Page 89 of Corrupting his Duchess
His jaw tightened. “It isn’t nobility. It’s reality.”
“No,” she said, voice shaking now. “Reality is what I’ve lived every day since my father died.
“Anna, believe me,” his voice broke.
“No,” she said, closing her eyes slowly. “You’re trying to relieve yourself. Of guilt. Of feeling too much.”
His voice cracked just slightly. “Anna–”
She shook her head. “You don’t get to decide for me.”
“You’ll be expected to marry,” he said tightly. “To settle.”
“You were the one part of this I didn’t have to survive,” she said. “The one thing I wasn’t enduring. And now you want to take that from me too?”
“I want to spare you worse.”
“No,” she snapped. “You want to leave before you get too close.”
His eyes flashed. “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t what?” she demanded. “Tell the truth?”
He stepped back as if burned. “You came here tonight for what, Anna? For comfort? To tell me you love me? What would you have me do with that?”
“I came here,” she said, “because of Matthew. I saw Matthew.”
He didn’t speak.
She went on. “Earlier. He spoke to me. He said…”
He inhaled. “Anna…”
“What?” Anns snapped.
“Don’t tell me,” he said, turning away. “It doesn’t matter.”
She ignored him. “He told me he would wait until you were gone. That I’d have no one else. That I’d come to him because I’d have no choice. He said– he thinks I– he said he would wait, as if I’d fall into his lap once–”
“Stop.”
She froze.
Henry turned to her, and something in his expression stopped her breath. Not anger. Not cruelty. But something worse.
Distance.
“Anna,” Henry said, too sharply. Then, more gently, “I can’t hear this. I won’t.”
She kept going. “I came here because I’m terrified. Because I trust you. Because I thought…” Her voice caught. “I thought you were safe.”
He shook his head. “I’m not.”
“No,” she said. “You’re a coward.”
The silence that followed wasn’t sharp. It was hollow.
She stared at him.
