Page 72 of The Replacement Duchess

Colin had expected the reunion to be an excitable one, but he was wrong.

Samantha arrived, and when she seemed weary, he decided that it had been from the journey. He had felt the same, after all. Diana raced to her the second she saw her, and when the two embraced, he couldn’t help but feel an ache in his chest.

“Has it truly been that terrible?” Diana asked.

“In and of itself, his behavior is the usual. What has made him insufferable is the incessant talk of our half-brother. You would think he was next in line for the throne, not the heir of an earl.”

“What has he said about him?”

“Only that he is the perfect man, and that he is going to save our estate, and that everything must be perfect in preparation for his arrival. He will be giving him your room, can you believe it?”

“Well, it is not as though there are many others to choose from, and I do not live there anymore.”

“But it is your room. That is the room where we have laughed and cried and talked all night. It is yours, not the room of someone who does not know us. I do not understand why Father is so sure that he will even come. I found the letter that the mother wrote to him, and with how against it she seems, I doubt that she would allow her son to come at all.”

“He is of age now,” Diana sighed. “He is free to do as he pleases.”

“Your Grace,” Samantha said firmly, “you are a man. If your mother had told you not to do something, would you have listened?”

“We would have discussed the matter, to be sure. I trusted her opinion more than anyone else’s.”

“Then perhaps he will not even come at all,” Samantha said hopefully.

“That is not the blessing that you think it might be,” Diana explained. “If there is no heir, then when Father dies, the estate will be handed to some distant family member, or to another family altogether. You will not be taken care of.”

“Not by the new head of the household, but by the two of you. That is what will happen, isn’t it?”

“Certainly,” Colin replied before Diana could say anything. “We wouldn’t leave you to fend for yourself.”

“Then all will be well.” Samantha smiled. “Now, I do apologize, but I am terribly weary. That journey is very long, isn’t it?”

“I slept during the journey.” Diana giggled. “And then when we arrived. My husband must have truly enjoyed the quiet.”

He had not, of course. He much preferred it when Diana talked to him, especially when it was something that she was passionate about, and it had begun to frighten him. He had found himself liking her too much for comfort, which he had never considered to be a possibility. He had wanted them to be friends, but when they argued, he realized that what he was mostly focused on was how soft her cheeks looked, not even how red they were.

“Something seems wrong,” he said to Diana once Samantha had retired to her room.

“I thought so too,” she sighed. “I was hoping that I was overthinking it, or that she was simply tired because we never traveled, and so she is simply not used to it.”

“It may well be that.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “This is something else entirely. She is tired, certainly, but there is something more toit than not having slept. She seems like she has been doing something difficult for a while.”

“Perhaps your father has been drinking again?”

“I would say so, but it doesn’t make any sense. Father was not drinking because he was trying to fix his reputation so that there was something for his son to inherit that had any real worth. I doubt that he would slip now.”

“Then what do you think it might be?”

“I do not know, and it is not like Samantha to keep it from me. I do not know what to do.”

“Then we ought to leave her be for a while. She will tell you when she is ready, but until then, it is better to give her time so that she doesn’t feel pestered.”

“I suppose you know that feeling quite well.” She laughed gently.

He wanted to tell her that she did not pester him, but after the sheer force in his voice when he had told her otherwise, he did not see any use in it. It would only open old wounds that he did not want to be reopened. He wanted them to heal.

“Might you give me a tour?” he asked instead of answering her. “You have made so many changes, and it feels as though you did them all at once.”

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