Page 28 of The Good Duke
Her gaze immediately dropped to his waist, and with her dark, slender eyebrows pulling at the center, she boldly examined him.
“Hmph.” Persephone directed that little noncommittal sound directly to his shaft.
Hmph?
“You’ve grown, Simon.”
Chapter 6
Years Earlier
Cheshire, England
Floating on his back in the serene waters of the country lake, Simon’s eye hurt like the very devil.
Not from the glare of the welcome summer sun but rather from the rapidly blackening eye, compliments of the latest beating he’d been dealt.
“…S-S-Stuttering S-Simon.”
“…S-Stupid S-S-Simon.”
“You know what helps straighten out a village idiot? A good knock on the head.”
The echo of cruel, mocking laughter and recent taunts reverberated around Simon’s mind, and his body recoiled under the reminder of this latest humiliation.
This time, it hadn’t been his tormentors at Oxford. No, home for the summer, he’d traded his university bullies for the village ones of Cheshire.
Here, there, or anywhere, one constant remained in his life—there was no shortage of fellows, ofallages, about to persecute him for his miserable stammer.
Sucking in a deep breath, Simon lifted his arms above his head and sank under the surface of Pickmere Lake. As the crisp, cool water enveloped him, it also swallowed up the earthen summer sounds, leaving the chirp of birds and the rustle of leaves muted and muffled in his ears.
He let himself sink lower and lower, deeper and deeper, and he wanted to keep on going until he reached some other place where no one existed, except for him.
There, some seven feet below, Simon forced his eyes open. He ignored the sharp sting and took in the crystalline sanctuary around him; the bright summer sun sent vast rays slashing deep below. Ripples and bubbles all danced on the water.
How much better it was down here, away from everyone, away from everything. Free from mockery and jeering stares. Free from pitying looks.
A solitary world would be far better than the current one he found himself inhabiting.
His lungs burned under the chore he asked of them and, unable to remain submerged any longer, he propelled himself up to the surface.
He exploded from the water, gasping and sucking in great gasps of air.
“Thereyou are!”
He looked to the shore where a familiar figure stood with her hands propped on her hips.
Seph.
From the edge of the lake, she waved wildly, with the same enthusiasm as when he’d first arrived home from Eton all those years ago.
He grinned and shot a hand up, waving in return.
The world wasn’t all awful. She stood there, a shining beacon to remind him there was one person in his life.
“I’m naked,” he shouted over to her. Had he uttered those words to anyone else, they’d have emerged as a stammer. Seph was different.
Cupping her hands around her mouth, she called back, “I should hope so. Were you to do something as prudish as to swim in your garments, I daresay it would mean I would have to break off our friendship.”
