Page 91 of A Virgin for the Duke of Scars
Aaron sat astride Midnight while he waited for the stable hand to bring the mare. He was not unaware of the glare his sister was pinning him with. She had taken his wife’s side, as he knew she would.
How could she not love his little nun more than him?
Juliette and Aaron had been close as children, but he had grown distant after he returned from the war. As Isabella had proven, letting people in carried a great risk. He had even kept his grandmother at arm’s length, despite her best attempts to bring him out of his isolation.
To her credit, she seemed to approve of his plan, what little of it she knew.
She whispered something in Theresa’s ear. Aaron ached to know what it was. But then she squeezed his wife’s arm and retreated to the manor without so much as a backward glance. Juliette followed her as soon as the mare was brought around.
“Do you need help to mount your horse, wife?”
“I can do it on my own,” Theresa said stiffly.
She stepped onto the mounting block and swung her leg over the mare’s back. The mare pranced on the spot, eager to take off.
On any other day, this would have been enjoyable.
Aaron wondered if he had missed his chance to have leisurely moments like this with his wife. If he had missed the opportunity to have a wife at all. She would always be the Duchess of Blackwell, but she may never again call Blackwell Manor home.
But surely the fact that she was here with him meant that she wasn’t finished with him. She wasn’t the type of woman who would entertain a fool. She would have made it known if she had not wanted to hear what he had to say.
Aaron led them out of the stables, and the horses’ steady canter carried them through town. Silence eventually fell between them, punctuated only by the clip-clop of the horses’ hooves.
“Do you fancy feeling the wind in your hair?” Aaron asked when they reached the outskirts of the city.
He turned onto a worn trail that wound its way through the woods.
“All the better to get this over with,” Theresa grumbled. “I have plans to visit my family, in case you have forgotten.”
“No, wife. Today belongs to me. If you still wish to leave, you can do so tomorrow. By the time we return, the hour will be late.”
“So this was your plan all along? To postpone my trip? I fear it will not have the desired effect. Unless you intend to break your rigid rules. And you have made it quite clear where you stand.”
“We will see about that,” Aaron said, kicking his heels into his horse’s flanks and urging him faster.
Behind him, he heard Theresa cluck to her mare, who was all too eager to give Midnight chase.
Despite the tension between them, his heart soared at the sound of Theresa’s laughter as she pulled ahead of him.
When she turned around in the saddle to look back at him, the smile on her face said it all. He had guessed correctly that this would loosen her up before he did what he had planned to do.
“To your right,” he called out, noting the fork in the trail.
She steered the mare to the right and kept up her pace, which left no room for them to have a conversation of any kind. Not only were the horses breathing hard, but so were they.
They kept up the pace until they reached a small clearing.
Aaron pulled Midnight to a stop and lengthened the reins to allow his mount to drink from the stream nearby. Noticing that he had ceased to follow her, Theresa pulled the reins of her mare and steered her toward him.
He jumped off his horse and went to help her down from the mare. He reached out a hand toward her, and she swung her leg over the horse as easily as if she were not wearing the tight travel gown.
Theresa landed on her feet and looked around her at the familiar surroundings. They were standing in the middle of the woods where she had stopped on that fateful day.
The day she should not have been out riding at all.
She pushed through the foliage that separated the clearing from the lake where Aaron had been swimming, red paint on his hands. She let out a deep, shuddering breath as she spun around to face him.
“I don’t understand why you brought me here.”
