Page 29 of Saved By the Rakish Duke

As she did so, she met his gaze accidentally and sighed, “Just say whatever it is you want to ask.”

“Hmm?” The duke blinked at her. “I wasn’t thinking of asking you anything, Lady Pen. Aside from whether you’d like me to have some water brought for you, of course.”

Her hand froze mid-air when she heard this. “It's a most uncharacteristic thing for you tonotbe poking your nose where it isn’t wanted, Your Grace. Did something happen to you as well?”

The duke let out a snort. “Always so suspicious of me.”

Gesturing to the bench, he asked whether he could join her. Leaning back comfortably, he continued, “In truth, I don’t need to ‘poke my nose where it isn’t wanted’ because I’ve had quite a few arguments with my mother in the past and well, I’d recognize the looks in both your eyes anywhere,” he sighed, looking skyward.

“It just came out of nowhere.” Penelope clasped her hands together. “I didn’t mean to upset her, but I was just so tired of watching her bear the blame for everything that was his fault to begi-”

Penelope stopped herself, but realized that it was most probably too late; she shared too much—that is, assuming that the dowager duchess hadn’t already told him what Penelope had shared in confidence before.

Likely sensing her apprehension, the duke awkwardly cleared his throat, “For what it’s worth, I think you’re completely right.”

Intrigued, Penelope shot him a perplexed look but when he didn't meet her gaze, she followed his line of sight and realized that he was watching a family of sparrows happily use the bird bath.

“After all, I'm sure you've noticed that I’m rather protective of my own mother as well,” he exhaled.

Penelope’s eyes drifted to the cloth mother had been embroidering as she replied through gritted teeth, “I should have protected her better whenhewas alive.”

“How do you mean?” The duke furrowed his eyebrows in worry. “Was he... a violent sort of man?”

“No, thank Providence.” Penelope scowled, looking down at her hands once more. “His problem was that he was too...friendly. I never confronted him about it because well, Mother never did. And even now that he’s gone, she’s doing exactly what she did when he was alive—locking herself away in her room to drown in her tears and sorrow.”

Turning her body a little away from him, Penelope angled her head to lean against the bench’s backrest. “I just wish I could understandwhyshe would put herself through so much for all those years.”

The duke let out a deep sigh. “For love, one can withstand even the most torturous of pains.”

She looked over her shoulder to find the duke had also similarly laid his head on the backrest and was looking straight into her eyes.

“Have...youbeen in love before, Your Grace?” She blinked at him.

With a snort, he answered, “Heavens no! And I thank Providence for that every day.”

Penelope rolled her eyes. “Then how do you know about withstanding ‘even the most torturous of pains’?” She turned to face him. “Come now, Your Grace, I’ve told you so many of my secrets, isn’t it fair that you share at least one of yours?”

He scanned their surroundings before finally letting out a sigh, “It’s not really a secret, but when I was younger, I called off an engagement with the Duke of Hollowston’s daughter.”

Penelope’s eyes widened, this must have happened either before or just immediately after she was out because she didn’t remember hearing about this at all. “Which one? Lady Amelia?”

“The very same,” he answered with a bitter smile. “Her father—understandably—took great offense because the engagement had already been announced four months prior and the wedding was barely two months away, so he made it his duty to warn thetonabout me.”

“But surely you didn’t call it off for something trivial, Your Grace,” Penelope gasped, “Didn’t you give him your reason?”

“I had one, of course,” His Grace averted his eyes, “but I knew explaining myself wasn’t going to make a difference, so I figured it would be smarter—and far less humiliating—if I kept it close to my chest instead.”

“What was it though?” Her curiosity prompted her to slide a little closer to him.

He cleared his throat, “Love, well, more accurately, the fear of love.” He also adjusted his posture, putting even less space between them now. “You see, my parents never had eyes for anyone other than each other. So, when I saw my mother being torn apart from her grief,” his voice began to sound constricted, “well, I decided to spare myself the pain while I still could.”

“Wasn’t it still painful to lose Lady Amelia, however?”

“No.” He shrugged. “Our fathers arranged it, and I went along out of convenience, but the longer you stay, the higher the risk of growing to love someone. So, I called it off.”

As he sat before her, bathed in speckles of the afternoon sun’s golden rays that found their way through the canopy of leaves, Penelope wished she could do more than sit here sympathetically.

If it were Graystone telling me this, I’d have no problem pulling him in for a hug.

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