Page 82 of An Accidental Bride for the Duke
“It does, Mother. But that you think otherwise…” She leaned back and made sure to be smiling. “As when I was a little girl,you have always been there for me. And for that, you have no idea how grateful I am.”
“I only every wanted what was best,” she said.
“I know it.” They hugged again.
Once, Philip had announced himself as her protecter. It felt good too. It felt right. But maybe that was also the problem? All her life, Iris had needed someone else to look after her, to help her, to keep her safe. Was it time that she stepped out of the shadow and started looking after herself? Is that where her journey was set to lead her?
In truth, she did not like the sound of it nearly as much as she wanted. Philip might have been her protector, but she felt that she was his also. That he had needed her as she had needed him, enough that they had come so close to working where they shouldn’t have done.
Again, I am brought back to the reality that all of this makes no difference. Here I sit in my mother’s arms and like it or not, Philip is not coming to save me.
For the first time in her life, Iris was free to do as she wished and make her own decisions. No longer in need of protection or someone to watch out for her. And this feeling of independence… it felt suspiciously like loneliness. And likely would do for the rest of her life.
A happily ever after? For Iris, she would find no such thing.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Iris, you have a visitor.” It was Eveline, appearing in the doorway to Iris’ bedroom. She left it open now, determined to begin the healing process, which started by not shutting herself off from the world.
Iris had been reading. Sitting on a chair in the sun, she heard her sister and snapped her head up, her heart leaping through her chest because in her mind there could be only one person who might come and see her.
“There… there is?” she asked hopefully. “Is it…”
Eveline shook her head. “I am afraid not.”
Iris’ heart sank back to where it had been. “Oh…”
“Do you not wish to know who it is?”
“I suppose so,” she sighed, finding that she did not really care. “Who is it then? Aurelia?”
Eveline’s brow furrowed. “It is a strange thing, and I was not sure if you would wish to be told. If you like, I can tell him you are busy and send him away?—”
“Who is it, Eveline,” she spoke over her sister.
“It is Lord Robert,” she said, fidgeting now with her hands. “And he was rather insistent on seeing you.”
Iris frowned at the announcement.Lord Robert… what on earth could he want?
She found that she did not much wish to speak with Lord Robert. Not because she held him any ill will, but simply because he represented a part of her life which she wanted to forget entirely. He was the past and she was determined to focus on the future.
That he had come here to speak with her suggested importance. And besides, was she not the one who had been so insistent on the need to forgive and forget? Robert was not Philip, but maybe speaking to Robert would be a good step to take. Her first chance to finally move on…
“As you say.” She sighed and closed her book. “Where is he?”
“He is in the back garden,” Eveline said. “Would you like for me to…” She trailed off.
“No,” Iris told her. “I will speak with him myself.”
“Are you sure?”
Iris laughed. “I am not sure about anything. But things can hardly get any worse, so what harm can it do?”
Eveline did not look as if she believed her, but she did not argue. Rather, she walked with Iris through the home and onto the back deck which sat over the garden. There, Iris saw Robert waiting by the fountain, his back to them as he watched the blue waters bubble in the pool.
“I’ll be here if you need anything,” Eveline told her.
“Thank you,” Iris said back as she started toward her husband’s brother.
