Page 84 of An Accidental Bride for the Duke
“Truly.”
Robert sighed with relief. “Well, that is… I hesitate to say good news. You and my brother,” he began. “Might I ask what… or how it happened? Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Sadly, no. It is for us to work through. Which we are still far from doing. It takes a lot to admit when you are wrong, and it takes just as much to forgive. I pray that I might be so strong.” She squeezed his arm thankfully. “But again, I do appreciate?—”
“Robert!”
The call washed across the garden like a hammer smashed against a gong. Iris’ eyes widened and she snatched her hand back from Robert’s arm. Robert grimaced and his body turned rigid, fear present in his eyes.
“What is the meaning of this!” It was Philip, of course, and Iris turned just in time to see him striding across the garden toward them. “Well! Answer me!”
For days now, Iris had wondered if Philip might come and see her. And every time she had dared to do so, she’d thought through how it might look. The reasons and the consequences.
Would he come to apologize? Would he come to denounce her once and for all? Would he be happy? Sad? Forgiving? Vengeful? She pictured it all, and in none of them could she say which version of Philip she might have preferred.
I do know one thing. This is possibly the worst of a bad scenario. Philip heated, anger taking him, and unwilling to listen because when he gets like this no man is more stubborn than he.
“Ph—Philip!” Robert stammered. “I… this is not… I was just about to come and see you.”
“You need not have bothered,” Philip snapped as he came for them. “A waste of time, as I would have turned you away at the door. Now, you will be lucky if that is all I do.”
Somehow, Robert managed to draw himself up. “I do not wish to argue with you, brother. Nor do I wish to fight.”
“And I care for what you wish, because?”
“I want to apologize.”
“And I don’t want to hear it.” Philip stopped short of where the two were standing. Body shaking, he was careful to keep his gaze fixed upon his brother as if Iris were not there.
“Maybe not,” Robert agreed. “But I am going to, nonetheless. I have been doing some thinking lately and?—”
“I don’t want to hear it!” Philip barked. Then he rubbed his eyes with frustration and groaned. “Do you need to hear me say it again, Robert? Will that finally hit home? It is too late for apologies—a lifetime of misdeeds and you can’t decide suddenly that you deserve forgiveness. And that I should give it! That’s not how it works.”
“I don’t want forgiveness.”
“Whatever you want, you will not get it from me,” Philip snapped. “For too long, I have lived with your mistakes. I have excused them. It is time that I do as I should have years ago and cut you loose.”
“Philip…” Robert started, voice dropped to a whisper and laced with pain.
Iris looked between the brothers, seeing once again a mirror image of the same problems which plagued Philip’s and her relationship. Mistakes made and unwillingness to forgive. And pain suffered because of it.
She did not know if she and Philip had a chance. She could not say if Philip wanted them to. But she knew that no chance would be given if Philip was unable to do the bare minimum and forgive his brother when he was quite literally begging for it.
The past, as wretched as it was, needed to stay in the past. The future was where Iris had been looking of late, and that future started with a clean slate of forgiveness. And once it was found, then maybe she could heal. Philip, also.
“Philip, listen to your brother,” Iris spoke up.
Her announcement seemed to shatter the wall which stood between the two brothers, having them both lean back in surprise as they looked at her.
“Iris…” Philip’s expression softened as if he was only just now seeing her. “I… this doesn’t concern?—”
“Don’t you dare say it does not concern me,” she cut him off. “For better or worse, I am a part of your family, which makes Robert as much a brother to me as it does to you. And that he has come to you, his older brother, to apologize…” She widened her eyes at Philip. “The least you can do is listen.”
“I have listened.”
‘No,” she said. “If you had listened, you would have heard what he had to say. You would have considered his words—you would have understood their meaning. Yes, Robert has wronged you.He wronged me too, I might remind you. But where you were unable to forgive, I was happy to do so.”
Philip was frowning. “You were?”
