Page 56 of In Need of a Duke
“Come to London then. Gabriel and I will be there for a fortnight, and it would be grand to have the three of us in the same room again.”
Charlotte fell back onto her mattress and stared up at the ceiling. Rainbows merrily danced across the room, giving her the illusion she was trapped in a jewelry box.
“I missed you, Kate. Come tell me all about your husband and your honeymoon and everything else about your life.”
“It’s not as if I haven’t written,” Kate said with a laugh, then joined her on the bed. “I am more concerned about you.”
“I am…”
“In love with your husband?”
Charlotte rolled her gaze over to her dearest friend and groaned. “I don’t know. I was certain I hated the man.”
“The same man who lay on the ground today, stung head to toe by honeybees while being attacked by a giant wolfhound? He’s growing a beard? And his clothes…”
“I burned his wardrobe in the bathtub.”
It started as a small chuckle before Kate’s laugh grew into a guffaw. “Well done, Duchess.”
“I find I can be full of surprises when I feel as if I am cornered.”
“Has he been kind to you?” Kate waved her hands above her as if dismissing the words that had been left unspoken. “Recently, I mean.”
Ian had been kind.
And he had remained, giving her hope. And perhaps that is what bothered her most of all. She didn’t want him to rob her of a happy future again. She had given him her heart once, and she wasn’t sure she had reclaimed all the pieces. They were somewhere scattered across Stonehurst and the rest of England.
“I barely know him now,” she said instead. “But he insists on staying, and I find myself deciding whether I’m in love with a ghost or falling for a stranger.”
“And he is refusing your request for a divorce?”
“No.”
Kate folded her arms over her stomach. “That doesn’t sound like the duke at all. Very perplexing. Maybe he’s seen the error in his ways. You are a very fine prize, my dear.”
“I thought women’s hearts weren’t prizes to be won. Or has having a husband made you change your mind?”
“Let me rephrase… you are the sweetest, most loyal person I know, and he had it right the first time when he asked for your hand. It’s a shame he had to mess that up.”
“I don’t know why… I mean, he has changed since my accident. And I wish to get to know him. He has tried, and I haven’t been open?—”
She suddenly felt the ghost of his hands on her hips, his breathwarm on her face from earlier. The memory of that angry kiss they shared…
“You need to seduce your husband, Lottie. You will never repair what has been broken by dancing around the damage. Run through it, bleeding hearts and all. Trust that is the only way you will know what you want.”
Charlotte groaned, rubbing her eyes. “I thought I was the one who gave the advice in this friendship.”
“Call it motherly instinct.”
“Hmm?”
“Lottie, I’m having a baby.”
CHAPTER 15
Ian scrubbed his face,certain he had fallen asleep sometime during dinner. But he had prevailed and fooled his guests that he was awake.
As Charlotte had instructed, he had been civil to Kate and her burly Scot of a husband, Gabriel. But it didn’t explain why his wife had sat at dinner with the fakest smile on her face. Or why the four later played whist, and Charlotte lost hand after hand.
