Page 52 of The Rakish Duke and His Bride
“How could you ruin your marriage to the Duke? And with a mere dog trainer? Have you taken leave of your senses?”
Nancy did not expect that she would have to defend herself again so soon, to her mother of all people, but she would not let the slander pass.
“I did no such thing. That sheet is filled with nothing but lies!”
“Was that why you stayed away from him last night during the ball? Because you had already given yourself to another?” her mother challenged.
“Mama!” Nancy cried in outrage, breathing heavily.
“Mama, that’s not fair—” Beatrice protested.
“Be quiet. This does not concern you, Beatrice,” Georgiana snapped.
“Beatrice, take Anne and Dash out with you. I will be with you shortly,” Nancy gritted out, barely containing her hurt and anger.
Beatrice looked as though she wanted to protest but thought against it, instead leading her little sister and the puppy out of the drawing room. Nancy waited until the door had closed behind them before speaking again.
“I did not expect you to believe gossip over your own daughter, Mama. I was not unfaithful to my husband. I would never?—”
“You expect me to blindly believe you? You never wanted to marry him in the first place. And I begged you to think of me—of us, your family with nothing. Did you have to be so selfish? To risk all our reputations and foolishly ruin all our chances of survival?” the Dowager Marchioness shouted with a mean glare.
“What about me?” Nancy screamed back. “Am I not your family? Have you ever once stopped to think about my feelings and well-being, other than seeing me as a passage to the life of comfort you desire for yourself and my sisters?”
“From the start, you have pushed and pushed me into this marriage, never stopping to advise me on the things that mattered, and even after I did everything in my power to sustain it, this marriage that mattered more to you than I did still crumbled. And you are willing to believe it was my fault, no matter how many times I tell you that I did not—I would never do that.”
Tears were streaming down her face now, flowing uncontrollably as her throat constricted painfully.
She struggled to breathe, lowering her voice slightly as she said, “Father would have understood. He wouldn’t have let me put my happiness aside like that, wouldn’t have married me off to a stranger for his comfort. I wish he was here instead of you!”
Without another word, she turned away from her mother and left the drawing room.
* * *
There was something to be said about how the loneliness that Richard thought he had been familiar with for so long seemed heavier after Nancy’s departure.
It made no sense to him how quickly he had gotten so close to her, how spellbound he had become by her scent and voice, how cold his hands felt without her smooth skin beneath them.
Although he had reacted unemotionally to the news of her leaving the castle, there had been a twinge of hurt in his chest that grew with every passing moment he sat dwelling on the knowledge that, once more, he had been abandoned.
The fault was no one else’s but his own for failing to realize that his father had been right all along. He was truly unlovable and unworthy of any sort of high regard.
It had been foolish of him to momentarily believe otherwise, and the best thing he could do for himself was to never forget the actions that had brought him to this point.
“There was… no use, trying to change. I… never should have tried at all,” he grumbled, refilling his glass of whiskey.
The dim lighting in his study and his blurry vision made him feel pathetic, rather than dismissive of his predicament, but he did not know how to do anything else other than sit and drink.
All alone. Like he was meant to be.
As he lowered the bottle to the table, his ears heard something.
It sounded like… scratching… at his door.
Momentary clarity bled through his drunken haze, and he shot to his feet quickly, regretting it moments later when he was hit with a dizzy spell. He took a few seconds to regain his balance before hurrying to the door with a hopeful prayer on his lips.
But when he flung it open, there was nothing but a dark hallway waiting for him.
For a moment… he had thought that he heard Dash, had believed that Nancy had returned.
