Page 10 of The Duke's Return
Julian wouldn’t stop gazing at her with that serious expression until she hurried out, wondering what she was getting herself but into.
They were married and though it might be eleven months late, it appeared she was going to find out just what it meant to be wed to Julian Ashcombe.
CHAPTER 4
Once Genevieve swept out of the room wordlessly, Julian wasn’t exactly certain what to do with himself.
There was a pounding in his heart that reverberated through his entire body and made it impossible to think. He stood there with his hands limp at his side. They felt empty, like he was missing something that belonged there. It didn’t make any sense. And yet he felt immobile for several minutes.
“I need a drink,” he managed to say out loud. He closed the double doors, trying to put his wife from his mind, and went to his sideboard for a bottle of scotch.
This should put me to rights. What is going on with me? Perhaps it was her perfume. It was intoxicating. It made me dizzy. Could I be allergic to lilacs?
He rubbed his brow before taking a sit. But before he could take a sip, there was a heavy thudding knock at the door before it swung open to reveal another familiar face.
“Blackguard!” Sebastian greeted before offering a rumbling chuckle. “It is you. For once the rumors are true.”
“Not all of them,” he said automatically, rising to embrace his old friend.
If there was anyone in London during the season, it was Sebastian Vale, the Duke of Eastwynd.
They had become friends during university alongside two other gentlemen, also born to be dukes. Julian had been raised into the eventual role of becoming titled someday alongside Tristan Northcott, the Duke of Halewood. But Sebastian, alongside the fourth member of their party, Ronan Ward, had not had the same childhood.
The bulk that made up Sebastian proved it. He’d spent much of his childhood amongst the pickpockets and troublemakers in the mews of London, fighting for his bread and safety. Much of his childhood was still unknown to the world, for he was unwilling to share the details beyond what was in the newspapers with even his friends. He merely recited that which the whole world knew: a carriage accident had killed his mother and left him stranded as a young boy, leaving him to the darkness of the mews.
Fortunately, Sebastian had been found some years later. A good man once more on his own but with the title on his back. That wasn’t all; he was larger than anyone Julian knew, with a clever mind and more smarts than properly befitted anyone.
“What are you doing here in Mayfair?” Julian asked as he moved away to pour his friend his own glass of scotch. “Last I heard, you had lost yourself amongst the cutthroats of the city.”
“I always know where I am. Thank you.” Sebastian accepted the glass and took a tentative seat on the cushioned chairs that barely fit his frame. “It is dull business. Gamblers, fighters, andcheats. I am familiar with this world. But I am not familiar with your surprise arrival—amongst all the other things said about you.”
The pointed look made Julian grimace as he set his glass down. “Indeed. Well, you’ve heard everything I have only begun to hear myself. It’s drastic, clearly, so I’m here to address them. Fix them, so to speak.”
His friend raised an eyebrow.
Nothing more had to be said from him sometimes. And the doubt in his expression said enough. Rumors, after all, were a dangerous thing. No one could guess where they might lead. What damage they might cause. As he had both started and starred in some of the most popular ones amongst the ton in recent years, he knew the risks and rewards.
And there are too many risks here for me to gamble on their worth. The sooner I make amends, the better off we all are.
“Then you are here for damage control.”
Julian drank. “I am indeed.” He put his glass down. “Any ideas what I should do?”
“I hear babies are the next step in marriage.” Sebastian drained his glass, artfully ignoring Julian’s glare. “Or perhaps you can try another post in the cavalry.”
How tempting that sounded in this moment. He could just leave it all behind and bury himself in routines. Waking before sunrise, eating the same meals every day, marching, avoiding ambush… fighting…
“Julian?”
The days at sea had been the easiest since he never went into the dangerous waters where the enemy resided. No, his friends had taken those fights. And then it was while he had been on land that he faced his first skirmish, then another. And a third.
“Julian!”
He jerked at the sound of a loud snap. Lightning quick, he grabbed the crystal glass before him and threw it toward the sound. It was just as the glass soared through the air Julian realized his mistake and braced for impact.
The next sound was only a little softer, but expected. The crystal shattered against the wall. He barely flinched before opening his eyes with a slight frown.
Sebastian was frowning as well as he straightened up, looking behind him toward the glass. His reflexes had to have been just as good to have avoided the flying glass. Tilting his head at Julian, he asked, “What happened out there?”
