Page 69 of My Blind Duke
“You are leaving,” William stated flatly, his sightless gaze fixed in her general direction as if he could somehow pierce the veil of his blindness and see the truth in her eyes.
It was not a question. It was an accusation.
Prudence’s composure wavered for the briefest of moments, a flicker of surprise causing her body to jerk slightly before she regained control.
“Yes, Your Grace,” she replied, her tone surprisingly calm. “I believe it is the most… sensible course of action.”
“Sensible?” William scoffed, a bitter laugh escaping his lips. “Sensible for whom, Prudence? Certainly not for Melanie. She has grown incredibly fond of you.”
“Melanie will be well, Your Grace,” Prudence said softly. “You and her are finally forging the bond you should always have had. My presence is no longer essential for her upbringing.”
“And what about me… us?” William demanded, his anger simmering just beneath the surface. “You reside in my home, Duchess. You cannot simply pack your things without letting me know,” the possessiveness in his voice surprised even himself.
“I cannot impose on you any longer, Your Grace,” Prudence countered, her voice firm. “Our situation is… complicated enough as it is. To continue living under the same roof, with the undeniable… tension between us, will only make things worse in the long run.”
“Tension?” William repeated, his mind flashing back to their shared intimacies, the stolen kisses, the charged moments that had left them both breathless and wanting. “Is that all you feel, Prudence? Tension?”
He heard her exhale sharply. “It is… unwise to dwell on such things, Your Grace. I have made my decision.”
“And I have not accepted it,” William retorted, his voice rising. “Melanie needs you here. You have begun to establish a place for yourself, made connections… You have a life here.”
“My life here is not one to be proud of, Your Grace. And my connections are now primarily through your household,” Prudence interrupted gently. “And as for Melanie, her true connection lies with you. I believe it is time for me to step aside and allow that to flourish without my… interference.”
“Interference?” William scoffed again. “You have been nothing but a positive influence on my daughter. You have brought joy and laughter back into her life. In mine as well.”
“And now it is time for me to find my own joy, Your Grace,” Prudence said, her voice tinged with a sadness that tugged unexpectedly at William’s chest. “I need to build a life for myself.”
“Then I will help you,” William declared, his mind grasping for a solution, any way to keep her from leaving, even for just a little longer. “If you are concerned about your future, about securing your position, then I will find you a suitable husband. A man of good standing, who will appreciate your worth. It is the least I can do for you, given all that you have done for Melanie and Pemberly.”
Prudence fell silent for a moment, and William could sense her surprise at his offer. Then, she spoke, her voice laced with a hint of bitterness.
“And who, Your Grace, would ever want to marry a woman whose past and current reputation is as murky as mine? TheBlack Widow? Surely, no one would dare, not even as a joke.”
“We have been through far too much for you to continue to address me formally. Call me by my name. and… they would be fools not to,” William said fiercely, his own somewhat scandalous past momentarily forgotten in his desire to convince her. “Any man with eyes to see and a brain to think would recognize your intelligence, your spirit, your… your brilliance.”
There was another pause, longer this time, and when Prudence finally spoke, her words struck William with an unexpected force. “Then why do you not, Your – William?”
The question hung in the air, heavy and charged with unspoken emotions. William’s breath caught in his throat.
Why did he not? The answer was a tangled mess of past hurts, lingering fears, and a deep-seated reluctance to risk his heart again.
“Am I not worthy enough to stand as your bride? As your duchess?” she asked quietly, striking William’s heart with more pain.
“That is not – it is not you. You are not the one unworthy. I am,” he said in the same tone she had used.
“What do you mean?”
He turned away, the memory of his first marriage, a disastrous union born of obligation and resentment, flooding his senses.
“My first marriage was…” he began, his voice low, the words heavy with the weight of the past. “It brought out the worst in me. And it cost me nearly everything I had ever had, everything I had built. All I ever wanted was to be a musician, to lose myself in the beauty of melody and harmony. But my father… he would not hear of it. It was beneath the dignity of a future Duke, he said.”
William’s hands clenched into fists at his sides, the bitterness of years past rising in his throat. “I practiced in secret, pouring my heart into every note, every composition. But he found out. He smashed my instruments, one by one, shattering my dreams. He told me I would be a businessman, secure our family’s standing, or my mother would suffer for my disobedience.”
His voice grew thick with emotion as he recalled the years of his father’s tyranny, the constant fear that had permeated their household, and the way his mother had withered under the weight of his father’s cruelty until illness finally claimed her. A part of him had always blamed his father, and his own forced compliance, for her suffering.
“As I grew older, the expectations of the ton, the suffocating pressure to conform, felt like a cage,” he continued, the resentment still raw after all these years.
Disappointed and disillusioned, William had done the unthinkable; he had left England, abandoning his title and hisobligations to pursue his dream in the burgeoning artistic scene of New England. He had found success, wealth, a measure of the fulfillment he had always craved.
