Page 91 of Trapped with the Forbidden Duke
“They said that he could not help death’s call, his soul subconsciously pulling him to the love of his life, unable to be parted from her for so long. I do not believe in such things, and I know the truth of his death, but I admit that the stories comforted me back then. Every Christmas, Mrs. Galley would take me out to their graves to place a single rose on each of them, and she would tell me how in love my parents were. I suppose everyone thought I would grow up to be a gentle, romantic soul like they had been. And perhaps I would have, but my uncle andaunt—my father’s brother and his wife—moved into Stormhold Hall immediately.
“My uncle’s wife… Aunt Katherine and I did not get along.” He gritted his teeth as he spoke his aunt’s name.
He pictured her face, well into her fifty years, her hair white with age, and lines grooving the edges of her features. Yet, she had never let her age tamp down her arrogance. If anything, it had made it worse.
“That is all?” Edwina asked, frowning. “You do not entertain your cousins because you and their mother did not get along?”
“Precisely,” he said.
His wife couldn’t know the full truth—that it went so much deeper, that there was a reason why he had often made angry comments about being stuck in a trap not of his own making.
A wave of nausea washed over Lucien as he briefly recalled the shakes and the tremors, the stomach cramps, and the hours he had spent bent over a chamber pot, emptying his stomach. The dizzy spells and general weakness.
He pushed it all down.
“Lucien,” Edwina said, utterly unconvinced.
“Do not push it,” he pleaded gently. “I find myself losing patience because of my cousins.”
“All I wish to say is that your uncle may not have shared whatever made her jealous and resentful towards you. You mentioned he had written to make amends, although I cannot believe you did not attend a relative’s funeral.”
If you only knew what she had done.
That trauma dug into his mind, tugging him far from his wife, and he fought to recenter his thoughts back where they belonged. There, in the present.
The home that washis. Not his aunt’s, nor anybody else’s. A home now free of her venomous touch.
“I did not attend her funeral because I do not have any respect to pay her,” he told Edwina finally.
“What if he wishes to settle the disagreements between you? Perhaps you should give him a chance.”
“Why do you wish to be involved?”
“Because I am your wife,” she stated firmly. “And my brother is getting better thanks to you. I… well, part of me was ready to grieve him, whether he was deceased or not. But you started building a road for us to return to one another. I only wish to do the same, even if you think it is hopeless as I did with Nicholas. Inever gave up on him, but some part of me thought I would have to accept it sooner or later.”
Grimly, Lucien nodded. “Speaking of such a man, I have received word that he is ready for a visit. His physician has reported that it is time for Nicholas to see us if we can keep him calm and relaxed. Word is that your aunt is keeping his spirits high and that some additional company and perhaps a walk through the gardens might do him good. I thought you would wish to be the one to do that with him.”
Edwina’s face lit up, and a quiet part of Lucien thought that he would have endured his past several times over if it led to meeting Edwina, to seeing such a bright expression on her beautiful face.
He hid his thoughts by clearing his throat sharply. “I am going to the village to meet with a few tenants. You may join me or stay here.” He paused, moving away from her. “Actually, I must ask you to stay here. I will get no work done when you are wearing such a stunning dress. You are most distracting, and I am sure I will chafe if I do not slow down soon.”
It took Edwina a moment to catch his joke, and the laughter that burst from her lips was music—soft and melodic, a symphony that Lucien would commission a whole concert of.
“Heavens, whatever will we do if you chafe?”
“I believe you must tend to it with tender kisses and careful licks.”
She sidled up to him, trailing her fingers down his chest teasingly. “I am sure that can be arranged. But do not shirk your duties. Your tenants value you, and I shall not be the one to make you fall behind on your work.”
He caught her around the waist and sucked on a sensitive spot on her neck. “You are the worthiest distraction, my Duchess,” he growled.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Edwina’s stomach was knotted with nerves. She was not accustomed to such a feeling at the thought of seeing her brother. She was used to feeling worried and anxious, but notnervous.
“What if he despises me for all of it?” she whispered to Lucien in the hallway outside the sunroom in Red Acre Lodge.
The physician was setting Nicholas up in the garden, as they had all agreed that he needed to have some fresh air first before coming back inside and sitting with everyone.
