Well that had been an exercise in frustration. Felix had intended to go out hunting, he'd had everything set only to find that his gameskeeper had come down with something. Which wasn't his fault, of course, and Felix had spent a good hour with the older man, chatting about hunting and good animal husbandry, in order to set his mind at ease. Still, that was what he'd planned to do with his afternoon.
Now, he was stuck at the castle. With his parents. And his wife.
Which wasn't her fault either. No, that was squarely on his shoulders because of his brilliant plan. He'd set things in motion, and once he had, they'd taken on a life of their own. There was no reason she should have to suffer for that. It was just...
There were expectations. Not just that he was going to produce an heir, but so many other things. He'd had an inkling that the whole husband thing was going to be a heavy burden, but no idea it would be this tedious. And it was constant. His mother, in particular, was very good at making him feel as though he were shirking some duty with just a look. Even if he'd been attentive for an entire morning. Felix really wished he'd just skipped that damn ball.
He was on his way back to his room to change out of his hunting clothes when he passed the library and saw her. There was an urge to pretend he'd not noticed her at all, but he had. And there was every possibility that she'd noticed him. So he stopped, turned around and went back to the library, swallowing the sigh that rose up.
She hadn't seen him, Felix concluded after watching her for a moment. She was rather engrossed in putting the books back. Even though there were more than enough servants to do that. In fact, that was exactly why they had servants: to serve. Worse than the fact that she was returning books to shelves was that she looked as though she was about to use the ladder to return them to shelves that were higher up.
There was no point in using her title, it seemed as though she didn't always recognize it in reference to herself. It would be quicker to use her given name. And haste was in order to keep her from doing something that could be dangerous for her. Moving into the room, Felix approached her from behind and said quietly, "Ella."