Page 39 of Captured By the Cold Duke
A sneer began to creep across Rochford’s face. “Then you are even more foolish than I thought. And when I finally have accomplished my goals, you will realize that trusting the duke was the biggest mistake of your life.”
Before Cherie could respond, the door to the parlor opened, and Thomas strode in, a surprisingly serene look on his face.
“Ahh, Lord Rochford,” he said, smiling at the earl. “I heard that you had graced us with your presence.”
There was a tense silence, during which Cherie couldn’t look at her husband. Her heart was beating so wildly that she was sure he could hear it.Did he hear anything? Does he know what Lord Rochford proposed?
“Yes,” Rochford said at last. He glanced at Cherie one last time, and she looked away quickly, before turning to face the duke. “But I was just leaving.”
“Well then, let me show you out,” Thomas said. “There is some business concerning the estate I’d like to speak with you about anyway. Duchess, please excuse us.”
The two gentlemen left the room. The moment they were gone, Cherie felt her legs give way, and she collapsed onto the sofa, a million questions racing through her mind:What did Rochford mean about regretting trusting the duke? What were his insinuations about the duke not wanting to pass on his line? Did he really want to have an affair with her, or was that just revenge against the duke?
And then, of course, there was the question most pressing on Cherie’s mind:How can I really live the rest of my life not knowing the passion of a real marriage?
Fourteen
“What business do you have with me, Your Grace?” Lord Rochford asked, as they walked along the hallway that led to the front door. His tone was clipped and businesslike, even bored. “I was under the impression that ever since you decided to close down your father’s business, we have nothing more to discuss.”
“You will be compensated for your shares in the company,” Thomas said. “So you have nothing to worry about.”
He was speaking automatically, not really thinking through his words. This was not what he actually wanted to discuss with Rochford. But he couldn’t say anything until he knew they were out of earshot of his wife.
Rochford’s words were still burning in his ears:Isn’t this what you have always told people you wanted? A passionate affair? Well, I can give you that, Cherie.
And while Thomas was relieved his wife had so vehemently denied the earl, he still couldn’t rid himself of the raging jealousy and fury that currently consumed every inch of him.
Rochford, however, seemed unaware of the danger he was in, because he said coldly, “I was hoping to watch the business grow and expand for many years. At the price you are buying them for now, they are hardly worth more than when I got them. Not much return for a business that should have brought profits for years to come.”
Thomas glared at his cousin. The weasel had never created anything of his own; he had only ever wanted to profit off of Thomas’s and his father’s work. And now he had the audacity to be angry he could no longer reap unearned rewards from it?!
It was exactly what he’d tried to do with Cherie: steal something that didn’t belong to him, because it was easier than trying to build something himself.
“You are free to invest the money you get from the shares into your own business,” Thomas snapped. “But I will not keep an exploitative, unethical business afloat for years to come on the opposite side of the world, becauseyoufeel that you didn’t make enough money from it.”
Rochford didn’t respond, but the look on his face told Thomas that the earl had many unsavory responses he would like to make to this.
“Let us not discuss this here,” Thomas said, and he ushered Rochford into his study. “I do not want to bother my wife with the difficulties of our business affairs.”
“You don’t seem particularly interested in bothering your wife inanyway,” Rochford sneered, as he followed him into the study. The insinuation was not lost on Thomas.
He didn’t respond right away. Instead, he walked around to the back of his desk, so that the portrait he had commissioned upon the death of his father and his ascent to the duchy was right behind him. As much as Thomas didn’t always feel worthy of being the Duke of Wheaton, right now, he wanted the full power of his dukedom behind him.
“Speaking of my wife,” he began, in a cold, clear voice, “from now on, you will stay away from her.”
Rochford’s expression clouded slightly, and he stared at Thomas for a long time, saying nothing. The tension in the room built between them, electric current prickling, like the air before a lightning storm.
“Your wife is my relative now,” Rochford said at last. “There is no way I can stay away from her.”
“There is a way,” Thomas snarled, “and that way includes never coming to my home again, never speaking to my wife when you see her in public—in fact, never even looking at her. If you see her at a ball, you will turn and walk in the other direction. If youpass her on the street, you will look straight ahead and not make eye contact. If she tries to speak to you, you will become deaf.”
Rochford laughed. It was a cold, harsh laugh. “What are you so afraid of, Your Grace? Is my speaking to your wife really such a threat to your marriage?”
“Of course not,” Thomas said, too quickly. He knew what Rochford was doing, how he was trying to manipulate him, but he couldn’t help the fury that raged through him.
“Then why the defensiveness? If you were truly secure in the relationship, then there would be no need for any of this.”
“I HEARD YOU!” Thomas shouted. His temper, which he had been so much better at controlling ever since the death of his father, but which still lingered so close to the surface, suddenly burst from him. He slammed his fist down on his desk, knocking over one of the bottles of ink that was sitting on it. “I heard what you proposed to her! An affair?! Are you really so presumptuous, so disrespectful to me and my title, that you would try to seduce my wife in my own home?!”
