Page 105 of A Bride for the Forbidden Duke
“You think you can lay a hand on her?Threatenher?”
He landed a hard punch to the lord’s stomach, and Lord Barwicke cried out into the night. Veronica covered her mouth, drawing further back.
“I warned you the first time, Lord Barwicke.”
“Your Grace,” the lord wheezed, raising his hands.
Henry leaped to his feet and stomped on those hands, and the older man screeched. The Duke pressed all his weight down onto Lord Barwicke’s fingers until Veronica heard a sickly snap.
“Your Grace,please—please, have mercy. Have?—”
Henry kicked him in the ribs, his face wild and contorted with anger, punches and kicks flying out rapidly. Lord Barwicke tried to curl up in a ball, protecting his face with his limp, broken fingers.
“Your Grace—mercy, mercy.”
“My mercy is wasted on filth like you,” Henry spat.
His hair flew around him as he kicked the man on the floor almost to a bloody pulp, and Veronica screamed out.
“Henry!”
Henry paused but did not relent. He punched Lord Barwicke, and Veronica rushed forward, narrowly missing his jabbing elbow as he drew back to punch again. She grappled with his arm, wrapping her fingers around his fist.
“Henry, Henry,” she murmured, trying to calm him out of such a rage. “Please stop. He is not worth it. He is not worth giving into such anger for.”
Henry was wild-eyed as he looked at her. She held his fist with one hand and cupped his face with the other.
Bringing his bleeding knuckles to her lips, she kissed them. “Please.”
At her kiss on his hand, it was as though the anger drained from Henry. He slumped, blinking, as if having lost himself for a moment. He turned to Lord Barwicke, who trembled on the floor.
“You have one day to leave the country,” he warned in a quiet voice. “One day. That is all. And if you are not gone by tomorrow sundown, I will find you, Barwicke, and Iwillkill you.”
Lord Barwicke whimpered, scrambling up to his feet. He did not utter a word before he dashed away, fleeing the garden like the coward he always had been.
Henry turned to Veronica, and she waited for those defenses to rise once again, but they did not. He was—open. Open, honest relief came through his face, and she inhaled softly at the look.
“Veronica,” he said softly.
He moved to her, his hands scrabbling to cup her face. She did not care that his hands were bloodied from the force of his punches. She folded her own hands around his, tears shining in her eyes.
“Are you all right? Did he?—”
“He did not hurt me,” she whispered. Her heart pounded in her chest. “I am all right, thank you.”
“I would have killed him for you if you had asked,” he told her, meeting her gaze. “I would run to the ends of the Earth for you. I would do anything you asked of me, no matter what it was.”
Veronica did not know what to say. Her lips parted, uncertain. “I… Henry?”
There had been distance. Nothing left to say. She had planned to leave tonight on his agreement of their arrangement. She did not understand.
Then, Henry was kissing her, drawing her face to his, and her breath hitched through the kiss, moaning softly into his mouth, for she had missed his closeness, how it felt to be gathered in his arms, pressed against his chest. His kiss was soft and coaxing on her mouth, and he drew back far too soon.
“Veronica, our marriage is more than a convenience to me,” he told her, pressing his forehead to hers. “I was too slow to realize such a thing. The time we have spent apart these last two weeks,barely seeing you, not speaking with you, has been torture. I have missed you, Veronica, and I have been too stubborn a fool to approach you and right the wrongs I have caused.”
She was still in shock, stunned into silence. “You… you truly mean that?”
“I do. I was wrong for everything I said. I was wrong for ever letting you consider walking away. I want you to stay in Westley Manor with me. I even want to see you sit on that beautiful pink pianoforte stool and play for me every single day of our lives. For you, Veronica, I want to try to be a better man.”
