Page 17 of Wedded to the Loveless Duke
“Is it accepted?” he asked.
Her gaze met his. “I told you, I did not miss your presence, Your Grace. There is nothing to apologize for.”
“It was urgent.”
“So you implied before you left.”
“A matter of business I had to handle. It could not wait.”
Eleanor offered him a smile tinged with bitterness. “No doubt. You are quite good at dealing withbusiness, Your Grace. Your little performance right now proves as much. Consider your duty done.”
“My duty?” Phillip stepped back, his stomach twisting. “Is that what you believe this to be? I meant my apology sincerely, Eleanor.”
“I believe this to be a deal as much as the business you had to attend to this afternoon.” She turned in her chair and stood up to face him. “I am a part of a deal and nothing more, Your Grace. Let us not pretend.”
“It is Phillip, and what deal are you speaking of? You are not a part of a deal, Eleanor. You are mywife. I know you are upset about how it happened, but?—”
“Upset?” Eleanor’s voice remained deathly quiet. “Upset, Phillip? I am seething, not upset. Upset is how I feel when I discover that a friend has not been quite as forthcoming as they ought to have been. Upset is how I feel when I find out that Sarah and I cannot go to the market as planned. Upset isnothow I feel when I discover that a man I had respected lied to my face for nearly a month. I do not feel upset when I discover that I have been betrayed by those few I trusted. I daresay I might have even liked you, had you not turned out to be a snake much like the rest.”
“Eleanor—”
“No!” Her voice rose. “I am beyond upset. I trusted you! I actually thought you might be different from the rest. If I had any desire to marry at all, I would have considered you the only option. Then, I discovered that you and Father were colluding the whole time. I amnothingto either of you except propertyto be handed off. He wanted to be rid of me, and you needed my dowry, so you took me! Do you think apologizing for your absence at our wedding celebration is enough to ease my pain?” She scoffed, tears welling up in her eyes. “I want no apology from a man whose lips drip with poison and lies.”
Phillip stepped into the room.
That’s what she thinks? That she is nothing but chattel to be traded around for monetary gain?
“That is not true,” he hissed. “Do not degrade yourself to such a position, Eleanor.”
“Do you deny it then?” The color in her cheeks bloomed hotter, and she crossed the room, jabbing a finger into his chest. “I overheard you and Father speaking in the back garden this afternoon when I left to collect myself. I know you are lying, Your Grace.”
“I am doing no such thing! If you overheard us, then you know you were not a part of a deal to me.”
“Are you insinuating that I am a liar?”
Phillip didn’t know what to make of this angry hellion. He had never seen Eleanor like this. He had seen her upset, happy, courteous, barely hanging onto her dignity thanks to the shock she received this morning, but he had never seen her look so furious. What could he say to make her feel better?
“I am saying that you are twisting the facts or have misunderstood them, Eleanor.”
With a strangled sob, Eleanor raised her hand to slap him. He caught it, holding her by the wrist against him. Her petite frame trembled, with suppressed rage or tears, he wasn’t sure. Then, her tears welled, and she began to sob as she continued raging. “How dare you insinuate I am the one twisting things! A-after what you did t-today… A month, Phillip, you had a month and you could have said something. How long? How long were you two colluding to turn my life into this hell of a gilded birdcage!”
Phillip took her chin in his fingers. “Cease your weeping, Eleanor. I do not know how you have overheard us talking and still believe you are a mere part of a deal unless you did not stay to hear the whole thing.”
She stopped struggling then, her eyes damp with tears. They slid past her lower lashes and dripped down her cheeks. One trekked its way over her full lips. Up close like that, she looked forlorn, not angry, and her lips were soft instead of rigid as they had been earlier.
Phillip tucked a loose curl back over her shoulder with a sigh. “That is the whole of it, then? You overheard a piece of the conversation and made assumptions. Your assumptions are wrong, Eleanor.”
Her lower lip trembled, and Phillip stared at the softening of her lips as she took in what he was saying. More than anything, he realized that he wanted to claim that mouth of hers, to kissaway any doubts and fears she had, to prove to her that he was the same gentleman she had come to respect in their brief discussions before he would join her father for a ride or a drink in his office.
He leaned in a little closer. It would be well within his rights as her husband to do so. She stared up at him with wide, uncertain eyes before looking away, but she didn’t try to pull away or resist him. However, he couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t be fair to her after everything she’d been through that day. She was upset, and it was clear from the tension in her body that she wanted to fight him but believed it was useless. He couldn’t bring himself to kiss her when she was in such a state. Instead, he pressed a gentle, chaste kiss to her forehead and released her. “We will speak about this and other things tomorrow. You need your rest. Good night, Eleanor.”
She pressed her fingers to her lips as if he had kissed her after all and continued to stare at the floor in silence. When it became clear he would receive no answering good night, he stepped back and left her to process all she had been through that day. He owed her that much.
Eleanor stood in the doorway of her room for a long while after Phillip’s footsteps retreated. Her forehead still tingled with his kiss, and she knew that was not the sort of kiss he had intended to give her.
He had stopped himself. Why? Out of consideration for me? Because he didn’t want to let himself look for more in me?
It was an arranged marriage. He’d married her for her money, so why did he vehemently deny that claim and then forced himself not to kiss her as he pleased? Arranged marriage or not, he would need an heir eventually. Eleanor knew better than to think she would go untouched through the entirety of their marriage. It was no sin for a man to want his wife, and she had no right to refuse him if he wanted her. She would not have fought him if he had kissed her.
