until Diana finally looked at him, her eyes guarded. He kissed her knuckles. "I love you," he told her quietly. "I know you do not want to speak of it, but if I did not think it would help I would not mention any of this, believe me."

Diana bit her lip. "What exactly would you like to discuss?" she asked finally.

Richard took a deep breath. "What my aunt said to you was wrong," he began, slightly hesitant. Diana's face remained impassive, though her grip on his hands tightened. "She was wrong to hold you accountable for things beyond your control. I need to know that you realize none of those things are your fault," Diana scoffed, turning away, but Richard held fast. "Diana, please."

For a moment, he thought she would continue to struggle, but then the defiant spark in her eyes seemed to die out. Her shoulders slumped. "It doesn't matter that none of those things are my fault," she said quietly. Her gaze was fixed downwards, but she was clutching at his hands tightly. "I am all that is left to remind people of terrible things – my father's death, my mother's behaviour, Charles' death, the fact that I'm barren –" Richard flinched at the word, at the way she threw it out like it was a curse. She looked up at him, her eyes full of grief. "How can you expect me to take it all in stride, Richard?"

"I don't expect you to do that at all," he soothed, half-relieved that she was indeed talking to him and yet guilt-ridden because of the pain he knew he was causing her. "I simply do not want it to affect you as much as it does."

"Easy for you to say," muttered Diana, looking away again. "You're leaving."

His heart clenched. "Diana, I –"

"I do not begrudge you going, I understand why you need to leave and I will support you in this," the line was flat, rehearsed, but Diana looked up at him and he saw that, despite the pain, she truly meant what she said. "I would never stop you going, but I will never want you to go either."

Richard chose not to respond, deciding to address that particular issue another time. "You have always believed that people will talk just as much as we let them," he tried a different angle. "Why does this matter as much? Surely you are letting people keep talking by acting so affected?"

Diana shook her head smilingly. "They do not talk about me just because I act upset, darling."

Richard frowned. "I do not understand, then."

"You do not understand society like I do," her smile was bitter. "I fought to get where I am, Richard, and for so long I was one of those women that people did not dare to talk about, because anything and everything they said would find its way back to me," she squeezed his hands. "I stopped being that woman the day I married you." Richard blinked and opened his mouth to speak, not quite knowing what to say. However, he found Diana's fingers were pressed against his lips before he could formulate words, the dull expression in her eyes having been exchanged for a slightly livelier one. "I don't regret it for a second," she told him. "Last night was upsetting, yes, I admit that. I have not been that hurt in a while, and because it was your aunt it was all the more painful. But even that would not make me regret this. Knowing that I have you to turn to is what helps."

"But I won't be around every time," said Richard weakly.

"No, you won't," Diana shifted her position so she could rest her head against his shoulder. Richard draped an arm around her, holding her tightly against his side. "But you made me realize that I do have other people to stick up for me, should I need help. I suppose that counts as progress."

Yes, it does. "Of course," said Richard immediately. "I told you, they will never allow a word to be said against you."

Diana smiled. "I would much prefer to have you as my knight in shining armour atop a white horse, if I am being honest. It isn't half as romantic when Emily has to come to my aid."

Richard smiled at her attempts to lighten the mood. "Emily will have to give up her role as your protector once I come back, you know."

"Yes," Diana's tone was dismissive, in a way that made Richard slightly uncomfortable though he could not decide why. "Is that all you wanted to talk about, then?"

A small voice in the back of his head was telling him to quit while he was ahead, but Richard ignored it. It was rare that he had his wife to himself, and it would probably be better for her to have an emotional breakdown – should it be necessary – with just him as a witness rather than another public incident like the previous night. "I had hoped we could talk about your father," said Richard carefully. Almost automatically, his arms tightened around Diana, and as he felt her shift in his grip, he knew that had he loosened his hold even slightly she would have inched away.

"What about him?" her tone was guarded, careful.

Richard shrugged, attempting to be casual. "We never talked about him."

"There was nothing to talk about. You know how he died," Diana snapped.

Richard chose to ignore the hostility emitting from her and merely rested his cheek against the top of her head. "I just want to know more about how he was with you," he said, keeping his tone pacifying. "We do not have to discuss his death if it distresses you."

"Distresses me?" Diana laughed humourlessly. "Why would my father hanging himself in my childhood home while I was away shopping bother me at all?" she made to get up, but Richard refused to ease his grip. Her tone went from mocking to outraged. "Let me go!"

"No," he said simply. Diana's eyes glinted with the familiar anger that he had not seen since before their engagement, and for a moment he was hesitant. Then, he steeled himself. "You can say whatever you want from right here, can you not?"

"And what is it you want me to say?" she was practically spitting fire, her cheeks flushed with the familiar hue he was surprised to find that he had missed. Though he loved comforting his wife and keeping her close, she had hardly ever given him a reason to do so. It was oddly reassuring to learn that she could still defend herself rather splendidly, should she feel the need. If only she did not feel the need with him.

Of course, her fury was not directed at him, but rather their topic of conversation. Richard did not care how angry she was at the moment – Diana could slap him as hard as she liked and he would still keep her trapped until she finally spoke to him. "I want you to say what you feel," he said, his voice still calm.

Diana ground her teeth and made to push him away, seemingly intent on removing herself from his grasp, but Richard took advantage of his strength and refused to let her move even an inch. He was rarely rough with her, and he had no doubt that his grip on her arm may leave a mark soon, but he trusted she would be understanding of it later. Indeed, at the current moment she seemed to barely feel it. Her eyes burned holes into his own as she stared him down, her breathing harsh and uneven, even as he stared back unimpressed. Handling Diana when she was in a temper was something he excelled at. "Your attempts to analyse my every move are maddening, Richard, and I cannot understand what you mean by such behaviour!" finally, she managed to put some distance between them, and her breaths came heavier with the combination of the effort and her anger. "What do you want me to say?" she demanded again, her voice growing louder with every word she spoke. "That I am heartbroken he died, and that the way he died upsets me every time I think of it? That my mother's words and behaviour following his death were nothing short of despicable and I can just add that to the long list of things I can never forgive her for? Or perhaps you would like to know just how it feels to lose the only parent who has ever given two hoots about you as a person and not just a way to increase her pin-money? Or maybe –" but then she was choking on her own words as tears leaked out of her eyes, and Richard was coaxing her back into his lap despite her best attempts to fight him off. He ignored the slight sting as her nails dug into his arms even as she buried her head into his chest and sighed quietly, the feeling of success bittersweet.

"You've never said any of these things to me before," he murmured quietly as she continued to cry silently in his arms.

"What good would it do?" asked Diana miserably. Richard waited for a moment, expecting her to look up, but her tears had not abated and she continued to sob quietly into his chest, the sounds heart-breaking. It was a few more minutes before he felt her breathing relax, and he kissed the top of her head, finally managing to get her to look at him. The fire in her eyes had died, only to be replaced by a glassy sheen that was no doubt the result of reliving memories she would rather forget.

"Do you think it does you any good to keep such things inside?" he asked finally, his hands rhythmically stroking her hair. "All it does is upset you."

Diana sniffed, but her voice was steadier when she spoke, as if she was trying to make him understand how she felt rather than scream at him for questioning her. "Pappa killed himself, Richard. I cannot simply talk to Rose or Emily about how much I miss him or how I feel as if what happened was unfair. It just isn't done."

"You can talk to me about it though," he persisted. "I am not Rose or Emily, Diana, and while I do think that you need your friends for many things I do not think I am flattering myself when I say that this is something you need only me for."

"We've barely been married long enough for these things to come up," muttered Diana, though the hostility was gone.

"Ours is not a traditional marriage, my love," he reminded her gently. "Talking about your father will make it easier for you to hear his name, and make you realize that his death and your past have no connection at all. I am still here, so you must make use of it. Talking to me will ease your mind, I promise you."

Diana looked lost. "What is there to talk about, though?" she asked, sounding genuinely confused. "He is gone, and nothing anyone says will make the way he died less of a scandal. People stopped talking about it when I married Charles, and even when I married you I was sure no one would bring it up, that our marriage itself would be enough for them to gossip and speak of until they found something new. But if your own family cannot forget it –"

"Aunt Ellen is just one person," interrupted Richard, firmly but gently. "Nobody else thinks any less of you because of circumstances you cannot control."

"Just because they do not say it out loud does not mean they are not thinking of it."

Richard sighed. "Darling, I have told you this before. We cannot control the way people think, merely the way they treat us," he saw the ghost of a smile on Diana's face at his words. "What is it?"

"You've said that to me before," despite her tear-stained cheeks, he saw her lips twitch.

Indeed he had. Richard blinked in surprise. "You remember?"

"Yes," the hand that had previously been clutching at his arm uncomfortably now touched his cheek with an infinite amount of gentleness. "You caught me hiding behind the curtains at Almack's, the week after your mother introduced us."

Richard chucked softly, his mind immediately going back to that day. "I asked what you thought you were doing and you said some lord or the other kept proposing to you and you were sick of it."

"You said I should be happy someone wanted to marry me after the rumour you had spread."

Richard snorted. "You said I was a buffoon and that I should leave you alone again," playfully, he tugged on a lock of her hair. "Were you jealous I had not been paying you any attention that evening, my love?"

Diana hummed, resting her head against his chest. "You always insisted on dancing with all those twittering idiots. And then you said that you'd help me if I agreed to dance the next set with you."

"You said you didn't want to."

"You said if I rejected you I'd have to sit out the rest of the dances."

"You said you were quite willing to do it if it meant I stayed away from you."

Diana giggled. "I really was hard to please, it is a wonder I said yes to your proposal the first time around."

"It is a wonder you said yes to me the second time," muttered Richard.

"What, after that grand speech you had prepared?" Diana sounded amused. "How could I refuse?"

"Alright, enough of that," he rolled his eyes. "What happened next?"

Diana shrugged. "You said you were disappointed that I would sacrifice my entire evening just to get away from you; I had not seemed like the kind of girl who cared about what people thought."

"And then you hit me with your fan, did you not?"

"Not hard enough," smiled Diana. "

He grabbed her hand playfully before pressing a kiss to her knuckles. "You said people already thought you were strange and you did not want to make it worse," he murmured against her skin.

Her fingers wrapped around his. "And that's when you said that we cannot control the way people think, but we can control the way they treat us. And then your pretty words convinced me to dance with you, after which you always insisted on sending me flowers after every ball we saw each other at."

"It was the customary thing for an admirer to do," defended Richard.

Diana shook her head smilingly. "You did not admire me then," she squeezed his hand. "You did it because you realized I had missed you whilst you were off flirting with heiresses, and you wanted to show me you hadn't forgotten about me."

"And is that not admiration?"

"Perhaps, but admiration does not always lead to love."

"It did in our case."

Diana smiled. "I suppose we were the exception."

Richard nodded thoughtfully. "I quite like being the exception."


I have been dying to work the title in somehow, it was initially supposed to be while they were fighting and she would sort of spit out something like "you are the exception to my every rule and I hate it" but it didn't fit... But now that I've written it I am DYING for her to say these words. Ah well, sequel it is then!

Sorry for the lateness my lovelies, I have two essays due next week AND then I'm travelling so I thought I would leave you all with this one until then. I actually quite like it, I love writing just Diana and Richard but the story will move out of the bedroom now, so be prepared for choppy chapters but loads more action! Let me know what you thought of this one, I love the way they interact when one of them is angry so I couldn't resist adding that bit in.

As always, many thanks to the ever-faithful review team:

Gaskellian: I'm so fascinated by North and South, dying to read it actually but I just can't find the time, would it be worth getting into? I would love your thoughts on it, also very glad you appreciated the chapter xx

Deanna27: You asked for it! He will come up again and again of course, but this is a good starting point on talking about him, I think?

Motherof8: They really are adorable, the parting scene is going to break my heart when I type it, but that's is how stories live on. Absence does make the heart grow fonder!

HarnGin: Clever of you to see that coming, I had dropped hints but I was surprised no one had picked up on it yet!

Jansfamily4: Won't reveal too much about what's going to happen next, but Diana's strength won't be wasted and I do believe in happy endings!

catelyntully11: Glad you enjoyed it so much, I hope this one lived up to expectations! The angsty one was my favourite as well, but it really took so much out of me that I think I'll need a few mindless and plot-heavy chapters before I can go back to writing so much emotion in one go! Still, I'm glad you appreciated it!

That's all for now, my lovelies. I have opted to post this chapter without excessive edits and proofs, so excuse any glaringly obvious mistakes and any rambling you may see. I thought it would be best to get a chapter out there for you all to enjoy. I will hopefully see you soon, fingers crossed! Until then, much love xx