Page 34 of The Duke's Unclaimed Bride
Thankful that a crisis had been averted, Edith took off after her.
Laurence’s chest heaved with rapid breaths and water droplets as he wrapped the towel around himself with his back to the hedgerow. He had heard Tilly running around and decided it would likely be prudent to make himself scarce.
Seconds later, hot on Tilly’s heels, Edith let out a wild scream and dashed past the pond’s entrance like a woman possessed
He cursed under his breath. This was not how his morning exercise session was meant to go.
He glanced down at his body, his length covered, but the scars twisting across his side and around his shoulder were easily visible. Surely, Edith would have fainted if she had seen them. They were not easy for anyone to see.
He quickly toweled off, leaving his hair damp. Vanity could wait. Right now, he needed speed.
He pulled on his clothes and shoes, then slung the towel over one shoulder.
After stepping out of the hedgerow, he decided to walk back to the castle. Tilly hadn’t run in that direction, and he could lock himself in his study and pretend that the incident had never happened.
A thought struck him as he entered the castle.
Had Edith seen me?
His face flushed in embarrassment. While Tilly couldn’t be quiet to save herself, Edith had enough wits not to implicate herself in a situation.
His heart sank as he realized that she likely hadn’t seen him, because she would have fainted or screamed if she had. Still, the idea that she could have seen him made his pants tighten.
Would she have cared? It wasn’t as if she were an innocent; she couldn’t be, having been married before.
His grip on the towel tightened. The idea of someone else being with Edith made him irrationally angry, although it shouldn’t have. And yet he could not ignore the way it made him clomp up the staircase and slam the door behind him.
He stood motionless in his chambers with his jaw clenched.
He’d known she’d been married before their arrangement. Theirs was meant to be a marriage of convenience only. No love or possessiveness, and certainly no jealousy over the ghost of her dead husband.
His fury vanished as quickly as it had come. In its place was a hollow, gnawing sensation he despised.
Jealousy.
He dragged a hand through his hair. What a small thing for a man of his station to feel. He had never been a man ruled by passion or instinct. Such base desires could easily devolve into cruelty or control.
And yet he could not stop the thought that pulsed through him like blood:she is mine.
He threw the towel across the room.
Blast it all.
CHAPTER 7
“Your Grace! They have dolls here!” Tilly cried out as she ran toward the toy shop.
“Tilly, calm down!” Edith called after her, walking quickly to catch up with her.
They had come to the village to run some errands and escape the castle for a while.
Edith hadn’t counted on one thing. Tilly was so used to London and its busy streets that the village near the castle seemed foreign to her. Edith had spent most of the day running after her and reminding her of her manners.
The little girl hadn’t even had much interaction with a horse and had tried to walk behind one. Edith had to pull her away just before the horse kicked its hind legs. She had apologized to the owner profusely, while Tilly seemed unaware of the danger.
Edith soon caught up to Tilly and looked in the toy shop window. There were a variety of small, mostly wooden toys. The one Tilly had her eye on was a twelve-inch doll with a wooden body and posable joints. She was wearing a pale blue dress and had dark hair painted on her scalp.
Edith had had something similar as a child, and the nostalgia made her smile. While it was not the finest doll, it had certainly enchanted Tilly, who was bouncing on her toes.
