Page 101 of An Unwanted Widow for the Duke
It was true in a sense. Some siblings did not get along.
“Oh, I guess that’s true, Papa,” Hector said, a little resigned. “But I hope Lady Mina will come home soon because you look sad all the time. When you are sad, I am sad, too. I want you to be happy and not alone. I want you to be with Lady Mina, although you always told her to leave.”
“I didn’t always tell her to leave, Hector,” Gerard protested, his voice edged with warning.
“You did.”
“Go to bed,” he sighed, squeezing his eyes shut even as his son continued to stare at him accusingly.
“But Papa?—”
“Now, Hector. Where is your governess, anyway? Where are your?—?”
What he meant to say was, where were all the people he paid to mind his son?
Yes, they were there, but Hector only ever became happy when Wilhelmina came along. It all started with her column. Hector didn’t even know who she was back then, but somehow he found comfort in her.
“Now,” Gerard repeated, more gently.
The boy hopped down from his chair, gave him a sullen look, and ran out the door. Gerard was left with the stench of self-loathing.
A knock sounded at the door not long after.
Gerard groaned. He already had an idea who it was. Samuel had been lingering in his home lately, trying to see if he could be saved.
Of course, he could not.
Samuel entered the room without even waiting for his permission. He looked at him with disappointment, especiallyafter he scanned the room and found the empty bottles and the nearly drained glass.
He wrinkled his nose.
“You look like a wreck, old chap,” he drawled. His tone might have been teasing, but his eyes were grave.
“Go home, Samuel,” Gerard grunted, even as he straightened up.
He knew that the room smelled terrible and that he looked in need of a bath.
“I don’t understand what’s going on with my good friend. So, you can’t tell me to just up and leave,” Samuel shot back, lowering himself onto the chair that Hector had vacated earlier. “Here you are, drinking yourself to oblivion, while your dear wife is at her sister’s.”
Gerard was suddenly alert. He had been drinking, but he was not so drunk that he had voiced his thoughts to his friend.
“How do you know Wilhelmina is with her sister?” he asked.
“I merely had to use my eyes and ears,” Samuel replied with a slight shrug.
Again, his friend looked like he was making light of the situation, but his eyes told a different story.
Gerard was alarmed. If Samuel could find out just like that, then perhaps the rest of the ton knew about the visit. Some might dismiss it as a familial visit and nothing more. However, others might be more suspicious.
“The problem with you is that you are letting your fears become reality by being too…” Samuel faltered, sighing. “You should not be sulking here. Stop living with the ghosts of your past and go chase your happiness. You may not tell me much, but I’ve seen you happy with your Duchess. She might just be the best thing you’ve had in your life after Hector.”
Gerard placed his fists on the desk, saying nothing. It was tempting to simply agree with his friend.
He wanted to believe that he had a chance at happiness, but he was the one who drove Wilhelmina away.
And he couldn’t believe there was a world where he deserved her forgiveness.
Chapter Thirty-Four
