Page 27 of Five Ways to Bed a Duke

But if there was something Richard had come to understand about his mother as she aged, it was that she was resolutely stubborn, so she never yielded to his father’s pleas. Instead, she started inviting over “new friends.” The only problem was that these friends were men, and instead of receiving them in the drawing room, she received them in her bedroom.

Gradually, as he got older, the pity Richard had felt for his father turned into disgust. Disgust that a man of his father’s caliber was helpless to put a stop to his wife’s infidelity.

That feeling solidified as he interacted with other boys his age and observed their family dynamics. Gentlemen of his father’s caliber did not follow their wives around, begging for crumbs of their affections. And while they didn’t bat an eyelid at their wives’ affairs, they insisted that they were discreet, provided that they had filled the nursery with heirs and spares.

Never mind that those noblemen were not particularly discreet about their mistresses, but society didn’t ostracize them, unlikethe ladies. But at the very least, their wives never made the unforgivable error of disrespecting them in public.

As he got closer to leaving for school in Edinburgh, the veil of love he had over his eyes lifted, and he started to see his mother in all her flaws, reinforced by the moment he had walked into their gallery to find her in a passionate embrace with one of her paramours.

It was safe to say that Richard could guess exactly what he was seeing, as the man was standing with his behind exposed, with his pantaloons around his ankles. When they noticed his presence, his mother just looked up at him with no remorse on her face. Richard had to shake off the shock long enough to run out of the room. Holding on to the handrail of the staircase, he forced himself to take deep breaths.

On that day, he came to the conclusion that his mother was dead and that whoever he had seen in that room was just a woman with an ugly, wicked soul who just happened to look like his mother.

In the days following that incident, he maintained a healthy distance from the Duchess, refusing to play for her friends and spending most of his time with his friends outside the mansion walls.

During that time, he confirmed his theory that his mother only cared about him when she wanted to show off his musical prowess and that aside from that, she had no use for him.

She proceeded to ignore his existence completely after that, not even bothering to smile at him when they crossed paths on the streets of Mayfair. She did not seek him out either the few times she was at the mansion.

While he felt a slight twinge in his chest for having lost her attention, however meaningless it was, he was predominantly relieved and counted down the days until he could leave for Edinburgh for his studies. In no time, that day came, and as his carriage pulled away from the curb, his father waved at him with a deeply sad look on his once handsome face, now marked with heavy bags underneath his eyes.

Richard arrived at school with a smile on his face, having escaped the walls of their country home and the chaos that was his parents’ marriage.

However, he soon realized he was horribly wrong, because one thing the ton ate for breakfast was gossip, and no matter how far he ran, the knowledge of his mother’s infidelity followed him, and if there was one thing young boys excelled at, it was being cruel for no reason.

He soon became a pariah, going to bed every night with stinging knuckles that he had busted during his countless pointless fights to defend his mother’s honor.

Over time, he understood the futility of that endeavor and focused on his studies of philosophy and accounting while ignoring the snickers and whispers behind his back.

He became the best student, and that did not exactly endear him to the petty boys. They just added ‘know-it-all’ to the list of his sins.

He remained a social pariah for the first year or so till Simon, the son of the Viscount Talbot, joined their school and won him over simply because he pestered the quiet, brooding boy until he had no other choice but to become friends with him.

Together they became an unstoppable force, neutralizing the bullies through their practiced indifference. From Simon, Richard learned that bullies got disappointed when their jabs didn’t provoke a reaction. He learned the art of easy charm, smiling in the faces of his haters and even joking about things that were supposed to traumatize him.

When he felt he was better as a man and could face his parents once again, he returned home to an even bigger shock.

His mother was pregnant, and according to the servants’ tales, the Duchess had not been home for over six months, so it was safe to say that the Duke could not have been the father, and the faithless Duchess was most likely carrying the child of one of her many lovers.

For Richard, that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. From his limited knowledge, he was sure that no man, no matter how calm, would take such an insult lying down. But his father had to be an extraordinary man because he claimed the child, forcing everyone to perpetuate the deception.

Richard itched to tell him that he was not really fooling anybody because everyone knew that it was not possible for him to be the father of that child. But then he decided not to give unsolicited advice because, as he had come to learn, you do not give advice to a man in love, lest you find yourself the target of his scorn.

So he ignored them both, traveling over to Simon’s family estate, where he spent most of the holiday. He only returned home when he heard the news that his mother had given birth to a baby girl.

He had been drawn by some unholy curiosity to see what the child born from such a soiled union would look like. However, he was disappointed because when he looked into the cot, all he saw was a tiny little creature who opened her blue eyes and gave him a toothless smile.

Over time, he found himself returning to the nursery several times, every day, to carry her in his arms, and for some reason, the little terror seemed to stop fussing when he placed her on his chest. By the end of the week, he was so attached to the child that he became convinced that angels could emerge from unexpected places and no matter his mother’s sins, that innocent baby girl was his sister, and he was going to protect her the best way any older brother worthy of the name would.

But as it has always been said, a leopard does not easily shed its spots. He was not particularly surprised when a week after his sister’s birth, his mother disappeared, leaving only a note that poorly explained her choice to flee with her new lover to the Continent. That singular act reduced his father to a mere shell ofa man who just locked himself in his study, rummaging through papers.

Until the day his butler found him slumped over his desk. It had been the start of the decline of his health until his demise a year later.

And thus Richard resolved to never subject himself to the whims of capricious women. Never was he going to allow a woman so much control over his heart and life that she could destroy him with a click of her fingers. He would never be addicted to a woman.

“Never say never” seemed to be a saying that applied to his current condition because it seemed that by no will of his own, he seemed to be fast on his way to being addicted to one brown-haired lady in particular, and this was terrible. Very terrible, indeed.

So when Simon walked into his study at an unfashionably early hour, he welcomed the distraction

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