Page 41 of The Duke's Return
“No, it is an odd name. But I assure you it’s appropriate.”
She shook her head as she realized what he was doing. “You’re distracting me. Julian, really. If you want me to be your wife, you must not tease me so.”
Footsteps grew loud as Mrs. Waverly arrived with a chambermaid at her side, supplies overfilling their arms. Her clumsy scolding was forgotten. Julian had them set aside everything on the table so he could stay put and tend to his hand. Genevieve forced herself to be the one to clean up his energy, acting as what she assumed a doting wife might do.
But then came the needle and she couldn’t do it.
“Are you going to faint?” Julian asked with a twist of his lips. He nodded to Mrs. Waverly and the chambermaid. “We can manage during this portion, thank you.”
They took their leave and Genevieve tried to swallow the anxiety drowning her from the inside. “This is just awful. I don’t think I can do this. I can do many things, Julian, really, but this…”
“You don’t have to,” he reassured her, still playing the near-drowned charming prince. “I know how to manage my own stitches. I was in the navy, was I not?”
Genevieve blinked. “Oh. Ah. I didn’t think of that.” She rubbed her arms and stepped back, pulling herself together. She had to do better than this. It was annoying how calm he behaved. But surely if he could manage well in an emergency, then so could she. “You never speak of it. Did you… did you enjoy your post?”
He stopped the needle that hovered right above his split flesh. The room dropped a few degrees in temperature. Unable to move, she stared and waited.
It took Julian some time to respond. His tone grew curt. “If you wish to stay while I stitch my skin together, I’d thank you to say nothing more.”
Though offended by the suddenly blunt behavior, Genevieve snapped her mouth shut. She took a step back and then another. Against the wall she stood motionless and said not a word as Julian quietly and efficiently stitched himself back together.
Moisture dripped down his brow. Sweat or rain, she wasn’t certain. But she didn’t ask. His sudden switch was so startling that Genevieve waited for Mrs. Waverly to return and then muttered something she would never recall before taking her leave, desperate to be far from her strange husband.
CHAPTER 16
He didn’t think he had been very harsh.
Julian told himself this repeatedly with every stitch he made. Five in total, though they were each dreadfully slow and painful. Still, the silence was heavy between Genevieve and him while she stood across the hall and stared with a blank expression.
“I’m afraid I’m rather unwell now, please help tidy up,” she muttered when Mrs. Waverly returned with a basin of boiled water. “I need to lie down.”
While he hardly thought her the nervous type, he had apparently managed to make her one. Julian let out a quiet sigh as he watched her go.
Was he going to have to apologize? He didn’t like the thought of that.
I might have to just so she will look at me again. How am I supposed to apologize without talking about war?
All he meant was to change the topic. There wasn’t a chance in all the world he would have talked about his time abroad with his wife. Genevieve was strong, to be sure. But she didn’t deserve to hear about the miseries he had faced. The pain and the terror. She didn’t need to know of his nightmares and the shadows that lingered over his shoulders.
“Your Grace, may I?” Mrs. Waverly inquired while Julian was wrapping his hand and wrist now with a proper bandage.
“Hm? Yes, please. And can you see about salvaging that handkerchief? It belongs to Mrs. Riding and I promised I’d try to see it back to her. I’m a little concerned it can’t be salvaged but I think we should do our best,” he added.
She nodded, leaning closer to carefully fix the bandage before she start tying. All the while, she was careful not to touch him. “Certainly, Your Grace. We’ll do what we can, and then I’ll have Michael send it back.”
That had him shaking his head. “I should return to them in a day or two to follow up on our discussion. There was much we still need to say, I think. Besides, it should go a long way in offering reassurances. It will, won’t it?” he added after a pause. “You know the village better than I.”
Grudgingly meeting his gaze, the housekeeper offered a short nod.
She finished tying the bandage as she answered, “Your presence here is already helping. So long as you hear them out, I think you’ll do well.”
“Thank you. That is exactly what I intend to do,” he reassured her.
It used to be simple business. Visiting the town on occasion and talking to a tenant or two could solve most of his problems. He’d known many of them in his youth, and he had thought they would always think well of him.
But time could change many a thing.
As it turned out, Genevieve’s notes on the letters had been immensely helpful. She had caught a few troubling issues and patterns located between the letters. His men of business had done more to help his family than his tenants, which Julian didn’t appreciate.
