Page 71 of Duke of Seduction

Yes.

“I do not know,” Helena replied. “I-I love when we are together. He is a different person. Not the comic he so obviously plays in front of you. He takes me seriously.”

“Itake you seriously,” Ambrose quickly replied, and when she glared at him, he glanced away with a pained look.

“Not seriously enough, I suppose,” he muttered. “You tried to tell me you wanted to wait for love, but I paid no attention. You had just grown so… unhappy, it seemed, as we all coupled up. I thought that if you were wed you would find the happiness we have.”

“Would Barbara have been happy if she had given in to being married to the other lord vying for her hand?” Helena asked. “Would you have been happy?”

“No,” Ambrose murmured, a pained look skittering across his face. After working up the courage to look at her again, he asked, “tell me what happened.”

Helena gave him the details that mattered, including her yearning for experience, the list she had created, and her push for Morgan to be her teacher. She told him how Morgan had first refused, and how she had convinced him to do it. She was grateful that Ambrose did not ask for the specific items on her list.

“I knewsomethingwas going on,” Ambrose sighed when she finished. “Morgan had been acting so strangely. I thought his over-protectiveness was like mine, but clearly I was wrong.”

He sounded hurt, and for the first time, Helena lifted her eyes to him.

“He is still your best friend, Ambrose,” she insisted quietly. “That will never change.”

He slowly nodded and looked at her.

“And you? What is he to you?” He asked. “A brother? Or something more?”

Her silence seemed to be enough of an answer, and Ambrose only nodded.

“I am sorry,” he went on after a while. “For pushing Luke onto you. For not looking into him further.”

“You wanted what was best for me,” Helena replied with a soft smile, “Like you always have.”

“Always,” Ambrose replied meaningfully, the smallest smile touching his lips.

“This time you were simply wrong.”

Ambrose let out a weak laugh at her jest.

“I was awful. I almost forced you to be his wife. And when Luke lunged for you, I was not there,” he replied.

Helena winced as she thought back to the moment she had pushed Luke and heard his head crack against the floor. For a moment, she had been sure she had killed him. She did not even believe she had the strength to make him stumble. And yet, when she had pushed him with all of her remaining might, he had sailed backwards like a kite.

He would live, but only in the barest form of the definition. Now that a few hours had passed and a physician was able to take a better look at Luke, they had stated that his quality of life — and length of life — were now severely limited and he’d need full nursing care. A luxury neither Helena nor Ambrose were sure that the Crown’s arm of justice would be willing to supply. He could no longer walk. No longer talk. He could only lie there, and stare back silently. It was worse than death, Helena thought.

“You acted in self-defense; you will not even have to suffer a day in court for this, Helena, I swear to you.”

“I nearly killed him,” she rasped.

“He was trying to kill you,” Ambrose retorted coldly. “Hewaspoisoning you. He deserved worse.”

Helena winced and looked down at the floor.

“Please,” he continued, when she did not respond. “How can I make this up to you?”

“Let me marry in my own good time,” Helena stated, her answer both clear and immediate. “IfI choose to marry.”

“Done,” Ambrose stated quickly. “I will buy whatever property you want. I will support you in whatever manner you wish, even if it is the life of spinster.”

“And,” Helena pressed forward, “you need to forgive Morgan. For hiding my secret from you, and everything else.”

Silence filled the room again as Ambrose struggled to accept her final request.

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