Page 58 of A Duke Makes a Deal
After the last visit, Clara and Violet returned to the carriage. About halfway home, a loud roll of thunder boomed in thedistance. Violet’s eyes snapped to Clara’s. Bending toward Clara, she spoke at last.
“Was that a true story?” Violet asked. “Or did you make it up?”
“It was true,” Clara said. She dropped her hand to her ankle and took off her slipper, first one and then the other. Violet watched her with a perplexed expression. “And while I can’t very well practice the custom in town, I do so in the countryside, whenever I yearn to take a stroll.”
“You’re a duchess. You can’t walk around the countryside barefoot. It’s beyond improper.”
Clara smiled.
“I can and I will,” she said and held up her slippers.
Then it happened. Violet laughed. “Silas will have a fit,” she managed to say through her giggles.
“Will he? Whatever for?”
“He’s very rigid about propriety. He won’t like it.”
Clara shrugged.
“Well, I don’t wish to offend him. But it’s hardly a scandal.”
The word scandal seemed to make Violet’s smile shrink and she looked away swiftly.
“No. My poor brother has suffered enough scandal for one lifetime.”
Clara wanted to ask Violet about Silas’s past, but she wasn’t sure how to do so without offending the girl. It seemed Violet too had suffered. Silas had told her that the girl had formed a close bond with her former sister-in-law.
“I’ve heard the two of you were quite close,” Clara said, broaching the subject carefully. “You and the former duchess, I mean.”
Violet nodded, her eyes not quite meeting Clara’s.
“For a time, yes,” she said, somewhat sadly. “She was like a sister to me. I was so angry at Silas when she told me shecouldn’t stay. I thought him a brute for hurting her and making her leave him.”
Clara wasn’t sure how to respond. From what Silas had told her, she knew that pain had been part of his marriage with Cynthia—but it had been a part that Cynthia had wanted. Indeed, it had been something she demanded. Still, Clara didn’t know how to explain that to a girl as young as Violet. In truth, it wasn’t really something that she fully understood herself.
“It can be difficult, even for family, to understand what happens between a husband and wife,” Clara said carefully. “There are parts of that relationship that are only for them. But still, I would never consider your brother to be a brute. Would you?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so,” Violet said. “But that was what she told me. And of course, I was aware of the fights they had. You could hear the shouting all over the house,” Violet said, shaking her head. Violet glanced up at Clara. “I should apologize for being so cold to you. I was angry that Silas chased Cynthia away. His getting remarried feels like a betrayal of sorts. Only, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I was also worried about you.”
“Worried about me?” Clara repeated, surprised. “Whatever for?”
“If he was cruel to Cynthia, then he might be cruel to you and chase you away as well.” Another crack of thunder sounded over them as their carriage pulled onto the long drive that led to the house. “It’s why I’ve kept my distance, not wanting to get attached.”
“Oh, Violet, I’m not going anywhere,” Clara said reassuringly. “Your brother does not have the same feelings for me as his former wife. Ours is a marriage built on mutual respect,” she said, but the term seemed lacking. “And friendship.”
“Friendship?” Violet repeated, seemingly unimpressed. “I always heard marriage was supposed to be a practical endeavor. Feelings towards one’s spouse, whether friendly or otherwise, should not be considered as a deciding factor.”
Clara’s mouth fell open slightly and she stared at her sister-in-law with a mixture of pity and horror.
“Goodness gracious. What about love?”
Violet blinked, as if she had no idea why Clara would bring up something so irrelevant. “What about it?”
“Haven’t you ever heard that one should marry someone they love?”
Violet’s brow creased.
“Amongst commoners, I suppose,” she said. “At our level of society, it is quite rare indeed. And since Silas’s divorce, I have come to believe that that might be for the best. I would have said that they were a love match, but after witnessing how it hurt them, I would not recommend it.”
