Page 86 of Wedded to the Ruthless Duke

She stumbled away from him. In her usual clumsy way, she tripped on the edge of a chair. She fell into the seat, staring at him in what had to be complete abhorrence.

“That’s what you think?” she seethed quietly. “You think each time I touched you that it was all an act? That I longed for a child? I never even thought of a child before we were married. I am so disliked by thetonthat I thought I would never marry. I had abandoned all thought of children equally.”

“So you admit that? You admit that you never wanted to be married? That you only wanted to be alone?” he countered, rounding the desk to move near her. She didn’t argue with this. She just stared up at him as another tear slid down her cheek. “It’s some way to be rid of your husband, Grace. Cruel. Cruel indeed. Couldn’t you have just told me you wanted to leave? Instead of destroying mine and my mother’s reputations so much?”

“That’s enough!” Her voice boomed around the room as she stood again. “If you seriously think I am that sort of woman, that I would hurt you or your mother in such a way, then you do not know me at all.”

“There is no one else who could have done this. Only you or your father.” He thrust a finger toward her. “You were the only two people in the world who knew about my father’s gambling, and we both know your father is too ill to leave the house to possibly visit a scandal sheet writer or a print house, don’t we?”

She reacted as if he had hit her with the words. She stepped back, her lips parted, her hand raising to cover her face.

“If you think me so capable of something like this, then I see you are not the man I thought you were at all.”

What does that mean?

Yet he was too lost to rage to think sensibly, to even think about what it was she was exactly saying. Absorbed by his fury, he had to be rid of her. He needed time to think.

“Well, you did all of this to be free of me. To no longer have a husband, so you will have your wish.” He stepped back, distancing himself from her completely. “You were to go to the Dowager’s House on the estate anyway at the end of the month. You can go there now, today, and you won’t have to see me again.”

“What? You’re sending me out of the house?”

“You said you wanted your freedom. I am giving you exactly what you wanted,” he reminded her, putting himself behind the desk, so it was a barrier to her.

Never had he known this pain. It was as if Grace had crushed him, turned him completely to ash.

“You have your freedom from me, from this life; you will be independent. If enough times passes and we find you are not carrying my heir, then we can revisit this discussion again.”

“You must be joking —” she spat at him.

“It was our agreement when we married. We shall return to the rules we agreed on that day. Anything else, the riding, the picnicking together, all of it can be forgotten. Is that understood?”

She suddenly stood tall. For someone so much shorter than him, Grace appeared to dominate the room. That regalness was back in her figure, even as a tear slid down her cheek.

“Well, I made a vow, did I not?” she said in a cool and distanced voice he had never known she was capable of. “I vowed toobeyyou.” The scoff was plain. She delivered the most perfect curtsy, not quivering or looking as if she was about to trip for single second. When she stood straight, she wiped away her final tear. “You have your wish, your Grace.”

She turned and walked away from the room. Her last words, she tossed over her shoulder. “You will not be bothered by me again.”

* * *

Grace didn’t stop crying as she packed her bags. Two maids helped her. They were kind, solicitous, overly helpful, and she was grateful for their sweetness, just as she was grateful that they did not ask her too many questions. They did not ask why she cried or why they were moving her.

She expected they already knew. Someone in the staff must have known how to read and had probably spread the gossip of what was in that scandal sheet to the rest of the household by now.

As Grace packed up the last of her things, she halted, finding on her bedside table the small gift which Philip had given her the day they had shared their picnic. With careful fingers, she picked up the botanical notebook and flicked through the pages.

It was a beautiful thing. She had believed the man who had given her such a gift was a kind man, but would a kind man really jump to this conclusion so firmly? If Philip was every inch the man she had fallen in love with, why would he not even listen to her? Why was he so convinced she was behind this story in the scandal sheets?

“Would you like to take it with you, Your Grace?” one of the maids asked gently, clearly afraid to startle her.

“No, thank you.” Grace returned the book to the table. “Would you have it returned to the Duke please? He can have his money back for it. I’m sure that’s what he wants.”

She sniffed and stopped further tears from falling. She pulled a shawl up around her shoulders and left the room. The maids followed behind her, carrying her bags.

In the hallway, Mrs. Williamson had come to say goodbye. She took Grace’s hand with affection. The red eyes suggested that Mrs. Williamson too had been crying though she tried her best not to show it.

“I have sent some good staff to the Dowager’s house,” she said with eagerness. “You will be well looked after there, Your Grace. And with your permission, I’d like to come and visit you?”

“You have been very kind, thank you. I’d like that very much.”

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