Page 74 of Wedded to the Beastly Duke
“Tell her maid to pack her things. As soon as she’s recovered, she will be spending some time with her family.”
There was no need to tell anyone the extent of his plans. If she did not want to be with him, then he would not make her. Wife or no wife. If people dared talk, he would quiet them soon enough. After all, his reputation was fearsome and brutal enough. No one would dare say a word.
The valet’s face was impassive. “As you say, Your Grace.”
“I will leave immediately,” Adam said, thinking ahead.
If he saw Emmeline even one more time, his resolve would falter. Not having her near him would be too painful. But this was what she wanted.
Whatshewanted. He would learn to live with it.
“Is there anything else, Your Grace?”
Adam took the bottle of brandy he kept on his desk for such occasions. It was the middle of the day, but that hardly mattered. He downed the drink in one gulp.
“No,” he said, wishing he could hurl the glass against the wall. But that would alert the servants that there was something wrong, and the only way he could carry out his plan was by fooling everyone around him into thinking he was fine.
Perhaps then he would come to believe it.
The valet inclined his head. “Very good, Your Grace.”
* * *
Emmeline woke up once again to aches and pains, although this time they seemed to be diminished. Her sleep had been deep and soundless, and coming out of it took some doing; she spent several minutes lying prone and blinking at the ceiling.
When she turned her head, however, her husband was not by her side. She was alone in the room. Groggily, she registered that it was night, and she must have slept away the rest of the day. How bizarre.
Then again, the physician had come in with smiles and reassuring words and given her something to drink that had tasted bitter and sent her into almost immediate slumber.
Ignoring the ache in her head, she rubbed her eyes and slid out of bed, finding a wrap to put over her shoulders and lighting a candle with shaking fingers. Before she could leave the room, however, a maid came in and nearly shrieked at the sight of her.
“Good heavens,” Emmeline said, putting the candle on the dressing table. “What is the matter?”
“I thought you would still be asleep, Your Grace,” the maid explained, putting the jug down and taking Emmeline’s arm. “Now come, back to bed with you. I’m under strict instructions not to let you get up until you’re fully healed.”
“I was just about to go next door,” Emmeline said, yielding to the maid’s demands and climbing back into bed. “To see the Duke.”
The maid hesitated, chewing on her lip for a second, and there was just enough uncertainty in her gaze that made Emmeline’s heart drop.
“What?” she asked quietly. “What is it?”
“The Duke is in London, Your Grace. He has left instructions for you to return to your parents’ house as soon as you’re feeling better.”
It felt as though her heart dropped out of her chest and landed on the floor. He hadleft? He had seen her injured, seen her reaching out for him in relief, and had decided to send her away from their home?
He’d left without saying goodbye.
“I’m sorry, Your Grace,” the maid was saying as she tucked Emmeline back in. “I thought for certain you must have known.”
“No. No, I did not know. He didn’t tell me…”
He hadn’t told her that he was taking the coward’s way out.
Indignation boiled in her chest. So that was his game. Instead of confronting the truth that she had told him, he had denied it, and now, no doubt offended that she had dared accuse his friend, he was shipping her off to her parents.
Without so much as aword.
“How dare he?” Emmeline snapped, and the maid jumped. “If I had known it was a choice between Nicholas and me, and he would chooseNicholas, I would have acted differently.”
