Page 90 of The Duke and the Accidental Bride

Even if I deserve every bit of it.

With a bereaved sigh, he dipped his quill in the ink and began to write.

My dearest Isabella...

Isabella stayed by Louisa’s bed for two days straight. She hardly slept. She barely ate. She refused to so much as move until her sister woke up so that she could see Isabella sitting there – so that Isabella could apologize and beg for forgiveness before any other words were spoken.

Even two days later and she still could not believe what had happened.

The truth had since come out. Whether it be through Juliet’s crazed bemoaning of events, or her sister’s retelling of what happened before passing out from blood loss. A calamity of events that had seen her shut herself away from Duncan because in this, Isabella knew herself to be the real villain.

Isabella had done this. That was what she was forced to comprehend. She had played with fire and her sister was the one who was burned. If only she had listened to her sister. If only she hadn’t tried to play games. Then none of this might have happened.

Isabella forced herself to look at that scar, shuddering to her very core. A bandage covered it at the moment, but she had seen it. Oh, how she had. It was a jagged, hideous thing, carving its way down the right side of her face so that Louisa would never be truly beautiful again. A punishment, it felt like, one which her sister had taken but which should have been for Isabella.

Shame flooded Isabella as much as anything. And she could not imagine what Duncan thought of her. Did he think she had sent her sister there to spy on him? Did he think that she did not trust him? She could not blame him with the way she had acted of late.

Ultimately it came down to the very real fact that Duncan and Isabella’s relationship… it had always been tenuous at best. Violent and chaotic. Fine when it was just the two of them, but now her sister was forced to pay the price and for that Isabella would never forgive herself.

“Isabella...” The voice spoke softly from the bed.

“Louisa!” Isabella started with shock. “You’re awake!”

“Very observant.”

She threw herself at her sister, careful not to get too close to her face. “You’re awake! You’re awake – I am so glad! You have no idea how much I --” She caught her tongue, forcing the sanctimony down, because that was not what she had stayed by her sister’s bed for two whole days to do.

A deep breath and Isabella pushed herself back and sat back down. Expression pained, she met her sister’s eyes, tears brimming in them.

“I am so sorry,” Isabella began. “You have no idea how much I am. For all of this... everything. It is my fault, Louisa. And where you may not want to forgive me – I will not blame you. You need to know how truly and completely sorry I am.”

Louisa frowned. “Sorry? Whatever for?”

Isabella frowned. “Louisa... your face. You do remember what happened --”

“Of course I do,” Louisa cut her off. “I was there, remember.”

“Then you know why I am sorry. And you should know too that from this day forward I will do everything that I can to make it up to you. You have my word.”

Still, Louisa frowned. “Isabella... why on earth are you apologizing? This had nothing to do with you.”

“Of course it did,” Isabella said. “I might not have held the knife but... but I also did not listen! You warned me. You warned me and I ignored you because I am a fool. And now you are hurt, and it is all because of me.”

Her sister frowned. “You? But Lady St. Vincent was the one who –”

“Yes, she might have been the one to hold the knife, but I might as well have put it in her hand,” Isabella sighed. “You warned me. Duncan and I… we are not good for one another. And this right here is proof of it.”

Louisa sighed and shook her head. “Trust you to make this all about you.”

“But it is about –”

“Me,” Louisa cut her off. “Not you. Nor is it about your husband. Speaking of, where is here…” She looked about as if expecting Duncan to be standing in the room.

“I do not know,” Isabella said, feeling a stabbing in her chest. “But it is for the best.”

“And why is that?”

“Have you not been listening? You were nearly killed, Louisa. Killed because of my stupid games. You were right from the beginning. Duncan and I cannot work. We are poison and we forced you to have a taste! I have thought about it long and hard and… and…” Her chest cracked. “It is for the best if he and I do not see one another again.”

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