Page 66 of A Rescue by the Rakish Duke
Soon, Hannah came back with a man in his early fifties, with gray hair and startling blue eyes that danced with excitement. Damian sighed. He didn’t use the man’s services that often.
“What do you think?” he asked as the apothecary sniffed the sweets. He brought some of them so close to his eyes that Damian wondered if he had weak eyesight.
“S-Surely they’re just ordinary sweets,” Gwendoline stammered, but her hand almost covered her mouth.
Hannah shuddered when the apothecary touched one of the sweets with his finger and sucked that same finger into his mouth. Even though Gwendoline wanted to believe that her gift wasn’t poisoned, she almost shuddered as well.
“Are you certain that’s safe?” Hannah asked.
“No. But it’s one of the risks I must take,” the apothecary said. “I have a strong stomach, my mother says. Anyway, the candy has arsenic. I can smell it. I tasted it even though I only rubbed my finger over the surface.”
“Arsenic? Why?” Gwendoline looked devastated.
“Think about it, Gwendoline. I didn’t want you to try anything from an anonymous sender, not when someone might not want you alive!” Damian could not help but raise his voice. He was shaking. “Someone wants you dead. Yes. Don’t look at me like that, Gwendoline. It’s Montrose!”
“Timothy?” she whispered, her face paling.
Damian quickly stepped toward her and grabbed her arms to steady her.
He nodded, holding her tightly. “Yes. We are getting closer. Now, he’s trying to hurt me by hurting you. It’s him. This can’t be a coincidence.”
“Why would he…?” she trailed off. “I thought he simply wanted to humiliate me. To use me as leverage. But to kill me?”
“Montrose is capable of much worse. We’ve seen the documents. We’ve seen some of the worst that he could do,” Damian said. “Listen to me, Gwen. He’s desperate enough to do terrible things. He might not even want to hurt you. He wants to hurtme, Duchess.”
Gwendoline looked up at him, surprised at the tender way he reverted to calling her Duchess. His Duchess.
“Will it really hurt you if something happens to me?”
The surprise in her small voice caused his heart to flip. What did she think he thought of her? Did she believe that he was capable of treating her like a pawn, like Montrose did?
Damian’s touch was warm and steady. It was reassuring, or at least it was meant to be.
“I never thought he would go this far,” Gwendoline mumbled, her eyes fixed on his. He could hear the shock and disbelief in her words. “I thought that marrying one of his investors would be the worst of it all.”
“I didn’t expect this either,” Damian admitted. “Believe me, sweetheart, I thought you would slap me after eating your chocolates. I wanted to be proven wrong. What we can learn from this is that we need to be more vigilant.”
“What happens now, Damian? Am I supposed to live in fear, wondering if the next meal I have will be poisoned or if he’ll find another way to harm me?”
“No,” Damian said firmly. “You’ll live, and you’ll live safely and happily. I’ll see to it.”
“Are you certain?” she asked, looking up at him with earnest eyes.
“Yes. As long as I’m alive, I will not let anyone hurt you,” he promised.
However, he could see that even his resolute words could not assuage her fear. She was trembling, so he rubbed her arms up and down.
“How? He’s out there, Damian. He’s plotting. You’re right. He can do more than just humiliate me. The secret you told me reminded me that he is callous. He has no conscience.”
“I will find him. If you like, we will find him. Evan is loyal. He is the oldest friend I have left. He will do anything for us,” he said, surprised at how easy it was to confess some truths to his wife.
“You can’t protect me every minute, Damian. You know that. And you—you can get hurt, too. If he wants to hurt you, he might just find a more direct way of doing it.”
“I can try. I realized I could do anything when I set my mind to it,” Damian declared, kissing his wife on the forehead before hugging her tightly.
Her body had become as familiar as his own, molding to his. Even as he tried to push away these thoughts, he couldn’t help but think that she was made for him, and he for her.
“I will do whatever I can to keep you safe, sweetheart.” Then, he turned to the apothecary. “What would have happened if she had ingested the poison?”
