Page 93 of Wedded to the Ruthless Duke

“You have to follow the light,” the maid said excitedly, scarcely able to hold in her giggles. “He has left a gown for you to wear too.”

“Has he now?” Grace didn’t need to ask who her maid meant. The thought that Philip was leaving new demands for her infuriated her. After everything she had found out that day, the discovery that one of her dearest friends, her family, her kin, had worked so hard to hurt her reputation and her happiness had turned her world upside down. “I’m in no mood to see him.”

Grace stepped past the maid and climbed up into the house, but the maid scurried after her, still bearing that lantern forward.

“Please, Your Grace. He’s most eager to see you.”

“I doubt that.” Grace scoffed at the idea. “He made it perfectly plain he had no wish to see me for this next month.”

Unless he wishes to try again for an heir. Only then will he call me to him.

The mere thought of Philip making love to her whilst he disliked her so was gut-wrenching. She longed to hold him in her arms, to tell him that she had never sought to embarrass him, that she loved him, but how could she? How could she do such a thing when he had only ever married her to save his own reputation?

“I have no wish to see him.”

“Your Grace —” The maid said no more though.

Grace had stumbled to a stop as she looked across the entrance hall. Hanging at the bottom of the staircase was a golden hued gown. It was made of dark golden silk, that material accented in the lantern light. It was the same cut as the burgundy gown Grace had worn before. It would accent her curves and her cleavage — she didn’t doubt that.

“He wants me to wear that?” Grace asked in disbelief, staring at it.

Why? What game is he playing?

“Yes.” The maid nodded at her side. “Will you go, your Grace?”

Grace couldn’t deny she longed to see him. She blinked, thinking about the tears she had shed earlier that day when she thought of him. Yet she had another reason to see him too.

I’ll play his games. I must.

“Very well. Would you help me change, please?”

CHAPTER31

“There she is,” Philip whispered to himself as he stood from the steps of the Palladian summer house of his grounds.

Slowly, through the soft glow of orange light from the lanterns, she had appeared. She was walking slowly toward him with no eagerness in her step at all. Her head was turned toward him though the light was too dim for him to possibly discern her expression at this distance.

The thing he noticed first was the dress. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she had refused to wear the dress he had purchased for her. He had meant it as a gift though after he thought about what he had done, he realized that his asking for her to wear it may have been seen as yet another demand.

It suited her even better than he had imagined. It accented the perfect curve of her hips, the swell of her breasts, down to that narrow waist. She had not bothered with gloves but walked with her hands loose at her sides. Her hair too she had taken out of its updo. Far from what was expected at any event of theton, it was loose and wild about her shoulders, and he loved it.

He imagined trailing his fingers through those tresses, though it was the wind that got that blessing, tangling it in the air before it laid flat again on her shoulders.

She was now so near that he could see her face. There was no trace of a smile, only fury in her furrowed brow.

He stepped toward her as she grew near, but she halted by the final lantern, maintaining distance between them. He wasn’t even sure if she was close enough to see what he had set up in the summerhouse. Beyond the white pillar columns was the same blanket they had taken on their picnic to the top of the hill. There was champagne, too, and a feast for a late-night picnic.

Her eyes didn’t even glance toward the preparations he had made.

“Wife,” he whispered, wanting to call her that, for it was what she was, wasn’t she? She was his. Even if he was too mad and foolish to realize half the time. “It was one of our happiest days, wasn’t it? That picnic. I thought we could have another of those,” he began, his words sounding foolish to his own ears. “I thought we could share in that happiness again.”

“Did you now?” she scoffed. He flinched at the sound. He was hardly expecting her to run into his arms after the way he had ousted her from the house, but he longed for it all the same. “I see,” she murmured. She blinked heavily and looked away. “So, Eleanor told you of what Tabitha did, and now, you can suddenly stand to be in my presence again?”

“What?” Philip said sharply.

Tabitha? Why are we talking of her?

“You’ve decided you can trust me again, can you?” She shook her head and turned around, clearly intending to leave.

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