Page 19 of Captured By the Cold Duke
The knock on his study door surprised Thomas, and he looked up from the paperwork he had been poring over, his eyes a bit out of focus.
How long have I been working?He rubbed his eyes, yawned, and stretched.What time is it anyway?
But he’d only just glanced at the clock by the door when the knock sounded again.
“Come in, come in,” Thomas said hurriedly.
The door creaked open, and to Thomas’s surprise, his wife appeared in the doorway.
“Cherie!” he said, forgetting, in his shock, that she didn’t like it when he called her by her given name. “What are you doing here?”
“May I come in?” she asked, looking dubious.
“Of course, of course.” He stood, and she entered the room slowly, looking tentatively around as she did. Her eyes took in a few of the things he had brought home from India, and they widened into pools of silver.
“That’s akirpan,” he said, as he watched her gaze at the small curved sword with the elaborately decorated sheath that sat on a blue velvet pillow near the door. “It is carried by Sikh men, wrapped in cloth and always worn sheathed, in order to symbolize the Sikh’s duty to stand up to injustice wherever he goes.”
Cherie’s lips parted slightly. “It’s beautiful.”
“Yes,” Thomas agreed. “It is. The craftsmanship is of the highest level, and it is of great value as well. But of course, I would never sell it.”
“Why not?”
Thomas stood and joined her in front of the kirpan. They both gazed down at it for a moment, and Thomas was filled with a sudden nostalgia. He rarely missed India, but he did miss Raj. “It was given to me by my dear friend Raj.”
Cherie blinked up at him, surprised. “Your friend would give you something of such immense value?”
“Well, it was after I stood up for him and other Sikhs who were being discriminated against because of their religion. Sikhism is not the most common in India, and they face unfair laws and biases.”
Cherie nodded as if she understood this. “He gave it to you because he saw you stand up for injustice,” she said. “He sees you as a Sikh—in spirit, at least.”
Thomas stared at her, suddenly at a loss for words. “I think you must be right,” he said at last. “I had never thought about it that way. My assumption at the time was that it was merely his way of saying thank you.”
“It was deeper than that,” she said softly. Tears pricked Thomas’s eyes, and he swallowed the lump that was rising in histhroat. How could I never have realized the deeper meaning of the gift?
It astonished and humbled him that Cherie had seen it.
“That was a difficult time for me,” Thomas explained, “and my friend Raj was very helpful in getting me to see the bigger picture.”
“Why was it such a hard time for you?” Cherie asked, and when she blinked up at him, she actually looked curious.
“I had just returned to India from England, and I was terribly homesick. It was the trip where we met at the tea house, do you remember? I’d wanted to stay in England very badly. I’d asked my father if I could set up our house in London and find a wife, but he refused.”
“I remember that,” Cherie said. “That trip to the tea house. You asked me when I thought my brother would let me make my debut.”
“Yes,” Thomas said, smiling slightly.I wanted to know when I could officially court you, he didn’t say out loud. “And then I didn’t see you again until I returned from India earlier this Season.”
Cherie looked softer and more forgiving than she had in a long time as she turned to him and laid a bare hand on his sleeve. “I didn’t realize you had such a difficult time in India. But I’m glad,at least, that you had good friends there to comfort you. And I hope you know you were dearly missed.”
“I was?” Thomas had once nurtured a crush on Cherie, but India and his father’s words had withered it at the roots. Or so he’d thought. But now, as he looked down into her eyes, he felt it stir.
“Indeed,” she said, more briskly, and her hand dropped to her side. “We were friends, then, or don’t you remember? Before you hoodwinked me into marriage.”
“Cherie—”
“I’m only jesting,” she said quickly. “I actually came here today to offer an olive branch.”
“Oh?” Thomas returned to his desk and settled behind it, while his wife took the seat opposite him. “And what exactly is this olive branch?”
