Page 53 of Til Death Duke Us Part
“Stay here,” he breathed against her lips. “We need to talk.”
“We don’t talk. That’s not?—”
“There will be a new deal. Starting today.” His eyes went hazy. “Everything changes today one way or another. I need you here when I return.”
This was the end of it, then. Very well. She nodded and sank down beneath the covers until only her eyes were visible to watch him saunter out of their chamber.
Theirs.
She rolled onto her belly and allowed herself a good wallow, complete with screaming into the pillow and thrashing limbs for good measure.
Eventually, she rose and began to dress. Nothing else to do. She was struggling with her hair when there was a knock on the door.
There was a knock on the door? Not the downstairs door, either. The bedchamber door.
And then another!
“Y-yes?” she ventured. No one was ever in this house but for her and Victor.
“Are you Mrs. Persephone Graves?” a woman asked.
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because I’m Jane Bowen, Morington’s sister, and I’d like to meet you.”
Oh. Oh! Jane Bowen! The sister! This rattled Persephone’s brains right out of her head. “Um, yes, well…” Her toilette was not complete, but that wouldn’t change anytime soon. And my, she was shabby too. She’d gotten so used to Victor glamouring her gowns when they were here. It was easy to forget. But nothing to do about that either. Nor about the hair streaming down her back. “Coming!”
She opened the door with her chin high.
Jane Bowen, the illegitimate daughter of the deceased Duke of Morington looked so much like her brother it made Persephone’s heart ache—honey-blond hair and high cheekbones. But she had a no-nonsense way about her that appealed to Persephone. She’d already discovered the sibling who made trouble. Now she was meeting the one who likely cleaned it up.
Persephone dropped a curtsy. “Lady Bowen, a delight to meet you.
“Oh, no, no. None of that. I’m not anyone you curtsy to. I’m a bastard and a toymaker’s wife.”
“Those are good enough for a curtsy.”
“I think so, but there are proper protocols that make the world go round, and since my brother and husband seem to have no desire to uphold them, someone must.”
“Come now, brave beauty, I’m not that naughty,” a man said. She couldn’t see him, so she peeped around the doorframe. The man was tall and trim and leaning one shoulder against the wall, his ankles crossed. His auburn hair was a shock of color in that dusty place, and his face the most infectiously jolly face she’d ever seen. He nodded. “Sir Nicholas Bowen, at your service.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Lady Bowen warned. “You’ll end up in more trouble than you began.”
Her husband pretended to pout.
“May we speak?” Lady Bowen peeked into the bedchamber, gaze darting to and then away from the rumpled bed. “Perhaps downstairs in the drawing room?”
“Yes.” Not at all awkward to walk downstairs with her lover’s sister and brother-in-law. What did they know about her? Obviously something. They didn’t seem surprised to find her there. In fact, it seemed like they’d come purposefully to find her.
In the drawing room, Lady Bowen sat in a dusty chair, and her husband took up sentry behind her, one hand settled on her shoulder. Persephone sat across from them, feeling stiff and precarious, balancing on the very edge of her chair.
“We came to speak with you,” Lady Bowen said. “And I am terribly glad we caught you before you left. This is my fourth attempt to see you, after all. You’re quick in the mornings, Mrs. Graves.”
“I’m a busy woman.” And she didn’t like staying in this house without Victor. When he wasn’t here, she felt like an interloper. And she also felt like… tidying up. She had money. She could simply… replace those curtains, for instance. And add a few more pieces of furniture to this room. A new rug. All for a house she’d never live in. She shook her head, focused on her guests.
“I hope you’ll have time to come somewhere with me,” Lady Bowen said.
Ah, that’s what was happening. Lady Bowen, though she seemed friendly, was eager to get her out of the duke’s residence. Of course. She was an interloper.
