Page 34 of His Abandoned Duchess

Richard’s mind would not be silenced, however.

She has not been with another.

Assuredly, Amelia had been untouched when he claimed her the previous evening. He was entirely confident of the fact, and yet it still bothered him that Frederick had heard the opposite. A woman involving herself in extramarital affairs was a horrendous consequence to her reputation. Those sheets would land his wife in the rough, which he would not allow.

And in that moment, it struck Richard that he was not solely concerned with how the tarnishing of Amelia’s reputation might affect himself or his holdings. He did not wish for his wife to be depicted as such because he was sure of her honorandthe damage to her spirit the words would do. Amelia would be so crushed by the terrible misgivings spread about her and theresulting action of those words as she attempted to carry on with her day in Town.

He…cared.

Dammit.

Chapter Fifteen

The weight of the ages remained perched on Richard’s shoulders as he stepped into the front hall of Heartwick estate. Rain had started up during the last hours of his time at White’s, and Richard shook his waistcoat to fling the lingering droplet off the dampening fabric.

To bed. I have no more use for this dreadful day.

Richard’s time at White’s had not been as successful as he’d hoped. While he was in hand of renewed information regarding the rumblings surrounding his wife, he was also several pounds short of what he’d arrived with. His betting and play had been a terrific failure, and Richard required the comfort of a soft bed beneath his weary head.

The smell of the evening’s dinner still lingered in the air as he proceeded toward the stairs. What’s more, there was a circle of chairs set up within the drawing room. He was aware thatAmelia had invited her friends to dine with her, and they no doubt retired to the room to enjoy drinks following supper.

A cadre of lords and ladies at Amelia’s side for nearly every event was evidently the typical manner of things. She was hardly without Lady Charlotte and her brother, the Duke of Aldworth. It was odd to consider that Amelia also had the Dowager Duchess of Soulden and the daughter of the Viscount Mayfield in tow at all times as well.

After all, Richard retained Frederick as his sole acquaintance of importance.Oh, lest I not forget the Earl of Ellingham.

In truth, something in the way of Lord Isaac’s comportment sat uneasily with Richard. He could not place a finger on the pulse of his motivations. Still, a spark of disinclination touched him whenever he witnessed the Lord interact with Amelia.

A foul mood, Richard. Get to sleep.

As he set foot on the steps, a faint trickle of laughter whispered from the other room. Richard turned over his shoulder to see Amelia draped across the settee in the drawing room, her cheeks flushed and her leg kicked up reprehensibly on the armrest.

“What on earth?”

He could not keep himself from going to her, looking down the hall for any sign of her friends or a servant who might have words to explain what he was seeing.

“Amelia?”

She sat up, albeit sloppily, and Richard’s eyes flared wide, his brows shooting up at the display.

“Your Grace!” She called out overloudly. “You’ve been to White’s and returned before one! I am most impressed.”

Amelia’s words slurred at the edges, and he feared that she was dreadfully foxed. How much had the troupe imbibed while he was out? Indeed, they could not have done more than Frederick and himself, and still, Amelia looked as if she might collapse at any moment.

“You are drunk as a wheelbarrow, Amelia. How much of the blue ruin did you take in? Ugh, you must know that there is no way to make a proper duchess out of you if you are spending all your time with Old Tom.”

Amelia giggled, tipping back on the couch clumsily. The ruffles of her skirt fluttered up, revealing more of her delicate white stockings, and Richard swallowed hard. It was an act of God that the woman was inside the home and not out of doors or hosting a drum of hers. This was not the state in which she should be comporting herself in public.

“It is a strangeness! I have been known to dip deep on occasion, even securing Isaac well-foxed before I was a trifle disguised. But this…I had but two!”

The boasting of Amelia’s claims was certainly a falsehood, and Richard was confident that his wife had had much more to drink than a simple two cups of choice. This was not the behavior of anyone with so little within them.

“Besides, why would I deign to have Old Tom filling me up when your fine performance still lingers heavy in my thoughts?”

Richard’s mouth fell open, the shock of Amelia’s words reaching the very heart of him. His wife had not so much as spoken about any of the interests between them, and now she was propositioning him for a return to their torrid affairs?

“Christ, woman, have you gone mad from the drink in your system?”

He shook his head, turning to leave Amelia to her device. He would retrieve a servant to look after her, but Richard would not entertain these ridiculous feats a moment longer. A foxed wife was hardly the sight to return home to.

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