Page 12 of My Cruel Duke

Rhysand averted his gaze from her as if done with her and the conversation. But Penny was far from done. He had pricked her, and she had a lot to say about it.

“I do not deny myself the pleasures of life and feed off darkness like you. It is no wonder you are so cold-hearted and cruel. You have blinded yourself so you do not see the good in others,” Penny accused blatantly, but Rhysand said nothing. He did not award her with even a bat of his dark eyelashes. She was irked by his cold and aloof manner. This was how he pushed people away. He had no friends because no one wanted to be friends with a self-absorbed duke. She folded her arms and huffed, watching the busy streets of London as they rode to Thornbury Hall.

When they arrived, Rhysand was the first one out of the carriage. A polite footman appeared by the door, and she stretched out her hand to him, which he took with a little smile as he helped her out of the carriage. The staff members of Thornbury Hall assembled outside the large mansion with identical expressions on their faces.Shock.

They had not believed it when their master claimed he was heading out to bring the duchess home. In their confusion, they did not expect that he spoke about marriage, and bringing the duchess meant bringing his wife home. Who was the young lady? Had she been away from society so much that she accepted the duke’s proposal despite his cruelty? Had she not known that he was a beast who sucked out the life of everyone around him, with no desire for little things like colors, decorations, flowers, and parties? Had she not heard about the tragedy that befell his family and how it shaped him into the man he was? Or perhaps she had known all these things and willingly carried on with the union. It was not likely. The flame that burned in the duchess’s eyes was not of desire but pure anger. It was identical to the duke’s. They did not seem like a couple who had only just returned from their wedding ceremony. They seemed more like an old couple on the verge of a divorce.

“Rufus!” Rhysand barked, and Penny did not miss the way the staff shook at the sound. Now that she looked at them, they seemed to have lost the life from their eyes. In their eyes, she could see her future: a life without purpose, without a smile. She could not live like that. She wouldnotlive like that. She would make the most of her situation and work hard to affect every soul living in the mansion with a smile before she left.

“Show the duchess up to her rooms,” he ordered Rufus, who, despite the lack of life in his eyes, beamed as he approached her.

“Welcome to Thornbury Hall, Your Grace.” The man bowed.

Your Grace. Duchess.

Would she ever get used to those titles?

“Thank you,” she smiled at him. “It is very nice to meet you all.”

As if to annoy her husband, who stood there watching her with a scowl, she approached the staff, greeting every one of them with a lovely smile on her face. They seemed to be happy she had arrived. She was too. They even offered her flowers.

“Your family and their belongings will be here shortly. Dinner is served at six. Be warned, I do not tolerate tardiness. If you are not at the table by six, I shall take it you are uninterested in having dinner.”

“You did not promise me a life of a prisoner, Your Grace.”

He shut his eyes for a brief moment, and when he opened them, he narrowed them at her.

“You shall receive your benefits when it is confirmed you are with child. Until then, you live under my roof and under my rules,” he spat and disappeared into darkness.

Chapter7

“Ido not love you, Penny,”her mama’s velvet voice announced.

Penny’s earliest memories from when she was a child were when she was three and ten years old. She could not recall anything from her youngest days, and whenever she tried, her head ached. What she did remember, though, was her mama leading her to see the birds at the lake. Her mama had worn a pale pink day dress that morning and a hat to match. It had been her mama’s favorite dress because she claimed that it was the dress she wore on the day Penny was born.

Her mama had turned to her with a sour expression on her face.

“All I wish is for you to disappear forever. I tried to love you, but I cannot,”Penny had never been so scared in her life. Long forgotten were the birds on the lake as she rushed to her mama, pulling on the pink fabric as tears fell from her eyes, begging her mama to love her. Penny had made promises to her mama; she promised to always eat her vegetables and never complain about a thing, to never disrespect her nanny, but nothing she said could thaw her mama’s cold gaze.

And then, she was underwater, gasping for air as her lungs burned from the violent intake of water through every opening in her body.

“Help me, Mama.”

Penny’s eyes flew open, and she sat upright, clutching the rich fabric of the day dress she had changed into hours ago as she tried to find a steady breathing rhythm.

It was that dream again, or perhaps that nightmare, for it was indeed so. Penny began having that horrible dream when she clocked three and ten, and on the first night, she cried so much that when the sun rose, she looked sick. She had refused to sleep the next night after, claiming if she did, she would drown.

Ideally, Penny recalled nothing of the day itself, but the dream had formed after they told her what had happened and how her mama was now in a place where she could not return. Her father had saved her that day, and out of shame, her mama killed herself.

“Silly dream,” Penny scoffed, but she knew it was not silly. It was the demon she fought whenever she was triggered. Penny had meant to take a short nap to rest her body before her family arrived. She got more stress in exchange for the rest she required.

I should focus on the bright side of things.

For years, Penny had buried the pain the nightmare caused her and always plastered a smile on her face like she did as she wiped beads of sweat from her face. She pushed herself out of bed and out of her new room and went in search of her family, who must have arrived already.

She found Lydia first, with the help of a kind maid who was eager to help her.

“Thornbury Hall is quite different from what you expected, is it not?”

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