Page 36 of Trapped with the Forbidden Duke
“Do tell me,” she said as she slid into the chair opposite him.
“Nicholas is a partner in one of my business ventures.” The simple admission stunned her. “I breed racehorses that notorious members of the ton pay handsomely for. When race season comes, the income grows almost triple what it is throughout the year, and even then the base figure is very lucrative.”
“I did not know you owned such a venture,” Edwina muttered, feeling foolish.
“I have a large equestrian property,” he told her simply. “It is not far from Stormhold, close enough for me to check on it, but far enough that it does not often demand my attention. The income from it has funded the renovation of your house and the commissioning of your dresses. So, no, Lady Edwina, you do not have to pay me back. I will hear nothing of the sort.”
“Since when was he a partner?”
The smirk that graced the Duke’s lips had her weak in her knees. “Since today.”
Edwina was reeling from such generosity, from the lengths this man was going to for them. For a moment, she could only gape at him.
“Edwina!” Isabel called out, her eyes landing on the breakfast table. “Plans for the parlor are most admirable! You must accompany me to the park while we let His Grace’s servants do their work. Let us not get in the way.”
But Edwina’s thoughts went to her brother, who still had not awoken from his deep slumber. He was still in the house, though. She had ensured that.
“I am hesitant to leave Nicholas,” she admitted quietly, not sure if she was aiming it at her aunt or the Duke.
“I am staying,” he told her.
Her heart sank. “That is what I am most afraid of.”
Something unreadable crossed the Duke’s face as he gazed at her. The spell was broken, however, by Isabel tugging on her arm.
“Come, come! We can indulge in these delicacies when we return.” As soon as Isabel pulled Edwina close, she said quietly, “And you can answer some of my questions about your brother,and why he never comes down for breakfast. It has always been his favorite meal since he was a boy. And the tension between you all… Something is afoot, and I wish to know.”
Even as they got into their carriage, Edwina was already thinking of an illness she might use as an excuse for her brother’s behavior.
Her aunt was often easily placated, but she could be sharp when she wished to be, so Edwina prepared herself for the incoming questions.
Chapter Eleven
“Edwina!”
Edwina looked around at the sound of her name, her mood immediately brightening.
That morning, Hyde Park was alive with color, the summer warmth dancing on her skin. She wore a short-sleeved pale blue gown—a piece that had seen too many outings. It was as though everybody who passed her by also knew it, and was judging her. Her mother certainly would have.
The grief over losing her mother—the rigid spine of propriety that she had been, as well as the strict, guiding hand that Edwina had been lost without—was a complicated thing. Her mother’s critical voice was the loudest in her head.
She turned to see Miss Diana Hughes, the Viscount Grenfield’s daughter, heading in her direction.
Diana was beautiful, blonde-haired, delicately freckled, and a slight thing. She grinned as she approached Edwina, her parents trailing after her.
“Diana,” Edwina greeted and fell into step beside her, as her aunt immediately struck up a conversation with the Grenfields.
“It is a surprise to see you here,” Diana said, her voice bright with excitement. “I am glad for it, actually, for I have heard some things around London.”
Edwina’s heart lurched. “What sort of things?”
“Oh, do not look so worried! Come, let us walk further away from my parents so we may speak. But before we do, I must tell you about the afternoon tea Mama and I attended yesterday! It was simply fantastic, and afterward, we all embroidered.”
“That sounds lovely,” Edwina murmured, feeling a pang of sadness in her chest.
I should be attending such things.Had I not been so preoccupied with my brother’s life, I would have had time for my own.
That knowledge sank into her with frustration that she tamped down, for she could not tell Diana that. She hid Nicholas’s addiction even from her closest friend.
