Page 1 of Trapped with the Forbidden Duke
Chapter One
“Nicholas?” Edwina Vaughan called out to her brother, rising to her feet in the parlor of Montgomery Manor, the London townhouse where she and Nicholas lived.
Her heart lurched at the sound of his unsteady footsteps, which had become a way to brace herself for the worst whenever he came home.
She hurried down the hall and into the entrance hall, where Nicholas barely gave her a moment to assess his state. She did not even get a chance to slow down, for he grabbed her by the shoulders, stilling her.
“Nich—”
“We must pack.” His voice was urgent, his eyes wide and bloodshot.
Heavens, he smells bad tonight.
Unsteady on his feet, Nicholas Vaughan didn’t let go of Edwina, and she didn’t know whether it was to steady himself or to make sure she didn’t run away from him.
His eyes gleamed frantically. Though identical to hers in color, they were not in clarity. His pupils were dilated, and Edwina’s stomach sank.
You knew this would be the case.As has been the case for the last couple of years. This is nothing new.
“Pack?” Edwina asked, her voice tight. “Whatever do you mean,pack?”
“Just pack, Edwina!” Nicholas hissed.
His overgrown dark hair, like hers—yet hers was perfectly styled, as a lady’s hair should be—fell into his eyes, but he did not shove it back.
She reached out to brush the long strands from his face tenderly, almost pained for the state he was in.
Nicholas pulled away, releasing her, and started pacing in the entrance hall.
“We shall go to the country.Yes,yes, that is exactly what we shall do! It is a clever idea, is it not, Winnie?”
“Do not call me that.” Edwina grimaced. “You have not called me that since we were children. Nicholas,please, come into the parlor. Sit with me for a moment. Why do you need to plan a trip to the country?”
“Do not question me!” he shouted, his voice tinged with more than the paranoia she was accustomed to. “Simply pack. Do as I tell you, and we shall be safe!”
“Safe from what? Nick, what are wenotsafe from?”
But her brother was too busy pacing—a man unraveled.
A man who had been abusing laudanum for the last three years, and it had reached a point where Edwina feared she did not know how to manage him.
Even when she attempted to get into his face, he only brushed past her, as if making for his chambers. But she ran after him, putting herself before him, so he could barely step into the hallway.
“I am doing nothing until you tell me what is going on,” she said firmly, looking him right in the eyes, even though he could not keep his gaze straight.
Nicholas swallowed, looking around as if expecting to find someone or something. Distressed, he raked a hand through his hair, mussing it further.
“Just—it is only—he is coming toget me, Edwina.”
“Who?” Edwina asked, growing nervous.
Her brother had suffered more than enough delusions. He had spoken often of their late father, who returned in his hallucinations. Nicholas often rambled about how their father told him what a poor job of managing the earldom he was doing, berating him, leaving him a simpering mess of apologies and reclusiveness for days, only for the cycle to begin anew.
“It does not matter!” Nicholas cried, pulling at his hair.
He was trying to storm past Edwina, but his lack of balance and her stubbornness not to let him pass made it easy for her to hold him back.
“Just leave with me.Please, Winnie, I cannot go without you.”
