Page 14 of Trapped with the Forbidden Duke
She had to imagine that permanently—a best friend shoved out the door, never to knowwhy. At least she had a reason for all the cruel words she’d endured while her brother either came down from a high, needed another one, orwason one.
“And—what of everyone’s opinions? You might not care about how you are viewed?—”
“I assure you that I do.”
“But we will be the talk of the ton. I do not want that.”
“Wedo not have to be,” the Duke insisted. “Ican be. I will simply claim that I’m rekindling my friendship with Lord Montgomery. Everybody knows about our lack of contact over the last couple of years, so it will not be hard to convince them.”
“But they will speak about us being together. In this house. I am unmarried.”
“And a seductress,” he teased, only for her face to positively flush at the reminder of her shame. “Whatwillthe scandal sheets say?”
She glowered at him. “I am serious.”
“As am I. I will direct the narrative away from you and focus on Nicholas and myself for their entertainment.”
“You can do that?” she asked.
“I am a duke, My Lady. Of course, I can,” he responded matter-of-factly.
“And Lord Stockton? What of him?”
“Let me handle him.” His teasing smirk suddenly disappeared.
Edwina still was not sure that it was a good idea, and she knew the Duke would see that. Pointedly, he took in their surroundings.
“Of course, if Jane does not finish her chores, you could always clean the drawing room yourself, draw your baths, tend your gardens,” he added drily, knowing that she could not afford to refuse his help.
Not when it concerned Nicholas’s debts, too. Of course, she could not reveal that whole story.
“Do not shame me,” she muttered. “I have done my best to support my brother.”
As if he sensed her humiliation in accepting his help, the Duke took a step towards her, but she stepped back.
“It is not a weakness to accept help, Lady Edwina. Especially when your brother should have supported you from the start. He should not have left you to deal with all of this.”
At that, her head snapped up, her eyes narrowing. “He is doing everything he can to get better.”
“Better?” the Duke echoed. “He is healed from his injuries, is he not?”
She cringed at her slip-up. “Better—better at handling the estate, of course.”
Without wasting another moment, she turned on her heel, wondering how she would survive a week of this. This careful stepping around truths, his teasing, her shame. And, of course, hiding her brother’s addiction from his friend, who had known what he was like before and would certainly notice the changes.
She walked down the hallway, her head held high.
“Where is the Earl, anyway?” the Duke called after her, but she ignored him, both out of spite and simply for the reason that she did not know.
Her brother was likely high on laudanum, trying to drown his guilt over what she had to do that night before she was saved by the Duke.
As soon as she rounded the corner, out of sight, she slumped against the wall, closing her eyes.
One week.I have survived worse.
Edwina flew down the stairs, her heart in her throat, roused by shouting from the breakfast room.
She heard a grunt and the skidding of boots across the floor, and she ran faster.
