Michelle McLean’s Relationship Rules

In Ten Rules for Marrying a Duke, my hero and heroine—Silas Spencer, Duke of Whittsley and Miss Arabella Bromley—enter into a marriage of convenience, complete with a set of iron-clad rules to help their fake relationship run smoothly.

Now, my own relationship certainly isn’t fake – I’ve been married for almost 21 years now and we still really like each other (most days ) But my husband and I thought it would be fun to sit down and come up with our own 10 rules. And keep in mind, we are coming up with these after two decades of being together LOL Our rules would have been much different when we were young and newly in love.

1. Silas the duke and his lady Arabella’s first rule focused on restoring her family’s reputation and giving Silas an heir. But for us, we are good on the kid front – unless they are of the fur variety (and even those will be negotiated first!) My children are nearly out of high school, so duty has been done LOL As for our family’s reputations well…that ship has probably sailed. So fur babies it is!
2. Silas and Arabella’s second rule has to do with the frequency of their heir-making attempts. My husband and I have an heir and a spare (and I have two amazing stepkids to boot!) so any frequency discussions in our house tend to revolve around if we are both awake at the same time. So for this one, we’ll say “heir-making attempts” shall occur as often as we feel up to it. LOL
3. I won’t say anything about his kitchen gadget habit if he ignores my book habit. We will share the shelf space.
4. Silas and Arabella have rules guaranteeing that she will accompany him to every social event he desires while he will escort her to at least one non-social (scientific, art, literary, etc) event she desires a month. Well, after 20 years my husband and I have decided we have a lot more fun going to these events with people who actually want to be there lol However, we do agree to TRY each other’s activities from time to time.
5. At these activities, we won’t fuss if I break out a book at some point or he breaks out his phone, hence ensuring we both have fun
6. I am an indoor cat, always have been, always will be. My outdoor-loving husband has finally accepted this. I’m good with a nice BBQ or picnic every now and then but I draw the line at sitting in a swamp or the woods at the crack of dawn or sleeping outside (unless we’re talking one of those glamping situations). I will, however, agree to venturing outside for brief forays. Occasionally. And he agrees to stay in with me for fun at-home date nights.
7. There is absolutely NO watching ahead of our shared shows. We watch together or not at all.
8. We agree to act surprised when we open presents from each other (that we really got for ourselves)
9. I’m always the little spoon. Unless the dog is snuggled up with us. He’s a cuddle hog. And a blanket hog. Just a whole bed hog, really.
10. Silas has a rule pertaining to a huge secret he is keeping from Arabella. With the hubs and I though, no secrets allowed. We tell each other everything.

Having said all that, at the end of the day, the only real rule we need is to love each other and endeavor to live happily ever after. (Just like Silas and Arabella do…eventually)

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