Page 84 of A Bride for the Forbidden Duke
“Barwicke?” Robert spat. “That sniveling rat is still sniffing around?”
“He did more than sniff around,” Veronica said angrily. “We had no other choice. Mama turned to him for help, and he… he asked for favors of her of a very unfortunate manner. We were gossiped about, and rumors spiraled about your whereabouts and actions. People speculated you had left us for a new life in the Americas. We had to assume we had no other option. It was at the Fernwell Ball that Lord Barwicke… He cornered me in the garden.” She swallowed and glanced at Henry. “His Grace foundme and saved me. I told him the situation, and he offered me stability and security in the form of marrying him.”
“You cornered her all the same,” Robert accused the Duke. “You knew she would have no other choice?—”
“I had a duty to you,” Henry snapped. “I sent you across the sea, Lord Grantham.Isent you on this business venture. I had a duty to take care of your family should they have needed it in your stead. I did not think you would be a fool and be gone for this long and definitely without forming a plan for your family who depended on you to survive.”
Veronica cleared her throat, inserting herself back into the conversation. “His Grace proposed to me and said he would marry me. I accepted, of course. Anything to save our mother from Lord Barwicke’s cruelty.” She raised her head, clasping her hands in her lap. “Brother, I am the Duchess of Westley. His Grace is indeed my husband. You did not walk in on him defiling me or taking my honor. He has been helping our mother and me. She is once again part of society and is provided for, and I am saved from being a spinster. Everybody turned their backs on us once you disappeared.”
“And I can imagine that the defiling has long been taken care of,” Thomas laughed, only to receive three different glares. “Apologies. I only wished to lighten the mood.”
Veronica reached out to clasp her brother’s hand, bringing the attention back to them. “Brother, you always claimed that Henry was your friend. You claimed you were more than businessassociates. You told me you admired him, do you remember? We were strolling through the gardens, and you pointed out the climbing ivy to me and told me of your business venture with His Grace. So why are you not happy? Your friend and your sister have found—happiness.”
She winced, unsure if that was the correct word for what they had.
Because deep down, a part of her did not want to recall the other part of their agreement.
You shall live as my duchess, and when the matter is cleared, we shall live separately, the Duke had said, and she had agreed. For this marriage was only to be provided for. To secure her mother’s safety. And now with her brother back to provide for her…
Veronica tried not to think about that.
She would not be the one to raise the reminder.
“What I said about His Grace and finding out he is now my brother-in-law are two very different things, Veronica,” Robert said.
He was several years younger than thirty years old, but it seemed like the year of wherever he had been had aged him. He looked weathered and lost, desperate and angry.
“Lord Grantham,” Thomas spoke up. “If I may beseech you to be calm and rational about this. Lady Grantham was left with little option but to rely on a terrible man who was taking advantage of her. I tried to write to you myself to let you know I searched for you and to inform you of this marriage. It was never anybody’s intention to keep you in the dark. You merely were not here, and your sister found a way to survive. Henry was offering that survival. They make one another happy; I have seen it over many weeks.
“It is true that they had a struggle with the start of their marriage?—”
Henry cleared his throat, shooting him a look. Thomas continued. “They struggled at first, yes. But they have brought out joyous things in one another. I think that, with some time, once you see how happy your sister now is, you shall come around to this union.”
A union that shall likely not last the week in the way it has been. I agreed to return to Grantham House when my brother returned. I had waited for that.
Veronica’s thoughts were dour, even as she felt elated at the return of her brother.
But somewhere along waiting for him to return and being married to the Duke, she had stopped waiting. Stopped hoping. For she only knew it meant her marriage would end as it existed now.
“I do not think I will,” Robert answered bitingly. “It feels like a betrayal.”
Veronica started to react until she saw that his scathing glare cut to Henry.
“You say you did it out of duty and honor,” he spat. “But to me, it seems like you took advantage of my sister and mother. Tell me, did you plant the thought of traveling overseas in my mind, so you could be rid of me?”
“Oh, do not be ridiculous,” Henry argued. “You were too eager to prove yourself. I am not stranger to travel, Lord Grantham, but at least I know how to do it correctly and not get myself deserted for a year.”
Robert began to rise angrily, but Thomas put a hand on his arm, drawing him back down. “Now, now. Let us not rile one another up, shall we?”
“Stay out of this,” Robert snapped. “You do not know what I have been through, Westley. You ought to have warned me.”
“Forgive me for not when you were already flying out of the door from my study, desperate to be a businessman, playing a big game. You brought your misfortune upon yourself, and in doing so, you spared little care for your family.”
“At least, Ihavea family,” Robert seethed. The room fell silent, and Henry stood up, righting his jacket crossly.
“Lord Grantham, do not come into my home and disrespect me in such ways. I would have met with you again to discuss the dangers of overseas travel, but you were already gone. That is not my fault nor responsibility. However, as I posed the idea to you, I felt a sense of guilt for your disappearance.” He avoided Veronica’s gaze, for she had not known he felt any guilt. “So, I took it as my duty to provide for your family in your absence which I believe I caused. For that, I am sorry, but I could not endure seeing what Lord Barwicke was doing to them.”
It was the most Veronica had heard her husband speak in one go, and his words were clipped, so she knew they came from a place of anger he was trying hard to hold back. He hated losing control, and her brother wandering into his home unannounced after a year of disappearing and being presumed dead, would be a lack of control for him.
