Page 80 of A Virgin for the Duke of Ash

She looked up from her position on the window seat to Alice, who was standing before her with a cup of hot tea.

“Here.” Her new sister-in-law handed her a cup with a sympathetic smile. “You need to at least drink something. You have not eaten since you arrived.”

Nothing, not even her favorite dishes, could entice her to eat. Colin had even tried bringing her her favorite sweets from the new confectionery shop down Oxford Street, but she would not even talk to him.

All she wanted was Daniel, but he did not want her—at least not as much as she wanted him—and it hurt.

“Thank you, Alice.” She smiled at the brunette, accepting the cup. She looked down at the dark liquid swirling in it, allowing the freshly brewed tea to warm her cold hands.

Everything seemed so cold now, so bleak. It was like all the world was leached of color in the span of a few hours.

“Your Grace.”

Both of them looked up at the butler, and Evie realized that he was referring to Alice, not her. She looked back down at her cup with much bitterness in her heart.

“There are guests who wish to see you.”

Alice looked at the butler in confusion. “But I was not expecting company?—”

“We are not guests, we arefamily,” a bold voice announced.

A flash of red and Scarlett sailed into the parlor as if she owned the entirety of Blackthorn Estate, with Phoebe trailing quietly after her. Both of them sported looks of surprise when they saw Evie on the window seat with Alice.

“Evie?” Phoebe called out with a soft smile. “You must forgive us for rudely staring, but we did not expect to see you here…”

At the sound of her best friend’s gentle voice, Evie felt her lower lip tremble, and then the floodgates burst open as her friends looked at her with shock and helplessness.

“He has ruined everything!” she sobbed. “Everything was wonderful, and heruined it all!”

“That… thatfiend!”Scarlett burst out furiously, rushing over to her. “What did that useless Duke of Ash do to you, dear? Why, you must allow me to teach him a lesson! He should know how to treat his wife better—it has not even been a week since you were married!”

“N-no, it was not Daniel.” Evie hiccupped.

“I am afraid she is referring tomyhusband,” Alice sighed in disappointment. “I mean to have a word with him after all of this, I assure you.”

She looked so fierce that for a moment, Evie felt some sympathy for her brother, but it all vanished in an instant. Just earlier, she had heard her grandmama giving Colin the dressing down he sorely needed, but he still refused to admit he did anything wrong.

As if he was well within his rights to storm into his sister and her husband’s home out of some misguided brotherly overprotectiveness! Perhaps he had already forgotten that it washewho had entrusted Evie to Daniel in the first place!

“Why? What did your fool of a brother do?” Scarlett demanded with her hands on her hips.

Tears streamed hot and fast down Evie’s cheeks as her friends all gathered to comfort her, bringing her tea and biscuits and even a daintily embroidered lace handkerchief to wipe her tears and snot.

“E-everything was going so well,” she spoke haltingly. “D-Daniel a-and I w-were just beginning to f-find happiness, and t-then he c-came and ruined it all!”

Alice rubbed soothing circles on her back as Evie fought to steady her breathing through her sobbing. She knew that she looked a rather disgraceful sight right now, but her friends onlyregarded her with kindness, sympathy, and a bit of rage on Scarlett’s part.

“Brothers,” the redhead scoffed with unbridled disdain. “They think they can order us about, when goodness knows what kind of tomfoolery they have been up to!”

At her words, Alice bit down her smile as a telltale blush spread across her cheeks.

“Dearest, can you not talk this out with your husband?” Phoebe encouraged her softly. “Surely the Duke of Ashton will listen to you. We have seen the way he looks at you, and I think Scarlett will agree with me when I say that he will listen to whatever you say.”

“Truer words have never been spoken.” Scarlett nodded in affirmation. “Evie has the man wrapped tightly around her little finger. He would burn the world for her if it dared to even look at her the wrong way.”

Phoebe smiled at their outspoken friend. “I thought you did not like him that much.”

“I did not at first,” Scarlett admitted. “But then I saw how he and Evie looked at each other, and I knew that it was a foregone conclusion. That man would leap off a cliff if Evie told him to.”

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