Page 79 of Project Duchess
“Tell me, Bea, and I want you to be honest,” her aunt said. “Grey hasn’t done anything to . . . hurt you, has he?”
Not yet, he hasn’t.
Beatrice paused with her plate in hand. Then she pasted on a big smile and faced her aunt. “Don’t be silly. Everyone has been more than kind to me, including your son.”
Her aunt seemed to take that at face value. “Well, he hasn’t been very kind to hismother, drat him. And quite frankly, I can’t believe he would marry Vanessa, of all people. I mean, I gather that she’s been more like a sister to him than a cousin, and one doesn’t marry one’s sister.”
Sister? The word lightened Beatrice’s mood.
“I worry that he’ll break her heart,” Aunt Lydia went on. “He’s so . . . closed to love, so afraid to trust anyone.”
Even Beatrice had noticedthat.“It could . . . explain the engagement,” she said. “A cousin he sees as a sister would be a safe and sensible choice. He wouldn’t have to give his heart.” Even as she said the words, she realized they made sense. “During his days of living with the Prydes, he probably grew close to the family.”
“I doubt that.” His mother gazed out the window at the lawn. “I’m fairly certain his life with them was not a happy one.”
Beatrice had guessed as much, but to hear it stated so baldly by Grey’s own mother sent an arrow through her heart. “How do you know?” She came over to sit next to her aunt with her plate, but food didn’t interest her just now. “Did he tell you?”
“He didn’t have to. Ever since our return, he has acted strangely toward me. He’s kind one moment, then avoids me the next. And from things Thorn has told me, I fear Eustace . . . treated him ill.”
“What sort of things?”
“Grey left the Pryde house at twenty-one and never returned. He couldn’t avoid seeing his aunt and uncle in society, of course, but Thorn says he barely talked to them.”
“I thought he helped with Vanessa’s debut.”
“He did. He threw a ball at his town house to introduce her in society, knowing that having a duke behind her would help her move in loftier circles. Thorn attended it. He said Grey hardly spoke to her parents, and as soon as it was over, Grey said he was well shut of them. Of course, now that his uncle is dead, Grey only has to deal with the aunt.”
Beatrice stared down at her plate. “Thorn didn’t happen to knowhowhe was mistreated, did he?”
“Thorn never exactly said Grey was mistreated—just that he suspected it. And Grey has never said anything to me. I think he wants to spare me the details.”
“That’s probably wise, don’t you think?” Beatrice reached over to take Aunt Lydia’s hand. “You wouldn’t want to know.”
“I suppose. But I worry that . . .” After squeezing Beatrice’s hand, her aunt released it. “I truly hated to give him up, but that stupid will said I had to. We even considered breaking it, but Eustace seemed so understanding when he came to fetch Grey, and Maurice said it would do Grey good to learn proper ducal behavior. Besides, Grey seemed eager to go. I thought it was best for him.”
With pain etched on her face, Aunt Lydia sipped some tea. “It nearly killed me to let him leave. I wasn’t sure when we’d see him again. I never dreamed it would be so many years, between wars and my husband’s career and the children. Thorn told me once Grey came into his majority, he refused to leave his properties, for fear his uncle might try to step in and run them. Thorn said Grey didn’t feel easy until Eustace died a few years ago.”
Beatrice sighed. Aunt Lydia had left her with more questions than answers. “So Grey never told you about it himself.”
Her aunt slumped. “He never tells me anything important.”
He never told Beatrice anything important either. He skirted the issue, hinted at memories. It frustrated her.
Could she live happily with a man who wouldn’t show her his inmost feelings? A man who could never say he loved her, who kept his past private?
Sadly, she didn’t know. What if she couldn’t? What would happen to her?
Perhaps she should find out. “Aunt Lydia, I’ve heard rumors that the family might sell the dower house. Is that true?”
Her aunt’s brow was furrowed. “Sheridan has considered it, yes. The dower house isn’t entailed, so selling it would give us a much needed surplus of funds.” Aunt Lydia took Beatrice’s hand. “But if that happens, you and Joshua will always have a place in this house.”
Beatrice’s relief at hearing that was overset by her worry that Joshua would never accept such charity. So if Grey’s offer of marriage wasn’t genuine . . .
Life for her and Joshua was about to become far more complicated.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Since Grey had told his coachman to drive like the wind and the man had taken him at his word, they reached town before theTimesoffices closed for the evening. Thank God. As they’d careened down the rutted roads to London, Grey had come up with a plan for saving Vanessa’s reputation that he thought might work, as long as theTimeswould agree to it.
