Page 35 of My Ruthless Duke

“Do not do that. Do not reduce yourself to your circumstances.” Dorian sighed, already regretting making his opinion sound like an option.

“It has beenyears, Dorian since a gentleman has looked in my direction with anything but a sneer on their face. Do you know that? Have you any idea what that feels like?” Mary continued with a very careful grip on her temper. Georgie glanced in her direction as if checking whether he should be upset or not. Most of the time, he simply ignored their conversations entirely.

Mary motioned for Georgie’s governess to come and take him out of the room. Whenever things got heated for either ofthe siblings, they did their best to remove Georgie from the situation. Dorian was adamant that he not grow up around yelling as they had.

The moment that Georgie was out of the room, Mary rounded on her brother once more with fiery accusation in her gaze.

“Tell me, Brother, whatmoredo I deserve than a man who is accomplished, funny, and who seems genuinely interested in me?” Mary continued.

“Are you implying that he has made some sort of declaration?” If he had, without bothering to come to Dorian first, this conversation was going to shift entirely.

“No! But if hehad,I do not think that I would be opposed to it!”

“Have you truly not heard what Mr. Hislop has done?”

“I am sure that you are going to remind me, though I do not see how it could possibly change my opinion of him.” Mary sat back in her chair, looking very much like a petulant child. Dorian had half of a mind to call her out on it, too.

“Mr. Hislop fled the country and left his sisters to fend for themselves. If it had not been for Rhysand–”

Mary’s answering laughter was bitter and humorless. “And suddenly that is a crime? How is it any different from whatyoudid?”

“Is that not exactly why you should be averse to it? The same crimes that you lay at my feet hold no consequence because it is from an outside gentleman?” Dorian countered, working very hard to keep from raising his voice.

He glanced at Cordelia out of the corner of his eye. He tried to avoid quarreling with his sister in front of her for this exact reason. When Mary got upset, she did not know how to keep things to herself.

“He is a solicitor now, Dorian. He has changed. At least he was repentant of his crimes, and his sisters have forgiven him. Are you? I think not. Whatever offenses that you might lay at his feet, at least he has not killed his–”

“Enough!” Cordelia’s voice rose above the other two, shocking the siblings. She had never interrupted one of their fights before. It was true that they quarreled often, but the matter was always laid to rest. Albeit in a shallow grave that they were constantly digging up. “Mary, please do not get so cross. Dorian is simply attempting to express his care for you in his own way. I ampositive,” she paused long enough to glare at her husband. “That he only has your best wishes and happiness at heart.”

Mary’s brow lifted, looking to Dorian for confirmation that his pride did not wish to allow.

Everything about the relationship with his sister only made him wish to argue and protest over even the smallest things.

“I cannot claim to have been there for whatever bad blood lay between you. Lord knows that neither of you wants to sit here and talk about your feelings, but your brother must have had his reasons for making the choices that he did,” Cordelia finished with a parting shot at Mary, “Do you truly believe that he would harm you or your son on purpose?”

Mary bit down on the inside of her cheek and leaned back into her chair once more. If she had anything else to say on the subject, she kept her mouth shut about it and her opinions to herself.

On the one hand, it was a nice surprise to have somebody stand up for him the way that Cordelia was. He would not have expected it from anyone, not in a hundred years.

But that did not change the fact that she was wrong. He had been fighting the guilt since he had lain with her the first time. He could not keep himself from her addictive body, and he knew that there was no point in even trying to deprive himself of something that had become a need.

Would she think the same of me if she knew what I did to her father?

Sooner or later, Cordelia would find out the truth—and she would hate him, too. There was no other option. The closer that he allowed himself to come to her, the less sure he was that he was going to be able to survive the fallout.

Cordelia looked from one sibling to another and nodded contently to herself that the argument appeared to be finished. With her brow arched, victorious, she started to eat her breakfast once more.

How was he supposed to handle the look of horror on her face when he found out his true crimes? There would be no defending him then. She would likely not even be able to look him in the face. He was being ruthless and selfish to allow himself to indulge in her. But how could he deprive himself of the woman who was becoming more important to him than he knew how to handle?

I am going to hell for all this. I should keep my distance from her before it is too late.

Chapter 18

Cordelia woke to the soft light of dawn filtering through the curtains and an empty bed again. Each morning that she woke to find herself alone, she was disappointed for reasons that she could not even begin to explain. She stretched lazily beneath the blankets, her mind still hovering in that peaceful place between sleep and waking. But something was different. There, resting on her pillow beside her head, was a missive. A folded piece of parchment sealed with Dorian’s distinctive wax seal.

What could that be?

Her heart quickened, and she sat up, blinking away the last remnants of sleep as she reached for the letter. Had he left the estate? She hoped that it did not mean that he was planning to start traveling again; things had just started to seem like they were reaching progress between them. Had she really been that wrong?

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