Page 66 of Her Duke in Shining Armor
The soothing ebb and flow of the Thames River at the wharf at Wapping in the morning calmed Aaron somewhat. Despite the loud calls and curses of sailors, dockhands and drunkards gambling off their last pence, Aaron focused on the water.
“Something miraculous in that pool that I don’t know off?” Julius said while joining him.
The constable had been summoned to Headquarters for a meeting by his superiors. Aaron had come by, not only to give support to his friend but to escape the temptation of finding Wyndrake and throttling him. The man had planted the seed of doubt into the fertile ground of Eleanor’s already guarded and distrustful heart. He did not know what else he could do to prove his sincerity to her.
“How would I know?” was Aaron’s repartee. “It's your playground, not mine.”
“Touché.” The left side of Julius’ mouth was stretched to one side. “They’re reevaluating my position, Oberton, and have extended my ‘vacation’ for another few weeks.”
A few more weeks. That certainly was not what Aaron had expected. He blinked, “I was sure they were going to promote you. Weren’t you in the books for the Superintendent position for almost a year now? I thought for sure they would be discussing that.”
“Eh,” Julius shrugged, “that came up but they are hedging on the side of caution. A few more candidates, decades older than me are in the running too. But I can bet none of them have my record though.”
“Five years and you’ve already outdone men twice your age.” Aaron felt pride for his friend. “You have got to teach me your work ethic someday.”
“Oh ho,” Julius snorted, “why is a man running a shipping business and a dukedom asking a simple workaday man for advice? Doesn’t that seem backward to you?”
Clasping his hand behind him, Aaron began strolling down the dock. “Fair enough, maybe you can give me advice on matters of the heart.”
A rough hand promptly spun him back. “What are you saying?”
“I am in love with Eleanor,” Aaron replied.
The constable’s jaw-drop was something Aaron would treasure for years to come. It was the first time he had managed to one up the unflappable Julius Wilcox.
He then cursed and ran a hand through his dark hair. “You’re going to make me go grey, Oberton. How could you expect me to anticipate that?”
It was Aaron’s time to shrug, “Well, you know now. I just need to find a way to make her realize that I mean it.”
The two shifted out of the way of a burly man with two scantily-clad women clinging on both arms. Aaron continued, “She doesn’t know what love is, Wilcox. Her father seems to be—forgive me—a cold detached bastard and her mum died many years ago. She told me had to raise herself. And then cursed Wyndrake goes and mentions the thrice-damned bet and she retreats like a turtle into its shell, just as I was pulling her out.”
By the end, Aaron’s voice had gotten heated. He was frustrated with the world at large by this point. “I need something.”
“A bullet between Wyndrake eyes, perhaps?” Julius said wryly.
“We think too much alike,” Aaron grumbled.
A sudden ruckus made by the squawks of the gulls temporarily drown out what Julius was about to say, but when the feathered flock had fluttered away, the constable looked deep in thought.
“Lady Eleanor does not seem to be the sort of person that treasures material gifts,” Julius opined. “You certainly cannot buy her affection.”
“That I know,” Aaron groused. “And the chances are, even if I tried, she’d refuse or have ten versions of it. She is well cared for remember?”
“What do you give someone who wants for nothing…” Julius mused as a gust of wind buffered them both, throwing the rank smell of the river into their faces. “I’ve got to say…this is possibly impossible.”
Aaron rolled his eyes, “Why did I ask you for help?”
* * *
The soft bubble of Aaron’s professed love was more comfortable than the pillow she was resting on while paging through her mother’s diary. She had started right after dawn and many passages were dull, depicting household duties, hiring new maids, or setting the weekly menu.
Eleanor realized that her mother was very methodical in everything she did, whether it was caring for the house, attending to her husband, or extending help to anyone that asked for it. She was only a few passages in when she met this.
I am increasing! For weeks now I was ill, overly tired, and my stomach turned at almost every food presented. Fenton sent a physician to attend to me and the report was a glorious one! I am with child.
From there on, the inserts got smaller. Both the physician and her father had told Elizabeth to stay off her feet. Her mother, who had loved riding, walking, and going out into the villages or the main town was now forced to be placed on bedrest.
Eleanor could feel how that would have made her mother go crazy. She would have. The next passages, longer this time, depicted how Elizabeth had kept herself occupied by reading books about nature, science, philosophy, history, and theology.
