Page 79 of Her Lion of a Duke
“I am perfectly fine, I assure you.”
“Nonsense. There are dark circles under your eyes, and you are withdrawn. What has happened?”
“Nothing that I wish to discuss,” Leonard uttered, taking a seat and ordering his first drink.
His friends exchanged a look.
He knew that they were concerned about him, but he hoped that they would not press the issue. He wanted everything to be normal and not about his troubles. He wanted to know how he felt about it all before he discussed it.
Unfortunately, his friends were not of the same mind.
By his fourth drink, Morgan snatched his glass and covered it with his hand.
“It seems you want to drown your sorrows,” he said gently, “but I would rather you share them with us.”
“I do not want to trouble you.”
“We will be more troubled if you keep drinking like this, I can assure you.”
Leonard let out a resigned sigh. He cleared his throat before recounting what had happened.
His friends’ faces fell upon hearing that Cecilia had been behind it all along, as if they did not believe him. He did not blame them. Had he been in their shoes, he would not have believed it either.
“I always thought that she was opinionated,” Levi said, “but I never would have expected her to do all of that.”
“You must not tell a soul,” Leonard insisted. “The ton cannot discover Felix Gray’s real identity, or else we will be ruined.”
“Of course. We will not tell anyone.”
“Including your wives.”
At that, his friends looked uneasily at one another. They told their wives everything, and Leonard knew that. He had thought that he and Cecilia were the same until the previous night.
Even if they promised him that they would keep the secret, he knew they would eventually tell their wives. It was better that he did not pressure them.
“Fine, you can tell your wives,” he said begrudgingly. “But they will never do anything to harm Cecilia.”
“They would be concerned about her, and rightfully so,” Morgan countered. “Where is she now?”
“She is home, I presume. I have not seen her today, but if she has acknowledged her mistake, she is likely hiding away in her room. I suppose that I will return home, we will avoid one another, and she will do what she pleases.”
“But you will not send her away?”
“Where would she go? I am angry, but I am not cruel. Pridefield Manor is her home, should she still want it to be.”
His two friends looked at one another, and then they continued as they were.
Leonard knew that he would have to see Cecilia again and speak to her, and he wondered how best to go about it. If he wanted peace, he could simply apologize and agree that she had not done anything wrong, and then swallow his anger until he forgot.
But he did not want that. He wanted her to understand how he felt, even if she disagreed, and thus far she did not. She saw things the way she did and was unwilling to try to see them in any other way.
He realized that he was being much the same.
“I am concerned about Lady Beatrice,” Levi spoke suddenly, changing the subject. “She has yet to marry, and Emma says that her loneliness is affecting her.”
“I thought you were staying in London to chaperone her?” Leonard asked.
“Indeed, but Lady Beatrice has insisted that we return. She says that she does not need to be watched over. That was what caught Emma by surprise, for she never would have spoken like that before.”
