Page 56 of Wedded to the Ruthless Duke

Tabitha looked uneasy, shifting in her seat. She looked around the room, checking the open doorway to ensure that Mrs. Williamson was not about to return any time soon before she returned her focus to Grace and Diana.

“Dukes are entitled men, after all,” she whispered, as if afraid to say the words. “What if… I mean, you do not think…”

“Out with it, Tabitha,” Grace begged. “I’m on tenterhooks here.”

“Well, do you think he could be having anaffair?”Tabitha asked, her voice shaking on the latter word.

Grace felt she had been kicked squarely in the gut. Tabitha looked dutifully gob smacked at her own thought, but the fact that Tabitha could suggest it made Grace feel even worse.

Even Tabitha doesn’t think I am enough to hold Philip’s interest.

“Ha!” The sudden laugh made Grace jump, she was so surprised. She turned to see Diana holding a hand over her mouth. Usually so quiet, bursting laughter from Diana of all people was something of a surprise.

“You made my heart nearly leap out of my chest,” Grace murmured, pretending to faint and prompting Diana to giggle a little.

“It’s just the idea is mad,” Diana went on. “The Duke would have to work fast to find a lady to have an affair with so quickly, would he not?”

“Perhaps he already had a lover when they wed yesterday,” Tabitha suggested uncertainly, her hands fidgeting together. “I mean only to put you on your guard, cousin.”

“The idea is madness,” Diana went on with surprising vigor. She seemed to realize what she was doing a second later, her cheeks blushing pink as she bent more toward Grace to talk quietly. “It would be nonsense to suggest the Duke of Berkley could do of such a thing.”

Grace couldn’t answer. Her tongue had been tied tight by the thought of Philip being wrapped in another woman’s arms at that very moment, whisperingminein her ear as he had done in Grace’s.

“Why is that?” Tabitha asked.

“Because he’s too proper.” Diana shrugged, as if the matter was obvious. “Grace, you and I have only known the Duke of Berkley from a distance these last few years, but have we not heard Eleanor talk of him countless times? Has she not said repeatedly how the most important thing to him is his reputation and his propriety?”

“Yes.” Grace nodded. She also couldn’t deny that everything she had learned of Philip since had -reinforced that idea. It was just that alone, Philip could be quite a different man.

“A man like that is hardly going to risk his reputation by having an affair, is he?” Diana countered.

Grace nodded again though less enthusiastically now. She had to agree Diana had a good point. It would be a wild risk for a man like Philip to take.

“Oh, on the subject of his propriety, there is something I must talk to you about.” Grace pulled on Diana’s hand, urging her to look away from the daggers she was now throwing with her gaze in Tabitha’s direction. “He has stipulated some certain rules.”

“What rules?” Diana asked uncertainly.

“Well, I am not allowed to appear in the scandal sheets again. He has made that plain, and though we are a marriage in name, for convenience, he has also made it clear that he intends for us not to spend too much time together.” Her mouth felt suddenly dry, and she looked at the doorway, longing for Mrs. Williamson to return with that tea.

“That is a rule?” Tabitha asked in dutiful outrage. “Goodness. It really is a marriage of convenience.”

Hearing Tabitha say the words stung Grace all the more, and she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. The night before when he had made love to her, it hadn’t felt anything like convenience.

The gentle way he had kissed her neck and told her she was beautiful before tangling his fingers with hers, offering comfort when she was nervous about being completely bare with him, suggested a greater warmth of feeling between them.

Perhaps I am wrong.

“Well, if you want to attract his attention, Grace, I know what one of our friends would say.” Diana sat taller, her cheeks blushing already before she had even said the words.

“What?” Grace urged her on.

“Celia, not me, I strongly emphasize this — but Celia would suggest that if you would like to get his attention, then you have to start breaking his rules a little. That is what you want, isn’t it? Not to be ignored by him.”

“What? Oh, think carefully, cousin,” Tabitha pleaded in her sweetest and most concerned tone. “You were so much against this marriage. Do you even really want his attention? It would be a dangerous path to go down indeed!”

Grace smiled when she looked between the two women. She knew how fortunate she was to have them both in her life. Their advice came from a place of love, of concern for her, yet their advice was completely different.

“I thank you for your words, both of you,” Grace whispered to the pair of them. “You are right, Tabitha, I didn’t want this marriage to begin with, but now, I am here, and I don’t see a way out of it.”

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