Page 19 of A Bluestocking for the Wicked Duke
Why didn’t James tell me?
His pulse jumped and his eyes reddened. Lord James, seeing his friend’s reaction, stood up and tried placing an arm on William’s shoulder in a bid to placate him. William shrugged off his arm and walked to the end of the room before turning back to him.
“Tell me why you didn’t tell me,” William said; his head shaking furiously as he spoke.
“William, you need to understand. You were already dealt a bad hand by this affair of honour. I was aware you would never rest till you found out the truth of the matter. I think you need to take your mind off this business,” Lord James said.
He ran his left hand through his hair as he spoke, ruffling it as he always did when nervous. William had heard his friend but didn’t look placated. He was still interested but less pent up.
“I had a right to know. I am the man who faced the steel and fury. I am the person who got disgraced even in front of our citizenry. Was it you the Duchess saved? No, it was I. Do not paint this as if I don’t have a right to be angry, to be emotionally invested because I do,” William said.
William shook his head after speaking, he couldn’t believe this. And to say he was beating himself up for losing in front of such an audience. The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos had gone too far now. This treachery would not go without answer. William looked to his friend.
“I want to go see mother. Will you come along?” William said.
Lord James nodded and followed him out of the room. William’s walk to his mother’s room was quick, William was eager to see the woman. He entered just as a steward finished talking to her. His mother looked up, took one look at her son’s face and waved him on. William saw her trained calmness. He detected the readiness to explain even before he spoke. His mother had guessed why he was here looking so angry.
Immediately the steward was out of the room. She gestured William and Lord James to chairs in front of her table.
“I see you have also heard the rumours. There is no need to get yourself worked up over them, that episode has ended,” Duchess Henrietta said.
William smiled at his mother’s ability to guess correctly the source of his ire even before he said one word. She knew him. She knew him enough to know this was not the end of this. He was going to follow through on this.
“You kept this information from me not because I was done with the episode. You kept it from me because you knew I would never let it go. I would dig in till I was sure of the veracity of the claims. If I find out that these rumours are true and I will exact a fitting revenge on that scum of a Duke,” William said.
His mother shook her head. It was obvious she didn’t like the direction to which William’s thinking was headed. She picked up a book and fingered its binding, rubbing her finger over each small ridge.
“Do not forget the deal we made. You should not be expending your energy on fruitless endeavours,” his mother said.
William knew that was the stand his mother would take, it mattered little.
“I will find out mother. And I will act accordingly. We made a deal and I will honour it,” William said before leaving the room.
Duchess Henrietta told Lord James as he was leaving behind his friend.
“James, give your friend direction in his blinding rage,” she said.
Lord James nodded his head and went after his friend.
The next day the doctor came for the final check of William’s injury. He had been training before the man came, receiving renewed energy to train after hearing what he did the day before. When the stewards told him the doctor was here, he walked into his chambers with a sweaty body. The scar stood raw and red against the creaminess of his skin. His sweaty body made it all the more visible.
“You are training again. Is the pain in the arm totally gone?” the old man asked.
William took a big gulp of water from a cup in his hand before answering the doctor.
“Yes. I can use it freely now,” William answered.
“I thought you decision not to train was something mental, not physical per se,” the man continued.
William looked at the man and smiled. The man took note of things pretty well. William saw his hair was thinning in the middle, in a few years the man would be bald. He hadn’t noticed that about him before now.
“Now that you are training again, I guess it means you have dealt with your issues,” the doctor continued.
“Yes, I have,” William said.
William stopped there at first then he decided to explain better to the doctor.
“I was distraught that I lost to the far older Duke but now that I have found out he purposely gave me a brittle sword meant to break on impact which is what happened, I feel motivated again,” William said.
