Page 91 of The Best-Kept Secrets
“Stop,” Duke said quietly but firmly.
“We have said nothing that is untrue,” his mother insisted.
“You are being rude.”
“It is Penelope’s history we recounted.” Duke’s father was all indignation. Eve was feeling a swelling of that same emotion. “If it is so objectionable, that cannot be laid atourfeet.”
With a tense sigh, Duke rubbed at his forehead. His posture drooped in resignation. His parents were draining every bit of happiness from him, and Eve couldn’t bear to see it any longer.
“You promised,” she blurted, the Eve who quickly spoke her mind making a bold and sudden reappearance. The unexpected declaration turned all eyes to her, but she didn’t care at all that she was about to make a spectacle of herself. “I heard you promise your son just yesterday that you wouldn’t squabble or pick at your family, that you wouldn’t be rude or uncivil, that you would adhere to the most basic level of politeness.”
His father attempted to interrupt, but she didn’t so much as pause to breathe.
“Is that all your son is worth to you? Thirty-six hours of vaguely keeping an incredibly simple promise?”
“His grandmother—”
“Didn’t make that promise,” Eve cut across Mr. Seymour once more. “He shouldn’t have to ask her to. He shouldn’t have to ask any of you not to cause him embarrassment or struggle or unhappiness. He deserves at least that much.”
She knew everyone in the room must have been staring at her, but she couldn’t look away from the Seymours. She was far too bewildered and riled to stop now.
“Your son is remarkable. He is loyal and kind, clever and funny, thoughtful and dependable. He cares about people and does all he can to help those who need him. He makes people better simply by being part of their lives. You should love him, but instead, you treat him like rubbish.”
Duke’s mother looked horrified at the accusation. Mr. Seymour stood, likely intending to give her a piece of his mind, so Eve rose as well, tipping her chin defiantly.
“He wants so badly for there to be peace in his family that he endures your mistreatment. He bears those blows repeatedly. And I keep watching to see if you”—she eyed his mother and grandmother quickly as well—“any of you will ever decide to care about the pain you are causing. But you don’t. He is—” Emotion broke her voice. “He is so easy to love. You could manage itaccidentally, but instead, you hurt him. That cannot be anything but a choice you are making over and over again.”
For the first time, his mother began to look a little uncomfortable.
A tear slipped from Eve’s eye. She swiped it furiously. “You don’t deserve him. And I suspect it’ll not be long before he realizes that. You will lose such a wonderful and remarkable person from your lives, and it’ll be entirely your fault.”
Another hot tear escaped. Eve turned quickly to the rest of the room, though she couldn’t bring herself to so much as glance at Duke.
“I am sorry to have disrupted the game.” She swallowed against the rawness of her emotion-clogged throat. “I am going to go check on my sister now.” Then she spun on her heel and left the drawing room, nothing more to say and no energy remaining with which to say it. She moved swiftly down the corridor, making good her escape.
How she hoped she hadn’t made things more difficult for Duke. No one ever championed him when his parents and grandmother mistreated him. And no one ever confronted them with their own terrible behavior. She simply couldn’t listen to it any longer.
She’d reached only the first step of the staircase leading up to the guest wing when a voice called out from behind her.
“Aoife.” Duke. He was moving swiftly toward her.
“I likely shouldn’t have said anything to them,” she said. “But they are so thoughtless and unkind to you. I couldn’t bite my tongue any longer.”
He’d reached the base of the stairs, standing on the floor directly in front of her. Standing as she was on the first step, she was nearly eye to eye with him. And those gorgeous eyes of his were focused entirely on her.
“Please don’t be angry with me,” she whispered.
His mouth tipped up in a slow-spreading smile. “You were brilliant.” He slipped his arms around her. “And in case no one has told you”—he leaned closer, his deep, captivating voice growing tenderly quiet—“you are also astonishingly easy to love.”
He closed the minute gap between them, enfolding her in the warmth and shelter of his embrace. And then he kissed her. His lips were as soft as they’d been at the inn. Eve folded her arms around his neck and poured into her answering kiss every moment of longing and every hopeful hum her heart had beat out since the last time he’d kissed her.
She’d worried that he might break her heart. But she felt in that moment his unwavering promise to cherish it.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Duke rode out with Colmthe next morning. His parents and grandmother had turned the delight of a house party into something dreadful, but he was grateful to be coming to know his cousin better.
“You ride well for a Cambridge man,” Colm said as they walked back into the house.
