Page 60 of The Duke's Impossible Deal
Tobias tilted his head towards her, his eyes boring into her face as though he were searching for something. “I am glad. And the children enjoyed themselves?”
“Yes.” Rowen turned away from him, her mind going back to the sleeping twins.
Their sleep looked restful at least.
She swirled the contents of her glass and took another sip. The burn of the liquid was a welcome distraction. She could not talk to him about the play; she did not even know what she would say.
“A husband is not just for warming one’s bed at night.”
Adele’s words echoed in her mind, and she frowned.
Tobias helped himself to another biscuit. “Well, you should make use of the box more often, in that case. I believe they are doing a showing of Twelfth Night in a few weeks—that is my favorite of the Bard’s works.”
“Really?” She turned back to him.
“Of course. His histories are interesting but scarcely of interest to me, and why watch a tragedy when the world is tragicenough?” Tobias shrugged, and Rowen heard the lightness fade from his words.
“Twelfth Night always makes me think of the twins.” She chewed on her own biscuit, thinking of Alistair and Georgie. “They have not done it for a while, but they used to take one another’s places. More often, Georgie would pretend to be Alistair and attend his lessons. I used to worry that perhaps one day she would decide she did not want to go back to being Georgie.”
She did not look at Tobias as she said it. She waited for him to recoil from her. She expected him to say that she was being ridiculous. Her heart sped up, and her fingers tightened around her glass.
“She would not be the first person to do so. Nor the last, I imagine. And such things are less complicated when you are not the firstborn.” His words drew her gaze back to him, and she found his expression was thoughtful.
Her eyes widened, and she leaned towards him. “What do you mean?”
“Every now and then, you hear of such a story. A family goes to the Continent with a son and returns with a niece. Or they go with a daughter and return with a nephew.” Tobias popped another biscuit in his mouth. “There was a boy at Oxford with such a nature, and I even served with a soldier on the front—Patrick—who wished to fight for king and country.”
Rowen’s heart sped up. She searched his face, looking for any sign of revulsion or mirth, but there was nothing.
He is serious.
Then, she remembered the stories she had read, and her blood turned to ice.
“When such things are discovered, it often leads to ruin.”
She thought of all the things the ton had said about the people who had done those things. She imagined Georgie on the receiving end of such vileness, and her hand shook.
“Such people are reviled by the ton. People scarcely talk about Charles Hamilton without curling their lips—I already see the way they judge Georgie.”
For a moment, she thought Tobias was going to take her hand in his, and she tensed at the thought. Instead, he ran a hand through his hair.
Rowen felt a twinge in her chest, but whether it was relief or disappointment, she could not be sure.
“People judge what they do not understand, yet they respect power. Eccentricities are permitted if one understands how to bend the rules and has power behind them.”
Tobias sounded as though he was choosing each of his words carefully, and when Rowen turned to face him fully, his lips had pressed into a thin line, his eyes hard and serious.
“I swore I would protect you and the children. I will never let anything happen to them, and whatever any of you need to be happy, I will make sure it is yours.”
“That is easy enough to say.” Rowen’s heart ached.
How can I trust that you will honor your vows when the full fury of the ton is directed at my daughter? She is not even your own flesh and blood.
The late Earl had not even protected his own daughter. What hope was there that Tobias would?
“I know. Words are cheap, but actions are not. I do not expect you to take me at my word, Rowen.” Tobias’s eyes drifted over her face. “But I hope that in time, you will see the truth of them.”
There was a beat of silence that stretched out until Rowen could not help but shift in her chair. A part of her wanted to believe him, but she had put her trust in the wrong person before.
