Page 78 of A Bride for the Cruel Duke

Caroline leaned back as if she had been struck. “Excuse me?”

“Everybody knows what happened,” Daniel hissed. “Everybody knows that this marriage is a farce; nothing more than an effort to explain away your actions. Actions which I am now forced to suffer as a result!”

“Enough!” Anthony roared and thumped his fists on the table, causing everyone to jump. “I warned you to watch how you speak of my wife. I warned you—and you took my warning, boy, and threw it in my face. I will not have it.”

“Offense was not meant,” Daniel said simply. “I am but a messenger.”

“You are but a fool,” Anthony snarled, which saw Daniel wince. “Thinking that you can come into my home and speak of me and my wife as you have. Although perhaps ‘fool’ is too generous a word. It suggests intelligence enough to understand the mistake made. Are you a fool, boy? Or are you so stupid that you think you can speak this way and get away with it?”

Anthony did not know Daniel well, but he’d got the measure of him by this point. Not brave by any means, but clearly stubborn and pigheaded and the type who thought a little too much of himself. What was more, having only seen the best of Anthony, he likely did not fear him as he once might have—and as he should do!

That will be the last mistake that he makes.

“I do not appreciate being called stupid, Your Grace,” Daniel began, sticking his chin in the air. “And I ask that you apologize.”

“Daniel!” Caroline cried.

“Get out,” Anthony snarled before he could stop himself.

“Excuse me?” Daniel blinked.

Anthony was done. Done pretending. Done trying to be someone who he was not. He had wanted to prove to Caroline that he had what it took to make a decent husband, a life of peace and quiet, not a monster and certainly not cruel. And for so long too, he had thought it might be possible.

Having cut himself off from the world, rarely had he been forced to test the limits of his patience. Dammit, he had even managed to convince himself that he was kinder than people said.

I am not husband material. I am not fit to be around others. It is time I stop pretending otherwise…

“I did not stutter.” Anthony rose from the table, giving way to his anger like he never had before. “Nor am I in the habit of repeating myself.”

“I—” Daniel started to speak but did not have time to get his words out.

Anthony was on him, grabbing the upstart lord by the scruff of the neck and yanking him from his chair. “I said, get out!” Then, with Daniel on his feet, he tossed him across the room as if he were a ragdoll.

Daniel stumbled and tripped, barely keeping his balance.

“Daniel!” voices cried, all the women at once.

“Have you lost your mind?” Daniel exclaimed.

“No,” Anthony said. “In fact, I have very recently just found it. Now…” He took a step toward Daniel, taking a little too much pleasure in the way the boy scurried back. “Do I need to say it again, or this time will you listen? A first for you, I know. So I will not hold my breath.”

Daniel looked to Caroline for support, but she gave him none. She was in a state of shock and surprise, unable to comprehend what was happening. Her eyes were wide, her mouth hanging open. She glanced at Anthony. Their eyes met, and in them Anthony saw something that he had never seen in Caroline before when she looked at him: He saw fear.

“Go!” Anthony roared, giving in fully to his temper. “I will not ask again.”

“Caroline!” Daniel turned to his sister, but she looked away. Shame, it felt like, only not for her brother. Anthony had no doubt that shame was held for the man to whom she was married. “Fine!” Daniel snarled as he straightened up. “If that is the way it is going to be. Mother. Sisters. We are leaving.”

“Daniel…” Caroline’s mother began. “What are you saying?—?”

“Now, Mother!” he snapped. He widened his eyes in warning at his mother and then at his sisters, each of whom had no choice but to follow his example.

And, as Caroline’s family rose from their seats, Anthony continued to glare at Daniel, holding it on him until he and the others hurried from the dining room, without another word said.

It was only once they had gone that Anthony came back into himself, calming just enough to understand the magnitude of what he had just done. The exact opposite of what he had promised he would do. Worse than that, perhaps, as even he had not known he could go so far.

Caroline was still seated, looking down at the table, likely embarrassed, very likely ashamed. For the first time she was seeing Anthony as everyone else did, a man to be feared not loved. A man who nobody deserved to be trapped with for the rest of their days. Not husband material.

For a moment there, Anthony wondered if it might be worth apologizing, explaining himself, promising that he would not do it again—he hated seeing Caroline this way. He hated how it made him feel. But then again, wasn’t that the very reason he had begun to question this marriage in the first place?

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