Page 89 of Wedded to the Ruthless Duke

“I haven’t seen her.” Philip shook his head. “Mrs. Williamson tells me that she is making the most of her freedom. She rides and walks every day. She reads her books and is making plans to change the garden. She has bought some new plants. She goes to Somerset House with her friend, Diana.”

“You seem to be keeping track of your wife’s movements.”

Philip fidgeted in his chair, not in a hurry to agree that was exactly what he was doing.

“Enough of this.” Aaron snatched the glass away as Philip tried to take another sip. “You can’t live life like this, Phil.”

“Why not? Seems a jolly good way to do so to me.”

“People will stop talking of your father eventually. They’ll find the next juicy bit of gossip, and then it will be completely forgotten.”

“Hmm.” Philip was not so convinced of this. His mother would always be pitied as the Dowager Duchess whose husband lost their fortunes and played away. He had failed in trying to protect her from such pain.

“As for your wife, it seems to me that Grace —”

“Don’t call her that,” Philip said with sudden possessiveness. He stared at his friend, finding Aaron’s rather sharp expression now coming into focus.

“Your Grace, eh?” Aaron asked, no hint of humor in his face. “Then start acting like it.”

“After what she did, do you expect me —”

“Oh, enough.” Aaron waved a hand at him. “You’ve always had a habit of acting without thinking things through properly. You’re also blinded by anger, frequently.”

“Such compliments from a man who is supposed to be my dearest friend!”

“You are drunk,” Aaron said, quite expertly avoiding Philip’s grabbing hand as he tried to take the whisky glass back. “Think it through, Phil, that’s all I urge you. Why, why in God’s name would Grace not only throw you and your mother into such a dark place but her own father too? Hmm? Or are you so self-absorbed that you did not notice the article accused her father of being a blackmailer?”

Philip stiffened, for he had noticed. It was something that had burned in the back of his mind and was one of the reasons he had turned to drink.

“Grace wouldn’t sell a story that called her father a blackmailer. She loves him too much for that,” Philip whispered.

“There!” Aaron flicked his fingers. “If you in your cups can still agree to that, then why would you accuse her of being the person behind the leak?”

“Because it doesn’t make sense, Aaron. Who else would sell that story?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t believe it was her. I also think that you are in a state without her. Quite frankly, if you’re going to spend your life in such misery just because she lives at the edge of your estate rather than under your roof, then it wasn’t just a marriage of convenience after all.”

Philip managed to successfully get his whisky back. He downed the last of the liquid then stared into the glass.

For the last four days, when he wasn’t drinking, he’d felt isolated and cut off from the world. He’d even refused to see Eleanor and Dorian when they had come calling on him. He’d been lonely, missing Grace and wanting her back.

To find she had returned his gift hurt. He’d kept that book at the side of his bed, feeling like it was a piece of her that he still carried with him.

“Are you in love with her?” Aaron asked, his voice managing to cut through the daze.

Philip looked at Aaron. He didn’t need to say the words, apparently his expression was enough.

“It was never meant to happen,” he said eventually. Aaron’s rigid spine slumped. “I made a vow when I married her that I wouldn’t be my father. I wouldn’t cause her the same misery my father caused my mother.”

“You didn’t want her to fall in love with you.” Aaron didn’t need to phrase it as a question. It was obvious enough.

“I was so busy thinking about that. I didn’t even notice that I was the one falling…” He trailed off.

I miss her. So much.

“What does it matter?” Philip said quickly. “She happily went to the Dowager’s House. She admitted she hadn’t wanted the marriage in the first place. She’ll be very happy without me.”

“Perhaps not as happy as she’d be with you.” These words hung in the air for a minute. Philip ran a hand through his hair, pulling on the tendrils in stress. “Don’t be a coward, Phil.”

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