Page 34 of Trapped with the Forbidden Duke
Still… Where was the boy who had brushed leaves from her hair when she was a little girl? The boy who gave her an extra slice of toast when she was hungry after her mother had told her that a true lady kept her figure slender and beautiful?
This man, who had been worn down by an addiction he hadn’t chosen to have, stood now in his place.
Grief struck her for a moment for the brother she had lost.
As if Nicholas saw that grief in her—and it angered him, perhaps made him ashamed—he glared at her.
“Oh, Sister. My dear sister. The one person I thought would stand by me through it all.” His lips curled. “You are just likehim. The two of you are conspiring against me, are you not? You whisper about me when I am not here, and you accuse me of ruining us. I have protected you, Winnie?—”
Her chest ached at the name she usually hated. Now, it was being used against her, and he knew how to do it.
“Nick,” she beseeched calmly. “Calm down. Sit down with us. Have a warm cup of tea. Or how about some hot milk, the way I used to make for you when you first came home from deployment?”
“Milk,” Nicholas scoffed. “Milk will notfix me, Edwina. You know this very well. How about you both simply stay out of my way, out of my business, and let me manage my own affairs?” He looked between them questioningly.
“Manage your own affairs?” the Duke echoed. “Nicholas, do not be a complete fool. If this is managing your own affairs, then I would damn well not like to see what it looks like when you’renotdoing it. You dishonor your family—your sister, especially. But most of all, you dishonor yourself.”
“Do not dictate to me?—”
“Have you no shame?” the Duke snapped, his temper rising. “I implore you, Nicholas, to take a long,hardlook at the state of yourself in the mirror, and then at the state of your life, for I believe it has been some time. And I dare say that if you can live with what you see, then I am ashamed to have ever called you my friend. Your sister deserves to be surrounded by much better.”
Nicholas only growled in response before turning to Edwina. “Youbrought him here. Remember that, when everything goes wrong.”
With that, he stormed off.
Edwina had long since counted his footsteps through the house to know that he had reached his bedroom. On the nights when she had been too hurt to follow him, there had been times when she had found him collapsed on the stairwell.
“I should go after him,” she muttered half to herself, moving towards the doorway.
But she stopped when the Duke asked, “What did he mean by ‘when everything goes wrong?’”
Edwina froze. “Nothing.” The lie was quick on her tongue. “I am sure he only means that he worries that something will not happen in the right way. It is a fear he must have, as the master of the estate.”
The Duke snorted. “Some master he is. He cannot even care for you properly.”
“He is doing his best,” Edwina argued.
She knew that if everyone else stopped believing in Nicholas, she needed to be the last one. He needed her support, above anything else.
“Is that what you will tell yourself when you are even more desperate?” the Duke asked, his eyes flashing with anger. It wasn’t directed at her, she knew, but she still shrank as headvanced on her. “Do you realize how severe your situation is, Lady Edwina? Your brother is very close to dragging you all into ruin with his behavior.”
She nodded. “I do.”
“Then why do you still excuse his negligence?”
Edwina stiffened, straightening. “Nicholas was right—it isourbusiness.” She did not mean it; it was her only defense to avoid his questions. “I will handle my brother. You handle the household.”
Without another word, she swept out of the room, eager to change out of her old dress, which felt somewhat grimy after visiting the places they had that night.
But before she did, she knocked on the door to her brother’s room. He was indeed passed out on his bed, one leg hanging over the side, and his shirt half unbuttoned. No doubt he had chased away his valet, as usual. His chest rose and fell steadily.
For a moment, Edwina stood next to his bed and reached out to brush some of the hair from his face.
“You are putting me in a terrible situation, Nicholas,” she whispered, her voice firm and tight with anger. For once, she was glad he could not listen. “I am a prideful woman, as Mama taught me to be. But this is… this is awful.”
She pulled her hand back and clasped it with her other one. She looked at the boarded-up window. Their funds couldn’t cover the repairs, and the Duke had already offered to have somebody see to it.
“You cannot hear me, Nick,” she murmured. “So I will speak my mind. When you first turned to this… When you fell prey to it, I was more scared than I have ever been in my life. Even more than when Mama died before my debut. Even more than when Papa died last year, and I feared for the earldom beneath your rule.
