Page 33 of Denying a Rakish Duke
“I am not so certain that is the truth.” Vanessa stood suddenly. “I will not sit here and be attacked. My marriage is between the Duke and myself, and if you wish to know something about it, I would prefer that you were direct in your inquisition instead of concealing your inquiry in veiled threats.” She did not feel half as brave as she sounded.
“The Duke is a man much like any other, and with that comes specific carnal desires. It is your duty to provide him with an heir. I caution you right here and now, and I hope that you hear me, Girl. Whatever you think his transgressions are, you will not do any better than my grandson, and I strongly suggest that you get over whatever reservations or modesty that you are holding onto and give him what he needs. You were aware of his reputation long before you kissed him. Do not try to play coy now.”
“Do you honestly think that this is an acceptable way to speak to people?” Vanessa laughed mirthlessly. “Not that it is any of your business, but I will not share my bed with a man who is gallivanting around town— entertaining any woman that he pleases without discrimination. I would not be afforded the same courtesy should I choose to take a lover!”
The Dowager gasped. “I have never heard such a thing!”
Vanessa would have none of it. “You have lived a vast, lovely life full of years of enrichment, and the notion that a lady could take a lover outside of her husband shocks you? I find that very difficult to believe.”
“I see now why your mother had such a terrible time offloading you to a suitor; that terrible attitude would send even the most mild mannered of men running for the hills.”
“Your grandson never seemed to mind it,” Vanessa finished and placed her hands on her hips. In truth, Vanessa had thought that the first time they had encountered one another the challenge of her was partially why he had followed her, limping, out of that ballroom in the first place. “I am not certain why you seem to think that your fully mature grandson is not capable of reining in his behavior, but I assure you, he is in control of his faculties. A person can do wonderful things if they are properly motivated.”
“Says the woman who is more content to wear riding trousers than a proper gown!” The Dowager could not be more offended. “It is awfully bold for you to presume that a man, any man, would change his ways simply because of a woman’s wishes.”
“What a sour opinion of men you must have, Your Grace; I choose to believe that Joseph is capable of far more than being a mindless beast to his baser urges.” Vanessa shook her head. She would not allow this conversation to shake her resolve. She could not bear it. “Either my husband desires me, or he does not.”
“And if he does not?” Vanessa’s courage waivered; she was not certain what she would do if the Duke never came to see things from her point of view. They had felt so close to an understanding … but then on their wedding night things had gotten so much worse.
Vanessa exhaled her frustration heavily. “Oh! This is not at all what I wanted!” The Dowager said nothing. The conversation between them had taken such a downward turn that the true purpose of their tea was lost to both of them.
“I was so grateful to you … for stepping in the way that you did. I had not intended to marry the Duke— that is true — but we both played our parts; we have both done our duties… but things as they are … I had thought that perhaps even I could start here anew and build things of my own here. It was simply too overreaching to presume that we could be friendly, and I know that now.”
“It is simply incomprehensible to me that you allow your husband to be seen about town every single morning and evening though I am certain his mistresses are quite pleased to keep his company in all the ways that you, apparently, cannot!” the Dowager said. Her voice bordered on a raised volume as she nailed the final bite into her accusations.
Intent to be the first one out of the room, the Dowager stood with a victorious smirk. Vanessa wondered where to find the information as to where exactly her husband could be found, and whose company he found himself in. Perhaps the information could be found in the gossip paper she still held. She watched the Dowager leave the room, the tapping of her cane like nails against Vanessa’s skin, only making her more determined with each confident step that the Dowager took. She had sorely misread the former Duchess, and that was not a mistake that she would make again.
“Mistresses indeed,” Vanessa muttered to herself, glaring at the tea display so prettily set out for her. “We shall see about that.”
ChapterTwenty
“We shall see where you are off to, once and for all.”
It was well after dark when Joseph came back to the Estate. Vanessa had planned to wait for her husband in his chamber. She planned to intrude on his privacy much in the way that he had intruded upon hers. However, she was not entirely certain what she would find in there, and she talked herself out of it at the very last moment. Not that following her own husband to a brothel would be any better for her in that department.
She did not have the first idea of what she should do, or if she would even be allowed to enter such an establishment. Certainly, it was not the sort of place that shewantedto go into. She had no clue the debauchery that happened inside of such a place, and she did not wish to know. She just needed to know if that was where Joseph was. She had half a mind to find him in there and drag him out by his ears like Mama used to do to them as small children whenever one of them was misbehaving.
“Come, Apple, we must be quiet.” Vanessa put her hand on the fine horse’s muzzle, and Apple nudged her affectionately. “This has to work,” she spoke, not expecting an answer as they headed toward the streets where Joseph’s carriage was stopped.
Her heart leaped at the sight of her estranged husband. The lamplight cast shadows over his defined jaw structure. There were purple bags under his eyes that were obvious even from the far distance that she hid. It was apparent that whatever he was doing, he was not well rested. His clothes, while clean and pressed, did not seem to fit him with the same polish that she had come to expect. Overall, he appeared to her to be tired and bothered. Was their separation bothering him? A part of her hoped that it was.
As foolish as she found it to be, she still looked for him around the corner of every hall that she walked down. She expected to accidentally irritate him by colliding into his broad chest. It was his home, after all, and she was keeping him from it. The scathing remarks she could handle— she was well matched for his wit— but this? Him returning in the middle of the night to replenish himself and then head back out again? This would not do. She could handle no more of it. Whether for good or for bad, she needed answers.
Joseph turned and gave one last look at the windows in the home. It appeared that he was looking for something in the candle-lit windows. Was he looking for her? Was he looking to see if she was there, watching him from afar as the rift between them grew? She had had more than enough time to think things over, to replay all of the suggestive conversations, the demands placed on her, and her own reflections. She was done with thinking.
Now is a time for doing.
Joseph turned away from the Estate and stepped into the carriage. He tapped the ceiling of the carriage through the open window, and the horses started to walk away. Vanessa swiftly mounted Apple and started behind the carriage at a safe distance. Between her trousers and her heavy riding cape, she hoped that no one would recognize her as a woman and inquire as to what she might be doing riding alone so late in the evening. She squared her hips and did her very best to make herself appear to be larger than her slender build as the carriage pulled her husband down one street after the next.
The part of town that they were headed into was one that she had been asked time and time again not to venture into if she had any choice in the matter. Seraphina had tried to come down here once, her curiosity running away with her. She had been sighted leaving town, and a concerned neighbor had reported on her; Petunia had nearly burst a blood vessel when Seraphina returned home. It had been entertaining to watch from the stairs, but she thought that she understood now why Seraphina always had felt the need to do things her own way. Petunia would likely throttle her for coming down here, regardless of the fact that Vanessa was presently a married woman.
Vanessa tightened her grip on the reins as Apple carried them further into the belly of the lower city, and she kept her hood pulled as low as she could and still be able to still see. Joseph’s carriage did not stop in front of a brothel but outside of a regular home. It was a small place, a crooked door and warm light coming from the single window facing the street. Light filtered from a large hole in the threadbare curtains, and a child was seated out front peeling potatoes.
Joseph hopped down from the carriage, and the boy hardly even looked up at him in greeting. “In trouble again, are you, Roderick?” Joseph laughed and tousled the boy’s hair. The boy shoved Joseph’s hand away from him with an annoyed sound which only made Joseph laugh harder. “Where is your mother? Inside?”
Bile twisted in Vanessa’s stomach. Was this the house of his mistress? She was appalled that not only did they apparently have a child together, but Joseph was forcing them to live in such terrible conditions! Joseph pushed open the door and greeted whoever was inside with a happy shout of greeting and his arms splayed wide. “Greetings all!”
Vanessa had never seen the man look so pleasant before; he seemed to be more at ease here than even in his own home. Vanessa guided Apple closer and dismounted. Holding herself upright, she tethered the horse close enough to the door that she hoped the child would not notice that she was spying. She hoped that he would be too consumed in his task to bother with her. He was peeling sloppily, ready to get his chore over with as quickly as possible.
