Page 17 of Her Lion of a Duke
Cecilia smiled as she read the letter, then refolded it neatly and placed it in a drawer. It gave her the reassurance she needed to know that she had married for a good cause. Clara was at last receiving the recognition she deserved, and that was something to be happy about.
It made greeting Leonard much easier, at least. Cecilia found him in the parlor, sitting on the settee with a drink. She hovered in the doorway for a moment, not wanting to intrude.
“I shall invite my friends to visit soon,” she explained. “Shall I tell Emma that she can bring Levi with her?”
“That would be wonderful. Dorothy may bring her husband, too. Their children also, if you wish. Will it be for a day or a week?”
“A week would be nice. How long are we supposed to wait? I do not know how long a honeymoon should last.”
“Ask them to come visit next week. I could invite them for you, if you wish.”
“Oh, no, that will not be necessary. Thank you, though. I will also invite my cousin, but that may have to wait for a while. She is too occupied with the gentlemen throwing themselves at her.”
“Wonderful. If she has too much to do, we could always return to London. I certainly would not mind leaving this place.”
Cecilia could see in his eyes that he did not want to remain there for too long. It was strange, for it was his family home. If anything, she should have been the one longing to leave, as it was not her real home. However, she was quickly adjusting to her new life while he seemed desperate to escape it.
“May I ask you something?” she asked, moving to sit beside him.
“Of course.”
“Why do you hate this house?”
“I do not hate it.”
She raised an eyebrow at him, and he smiled sadly.
“Very well,” he sighed. “I do not like being here. I know it could be a beautiful home, and it once was, but now I look at it and remember my family. My mother died here; I was in the room with her when it happened. My father was the same.”
Cecilia gasped softly, biting her lip. “I am sorry. That must have been awful.”
“We knew that it was going to happen. They were unwell. My brother carried on as though nothing had happened, and he encouraged me to do the same, but I could not. I would look into their rooms and remember everything, and it would paralyze me. I hated it, and in turn, it made me hate this house.”
They both fell quiet for a moment, Cecilia not knowing what to say. Then, she tentatively reached out a hand to tap his thigh, smiling at him sympathetically.
“We could leave,” she suggested, “if you do not have any good memories of this place.”
“No, it is our home,” he replied firmly. “I just need to find some good in it.”
“We can arrange that,” she promised.
And, despite everything, she meant it.
CHAPTER 6
Leonard wondered if Cecilia was what his household had been missing all along.
She had undoubtedly changed since their wedding, but he supposed that he had also changed. Everything was different between them, but he hoped that was only temporary and that things would soon return to the way they had always been. He did miss having her as his friend and nothing else, but he was pleased that he had someone to talk to.
“I was thinking,” he began at breakfast, “that you might like to accompany me into the village this afternoon?”
She looked at him curiously, clearly interested in his proposition. “Is it not too soon? Surely the villagers are not expecting to see me yet.”
“Then they shall be all the more glad to meet you. I do not want you to feel like a prisoner here.”
“I do not feel that way,” she replied, but he noticed how she shifted in her seat.
Leonard was not deliberately trying to isolate her because he knew she was spirited, and he did not want to change that, but he had not tried to have her leave the estate on her own. He wished that she would tell him how she felt, as hiding her thoughts from him was not something she had ever done.
