“I cannot say for certain,” Lily admitted with a small laugh. “Someday, I will tell you more about my marriage, and you will understand why. But I think it would do a great deal for you to listen to your husband and for him to listen to you. I have no doubt my husband is telling Basset something of the sort while they converse, so you need not think this advice is for you alone.”

There was some relief in that, given how Adelaide’s irritation rose at the very idea of listening to her husband. If they would both be advised to listen to each other, perhaps the advice was sound enough.

“What makes you think he will listen to me?” Adelaide asked, not bothering to take the stinging note from her voice. “Or I to him, for that matter.”

“I don’t know that either of you will,” Lily said at once, her tone entirely unchanged. “I simply think it helps a marriage for the couple to listen to each other. A small matter of respect for one another, if there can be nothing else in the relationship. Now you will both have the same goals, having your family and your name succeed. It ought to become a sort of partnership between you, though the world and the law does not quite see our position as wives in that way. In the walls of your own home, however, your marriage is your own business.”

Adelaide pressed her tongue to her teeth in thought, still rankling at the idea of having to do anything that might give Basset leverage over her so soon. But she could not deny that they would have the same aims now, that she would want Lady Basset to be as respected in circles as Lord Basset was, and that they should both be envied and admired. His home would become hers, and it ought to be a place of finery and dignity.

And comfort, if she could find any there.

Still, Lily Granger and her husband were friends and neighbors of Basset already. They knew and liked him, which meant they might not think so well of Adelaide, if they’d heard of her.

She managed a smile she did not quite feel. “Is this where you tell me that my husband is a wonderful man and that I am fortunate to be his wife? That I will be much blessed, and I can wish for nothing more?”