Page 32 of Captured By the Cold Duke
“My friends will be here this afternoon,” Cherie said as she sat down at the breakfast table next to him. “They are coming over to play a board game. And Minerva is bringing Lady Chastity.”
“Ahh.” Thomas set down his newspaper, which he had been pretending to read as his wife came into the breakfast room and dished herself up eggs and toast. “Is Lady Chastity much recovered from her trial last weekend?”
“She is much better than she was,” Cherie said. “Although still a little shaken. Actually, it was Samantha's idea that we invite her so that she would have some distraction from everything that happened.”
“That was very thoughtful of her.” He observed his wife closely. She was sitting closer to him than she usually sat at breakfast, and her cheeks appeared to be a little bit pink.
Is she unwell?There didn't seem to be any other reason that his wife would be flushed in his presence.Perhaps she got up early and went for a ride this morning?But he had never known Cherie to go riding early in the morning. Usually, she liked to sleep in.
“Yes, it was.” She fell silent, her gaze falling into her lap. There was a long moment, during which she said nothing and didn’t even eat. Then she looked back up.
“And you, Your Grace? Are you much recovered as well?”
Thomas raised an eyebrow. “I am afraid that after you used my given name last weekend, you are stuck using it now. I will not accept you reverting to formality.”
Cherie’s mouth twisted, and he was sure she was trying not to smile. “I spoke your name in a moment of heightened emotion,” she pointed out. “You cannot hold that against me!”
“Oh, but I can,” he said, smiling wickedly. “And I will.”
She laughed, and his heart sped up. The sound of her laughter had been rare ever since they had married, but he loved hearing it more than anything on earth.
“And to answer your question: yes, I am much recovered. It turns out I didn’t break all the bones in my hand, I am simply out of practice when it comes to punching villainous viscounts. My hip, as well, is healed.”
“And your jaw?”
“I won’t be eating any hard candies anytime soon,” he observed, and she smiled slightly. “But I suppose I can live without them. And you?” He leaned towards her, gazing into her eyes to try and gauge her emotions. “Are you much recovered from last weekend?”
“Me?” Cherie looked surprised. “I’m not the one that was assaulted by Lord Dawson. Nor did I have to fight him.”
“That doesn’t mean you weren’t affected by it,” Thomas pointed out. “It was a frightening ordeal for you as well. Both you and Lady Minerva suffered greatly, even if you weren’t the one who was attacked. And you both acted with great bravery.”
Cherie bit her lip. “Minerva’s sister was the one who suffered. I don’t want to put myself forward…”
“Nor have you,” Thomas said. “We have not even discussed the events of last weekend.”
And it was true. Over the last few days, Cherie had been keeping mostly to her room, except to make trips to the Berrymoore house to check on Lady Chastity, and she had been taking dinner in her room. Thomas had checked on her frequently but hadn’t yet brought up what had happened with Lord Dawson. She hadn’t seemed ready to talk about it.
“Well, I didn’t really want to think about it…” she said quietly. “I just wanted to put it from my mind.”
“That makes sense. But I think it’s good to talk about it as well.”
Cherie nodded. “I’m doing all right, I think,” she said at last. “It was disturbing, though, what Lord Dawson did.”
“Yes,” Thomas agreed heavily. “I found it disturbing as well.”
“I knew that gentlemen could be untrustworthy, of course. And I’ve had my own problems with gentlemen in the past.”
“You alluded to as much when we were looking for Lady Chastity.” Thomas waited a moment, then leaned forward. “Did something happen in the past?”
“Nothing like what Lord Dawson did,” she said quickly. “But you know, I wasn’t always a wallflower.”
“You? A wallflower?” Thomas snorted.There is no way a woman as beautiful as Cherie was a wallflower.
She raised an eyebrow. “No, really. I was.”
“But… how is that possible?”
“Several of the men who courted me early in my first Season were vile old men who were looking for nothing more than abroodmare..” Her eyes clouded with anger. “Of course, I told them I wasn’t interested and even gave a few of them a piece of my mind.”
