Page 23 of Her Runaway Duke
Mary rose from her place. “I must return to my work, but know that you are not alone, my lady.”
“Thank you, Mary,” Siena said quietly. “I needed a friend.”
At home, her mother had never allowed her to speak to servants in such a manner – they were for assisting, not for visiting – but it had always bothered Siena that she spent so much time in their presence to never have a conversation.
Perhaps there could be another way to live. A different way.
As for the duke… she would love to stay and show him that he didn’t have to live in the pain that appeared to consume him.
But perhaps he was past saving.
Levi knewhe had been a beast to the girl.
When he’d seen the way she had looked at his scar, however, every reason why he had become the man he was, why he hid away in this estate, why he never saw anyone in polite society, reared up within him. He hadn’t been able to quell the emotion that emerged.
He was remorseful, yes, but he was also thankful.
For he had begun to like having her around, and now he remembered why he had to be alone.
She was a beautiful, innocent young woman in the prime of her life, who should find a man worthy of her. Hell, even her formerly intended fiancé sounded like a better bet.
Levi could never share his life with another. Not anymore. For he now only carried around the worst parts of himself. Every good part had been burned away.
He could barely hang onto his temper, and when her eyes had landed on his scar, tracing it from his sightless eye down his body, he had seen the revolt on her face. Now she would never be able to look at him without remembering the full extent of his ravaged body.
He had to be rid of her. He looked out the window now, at the drizzle that continued to fall from the sky.
“Why can you not stop raining?” he yelled at the heavens, as though they could answer him or dry up upon his rage.
But no, the rain just kept falling, mocking him, showing him that he had no more control over this than he did any other area of his life.
That being said, he knew he had to apologize. Lady Siena hadn’t deserved his wrath. She had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and was likely more traumatized over what she had seen than anything else.
There was only one solution.
He had to apologize.
He sighed as he called for McGregor.
It seemed that tonight, he would be joining Lady Siena for dinner.
Siena enteredthe dining room that evening with a book in hand, for she expected to be eating alone and four courses took an awfully long time with no one but herself for company. She had found a collection of Shakespeare in the forefront of the library, and she had picked upA Midsummer Night’s Dream. She far preferred Shakespeare’s comedies to the awful tragedies that her mother had insisted she read.
She stopped short in the doorway when she saw the duke sitting at the head of the table. Upon her entry, he stood, nodded his head stiffly, and pulled out a chair for her.
Siena knew she was gaping and could practically hear her mother in her head telling her to close her mouth, but she couldn’t help herself. Where was the man from a few hoursearlier, who had shouted at her to get out of the room, who had looked at her as though she was the devil himself?
“I will join you for dinner,” he said stiffly. “If you do not mind.”
“O-of course not,” she said, finally taking steps into the room, setting her book down on one of the side tables as she did. “It is your home.”
“If I make you uncomfortable?—”
“It is fine,” she said, forcing a smile on her face, unable to help her need to put him at ease as he was so clearly worried about her reaction. “I would be most pleased to have company.”
She had been placed to the right of him, and she wondered if that was his own doing or if the servants had set them like this, but it was no matter.
She cleared her throat to begin polite conversation, but he lifted a hand.
