Page 87 of Wedded to the Ruthless Duke

As they released hands, Grace thought she saw a shadow out of the corner of her eye, much further down the corridor. She turned to look at it, wondering if Philip was watching her from the doorway of his study, but if he had been there, he had vanished into the shadows too fast for her to see him.

He is simply glad I am leaving.

She followed the maids out of the house to the small carriage which had been prepared to take her to the edge of the estate. She pulled her shawl up over her head to hide her face from the falling rain and mask future tears that threatened to fall.

Determinedly, she didn’t look back at the house as the carriage pulled away. She was afraid to see Philip’s silhouette in one of the windows, watching as she parted.

Instead, she stared across the carriage in the darkness. Night was coming in thick and fast now as summer turned to autumn. There was a chilly breeze too, making her wrap her arms tighter around her.

As the carriage carried her away, a thought occurred to her.

Philip had accused her of wanting out of the marriage, claiming this was why she had given such a story to the scandal sheets, but what if it was the other way around? What if when Philip saw the story, he saw it as an opportunity to be free of her? To be free of the wife he had never wanted in the first place?

She closed her eyes as the carriage came to a stop, thinking of the first night she and Philip had kissed which had led to this whole mess.

“It seems so long ago now,” she whispered.

The carriage door was opened. Turning to climb down out of the carriage, she set her eyes on the Dowager House.

She had seen it at a distance before when she was riding but never so close before.

There was a time in her life when she would have thought it a perfect life. The house, though smaller than the main one, was still grand. Red brick, stretching over two floors, it had a beautiful appearance. In the lantern lights that had been lit, it glowed orange and golden, warm and welcoming.

Yes, before she had married Philip, to be offered a life alone in this home where she had her freedom to operate far away from a husband’s orders, it would have been a pleasant life indeed, but not anymore. As she walked toward the house, she felt a longing to be back in the main house, to be beside Philip again.

Only, she wanted to be beside the Philip who had made love to her, the one who had gone riding with her, racing her, the one who had shared that picnic with her, the one who had kissed her that first night and urged in whispered voices that she was his.

She wanted nothing to do with the Philip who had cast her out of his house and accused her of such malice.

“Do you like it, Your Grace?” the maid asked as she carried one of Grace’s bags up to the house.

“It’s a very fine place,” Grace said woodenly. “Yes, I shall find a way to be happy here.”

With this resolution in mind, she strode up the front stoop and into the house. When she tripped on the top step, she actually managed to laugh through her tears.

At least now, there was no Philip, no mother, and no one else in thetonto grimace and despair of her when she made a fool of herself.

Alas, I truly am free.

CHAPTER29

“Ican’t believe it,” Diana gushed as she sank down into the settee beside Grace.

They had talked at length into the night about what had happened the day before. To Grace’s relief, Diana had come to stay with her for a few days, to fight the loneliness. They had frequently tried to discuss their books and what they were reading at the moment, but inevitably, conversation turned back to the same topic.

Diana clutched a glass of port in her hand as she passed Grace another.

“To think Eleanor’s brother could treat you so. To think he could throw you out of his house.”

“Strange,” Grace whispered. “I had stopped thinking of Philip as just Eleanor’s brother. He wasmyhusband.” She smiled rather sadly, wishing she could claw back the feeling, but it was gone. “It was my home too, not just his. That’s all gone now.”

She took a rather large gulp of the port.

“I’m so sorry it’s come to this, Grace.” Diana laid a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. “I suppose it’s little comfort to say you have a beautiful home here, that you could be happy here?”

“Oh, I know.” Grace nodded, looking around the house. “I have freedom now, don’t I? A lovely home of my own.” Her eyes darted around the warm golden room, the great fireplace bearing hot flames this evening, and the vast landscape portraits on the walls that told tales from distant lands. “Yet at what cost, I wonder?”

“You and the Duke…” Diana spoke slowly, that shyness creeping into her character that always did appear, even when she was with her dearest friends. “Did you love him?”

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