Page 89 of A Duke Makes a Deal
“I didn’t realize that my actions had caused you suffering.”
Violet rolled her eyes.
“It wasn’t suffering exactly. I did have my correspondence and I was permitted to stay with our cousins in Bedfordshire,” she said. She shrugged gently as she inhaled. “I just wish you weren’t so determined to see me unhappy.”
“I don’t want you to be unhappy.”
“Don’t you? You scared Mr. Lutz off. He told me last night that he was making arrangements to visit New Orleans of all places. He said he got the idea from you.”
Silas’s brow pinched.
“He wasn’t focused on you, Violet.”
“He also lacked a fortune.”
“He lacked an entire means of providing for anyone more than himself, but his lack of standing wasn’t so great a mark against him. The minute I mentioned traveling, his eyes lit up. He is focused on his career and there’s no blaming him for that.” Silas frowned. “But he wasn’t ready to settle down.”
“And Fredrick?”
Silas felt his anger grow remembering the moment he walked in on his sister being manhandled by the fool. He glowered.
“That bas—ah,” he stopped himself from cursing in front of her, her brows hitched up. “Fredrick knew better than to do what he was doing.”
Violet smiled weakly at him.
“You’re much too judgmental, brother,” she said.
He watched her, a mixture of sibling reverence and overall disgust.
“Good lord, Violet, don’t tell me you actually like the idiot?”
“He’s not an idiot,” she said with a slight frown. “And I do.”
“Then he can court you the proper way. With a chaperone.” Violet frowned peevishly until he added, “Clara will surely be happy to act as one.”
His sister smiled up at him, knowing full well that Clara would not be nearly as stringent with the rules of propriety as others might be. She tilted her head.
“You know, I think you made the right choice, marrying Clara almost as soon as you met her.”
Silas nodded, glancing at the door. He wanted to return to his room and speak with his wife, but not before he procured them something to eat.
Turning back to Violet, he smirked.
“Perhaps I should speak with her now.”
Violet pressed her lips together, trying to smother a smile. She nodded.
“I think you should.”
Silas closed the door behind him and went downstairs to find them a tray of food. When he returned to his room, he entered and found a heap beneath the blankets. Noting the worn gown laid out over a chair next to the hip bath, Silas guessed Clara had bathed already.
Walking toward the bed, he wondered if she was awake. Perhaps he should wait to have this discussion until they returned to Greystone… but something in him wouldn’t relent. He had waited too long as it was. They needed to have this conversation without any further delay.
Moving towards the bed, he pressed his hand down to the tallest point of the mountain of blankets. It felt like her shoulder, but he couldn’t be sure.
“Clara?”
At first, she didn’t make a sound. Discouraged, he pulled his arm back, deciding to let her rest. He turned away, dejected and debating on taking a bath himself when a mumbled voice came from the bed.
