Page 82 of A Bride for the Cruel Duke

“Do not sound so pleased by it!” Aurelia snapped as she bypassed her brother and threw herself at Caroline.

“I am certainly not pleased,” Daniel said haughtily. “Quite the opposite, in fact. When word of this gets out...” He sighed and shook his head. “We will have to make it clear that Caroline left for reasons of her own safety. Not hard to believe, considering who she married.”

“I told you, now is not the time,” Caroline’s mother snapped. “Tomorrow, we will discuss this.”

“You can,” Daniel said. “I shall start sending letters tonight, however. Best that we get our side of the story out first.”

“Daniel...”

“No, Mother. I warned you. I did. And as tragic as this is, ignoring it will not make a difference.”

Aurelia glared at him. “You are such a pr?—”

“I would not finish that sentence if I were you.”

“You are!”

“Aurelia!” Caroline’s mother cried. “Hold your tongue!”

“He started it!”

“And I am finishing it!”

As her sister and mother and brother argued, Caroline felt herself wilting. She was still in shock over what had happened. She was still reeling from it, trying to piece together how it had occurred.Was it my fault? Is Daniel correct? Was this a natural consequence of a marriage that never stood a chance of working?

Strange that through it all, Caroline still felt a desire to defend Anthony. Even after what he had done, she did not hate him.Dammit, even after everything, I still love him as I did yesterday, and the day before that. I still want the marriage that we were so close to having.Yet, she said none of this, choosing silence as her family argued and slandered Anthony’s name.

She was back home. Back to her old self. Back to being invisible and ignored and treated as insignificant. For all of Anthony’s faults, at least he hadseenher. At least it had felt that way. And despite what he had told her just now, she still could not believe his words fully. Still, she hung onto the hope that this was not the end…

But what could she do? How could she make him see the truth of what she knew he felt in his heart? She had no idea. And not because she thought what he had said was true, but because he wanted it to be. The reason that he did… that was what confused her the most.

And so it was that Caroline allowed her mother to lead her toward her room as Daniel disappeared inside his office, set on penning a series of letters that would get ahead of the gossip that was sure to follow this marriage’s end. Caroline did not want him to write them, because she knew they would be false and filled with slander. But she did nothing to stop him, knowing he wouldn’t listen to her anyway.

Her marriage was over. She still wasn’t quite sure how it happened, and so quickly. But she also knew Anthony well enough to know that he would not come for her, he would not beg, and he certainly would not admit to how he truly felt. And where she might have thought to go back him...No, even that is not an option.

Her marriage of convenience had been a most inconvenient thing, and now that it was over, she could not help but wonder how she had fallen so in love with the so-called Cruel Duke, and how she could possibly hope to go on from here.

* * *

The letter came for Anthony three days after he had asked Caroline to leave their home. He was in the garden at the time, walking aimlessly among the hedges and flowerbeds, doing what he could to ignore the stabbing pain that pierced his heart such that he half expected to look down and see a trail of blood following him.

It will pass soon enough. A few more days and I will forget Caroline and our marriage. I will forget how she made me feel. I will forget what it was like to care for someone, and to have them care for me back. I will forget... hopefully, everything.

All Anthony wanted was for things to return to how they had been before his marriage. For years, he had lived a life of near isolation, happy to shut himself from the world as he ignored what people said and thought about him—he did not care! Let them call him the Cruel Duke. Let them think that he was a monster. It had no effect on his life, the opinions of lesser souls, so what did it matter how they spoke behind his back?

He was used to not caring. He was used to being on his own. Most of all, he was used to being feared. For years, he had convinced himself too that he liked it. Respect was one thing, but to be able to walk into a room and take command with little more than a look and a bit of posturing was the embodiment of how he saw himself.

Now, he wondered if he had taken it too far.

Being feared is one thing, but I know now that it is not nearly as satisfying as that other emotion to which I had never been privy until suddenly I was. Causing terror in my peers does fill me with some sense of purpose, sure, but it was nothing when compared to how I felt with Caroline...

Caroline had loved him. Somehow, she had seen through the rumors and the icy facade that he presented as if it was a second skin. She had suffered through his moods and hostile temperament, willing to see past it to a side that even Anthony had not been aware of until it was too late. Love... caring... wishing to be with someone, not because of what they might do for you, but because of how they made you feel.And typical me, I did as I always do when faced with the unknown. I lashed out, snarled and snapped, and turned into a monster.

The irony here did not escape Anthony either. He knew that if he went to her and apologized that she would likely forgive him. But that would require him to admit how he felt. For how much he had changed this last week, he wasn’t sure he was quite able to do that...

That was until the letter came for him, anyhow.

“Your Grace!” Mr. Jeffries hurried across the garden toward him. He held in his hand a piece of parchment, which he waved in the air. “I am sorry to disturb you, but there is something you need to see!”

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