Page 77 of The Duke and the Runaway Bride

Walking On Eggshells

Walford Estate, London

Four Days Later

“Well?” Edwin prompted.

“Old chap, we are friends, and we will always remain friends, but I don’t appreciate your tone, unless you are angry with me for some slight,” Robert snapped.

Edwin looked at his friend. He was the Duke of Walford, and he could do as he pleased. That was how he felt, but he knew it was not true. He wanted to throw his friend out but knew that would not help either.

Robert stared him down, not budging.

Edwin, at least, appreciated that. If it were anyone else, they might have given in and cowered or bowed to him, but not Robert. Edwin didn’t want a friend who would do that; he needed a friend who would tell him how foolish he had been.

“I apologize, Robert,” he said. “This has been a trying time for us all.” He couldn’t quite bring himself to say that he was the only one suffering. It was new for him—raw. “Have you heard any news about Miss Jennings?”

“I have word that one of the printers might speak with us, but we only have one shot at it. It depends if Miss Jennings has spoken to him already and what threats or promises she has made.”

Edwin threw his glass against the wall and watched it shatter into pieces. Robert did not flinch—it was not the first time the Duke had lashed out in the past few days.

“So, we still have nothing,” Edwin moaned. “My marriage is over, and I can’t do anything about it?”

“Thereissomething you can do about it,” Robert told him.

Edwin glared at his friend again, and for a second time, Robert did not back down.

“What should I do?” Edwin asked.

“You should visit her and tell her to come home,” Robert replied.

“And then what? She sneaks out again and is caught this time. Or she concocts some other plan, when I have explicitly told her that she must leave it to me.”

“You have to give her some credit for trying to fix it,” Robert argued. “Most women would do absolutely nothing and let you do everything. What she did shows that she cares.”

“She snuck out in the middle of the night dressed in men’s clothing!” Edwin boomed.

“Yes, I am well aware,” Robert said witheringly. “Which are you most angry at? The fact that she snuck out to try and fix a problem or the fact that you have been unable to fix it?”

Edwin glared at his friend, annoyed that he was right. Much of the anger Edwin felt was because he could not fix the main problem affecting his marriage. Beatrice had certainly added to his problems, but Miss Jennings was his biggest problem.

“Why did she have to go to her sister’s?” he groaned, trying to change the focus of the conversation. “She should have stayed here, and I would have one fewer problem to deal with.”

“Then deal with that one promptly,” Robert urged. “She is there with her pregnant sister, and that is a good cover for now. But the longer she remains there, the more people will begin to talk. They call her theRunaway Bride, and I’m sure Miss Jennings is plotting her next move. How long will it be before she starts to question what is really going on?”

“I know, I know,” Edwin grumbled. “What am I supposed to do? She was the one in the wrong, and I will look weak if I go crawling over to her sister’s home and beg for her to come back. If anything, Beatrice should be the one to come back here and apologize. If she does that, then we will be able to move on to the next problem in a long line of problems.”

It only made Edwin feel more in the wrong. She had tried to apologize, but he had been too angry to hear it. If he had calmed down and listened to her apology, he could have accepted it.

No! She had accused him of being in the wrong, too, and that was not the case. He could not show weakness, whether it be in business or marriage. If he apologized for her sneaking out, then what else might she do? He needed to be ruthless for a reason. It was to protect those around him.

“It is your marriage,” Robert pointed out.

“Yes, it is,” Edwin snapped.

He immediately regretted his tone. He gave his friend an apologetic look.

Robert seemed to understand and did not look too put out. “I will check in with some people and see if there is anything that can be done more immediately,” he told him.

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