Page 80 of Her Duke By Accident
The governess paused in her scribbling for a second before she finished. “Anything else, Your Grace?”
“No, Miss Ayles,” Alicia sighed, “that’ll be all.”
Miss Ayles folded the letter up. “I will deliver it into the duke’s hands when he arrives for breakfast, Your Grace.”
“Thank you for all your help,” she said. “I truly appreciate your kindness.”
The governess eyed her with something Alicia could not recognize. Perhaps a smugness, a slight perk in her lip that reeked of something wicked. The look was gone within a moment, and Alicia felt nothing but relief at Miss Ayles’s help.
Ms. Crawford stood at the room’s threshold. “Juliet is ready with your bag, Your Grace,” she said. “She’ll fetch the carriage now.”
Alicia nodded. “You have my thanks.”
“Do not look so somber, Your Grace,” Ms. Crawford tried to reassure her with a small smile. “You will be with your family in no time.”
Alicia felt a heavy weight rest upon her heart as she approached the room’s door, glancing down the hall to where the duke slept. A dreadfully poignant ache grew within her, one that could only be quenched through her husband’s embrace. Nevertheless,Alicia sighed, swallowing down the feeling of what she wanted, and turned towards where she was needed.
Responsibility, once again, trumped her heart.
“Yes, Ms. Crawford,” she replied stiffly. “All will soon be well.”
Alicia followed the housekeeper through the halls, donning a hat and gloves before leaving Garvey behind.
CHAPTER 19
The late duke’s steely stare bore into Matthew’s very soul. Above the mantel in his study, his father’s portrait looked down upon him with disdain. Matthew woke early that morning, an echo in his chest that yearned for him to get to his study as soon as possible, to look his father in the eye.
All he wanted was to get to the dining room as soon as possible, to have a minute or two alone with Alicia before anyone else arrived. Matthew closed his eyes and imagined her face looking up at him, those sterling green eyes looking at him with such an intensity he felt as though he might catch aflame.
But then there was this, a heaviness on his heart that threatened to ruin every good thing he had managed to accomplish. The one thing that stood in his way was his father.
“Always,” he muttered to himself. “It was always you.”
The portrait watched silently.
“You will not ruin this for me. Not this time, father.”
Matthew reached, gripping the mantelpiece as his heart thumped wildly. As if he were once again a boy of thirteen, he feared the late duke stood behind him in the flesh, waiting with a violent hand raised to strike. Matthew breathed deeply.
“You cannot harm me,” he whispered.
Raising his gaze once more toward the portrait, he could have sworn that the man’s eyes flickered down to him, a disgusting frown twitching across the late duke’s thin lips.
Matthew ground his teeth together before pushing himself upright, straightening the coat he wore. “Today,” he said, “I will be the man I have always wanted to be.”
Fool,the portrait seemed to say.Weak-hearted fool.
“Perhaps,” Matthew muttered. “But I am not weak.”
Love will ruin you. It makes you weak.
“No,” he said, more firmly this time. “She makes me strong.”
Matthew did not meet his father’s eyes again. He spun around, leaving the ghost of his father there. And he knew that when hereturned, there would no longer be a demon of his past there to haunt him.
He left the study, shutting the door behind him. As he looked over the hall, a smile found its way onto his lips, much to his surprise. There was something to look forward to; there was someone waiting for him.
Matthew let his smile widen.
