Page 100 of The Duke's Impossible Deal
She felt the tears threaten to spill over, but she forced them back. She did not want to cry, not again. She glanced out the window at the dark sky beyond. She had no idea what time it was, but she decided to check on the twins.
She paused outside the small room they were all sharing, took a deep breath, and gently opened the door.
Alistair and Georgie were both curled up in the bed they were sharing, eyes tight shut and covers tucked around them. Thesight made her heart stutter, and as she moved towards them, her candle flickering, she noticed sheets of paper on the desk.
“What is this?” Rowen muttered, moving towards the letters and carefully picking them up.
Her eyes fell on the words, and she felt her heart twist and her stomach lurch. The first letter had the words ‘Dear Tobias’ and ‘Dear Father’ crossed out and rewritten multiple times. Apparently, her children had not been able to settle on the correct form of address. She continued reading and felt her heart speed up.
I’ve been really good over the past few days, and I’m focusing extra hard on all my lessons. I am trying to be brave, but I miss you. I can tell Mother is sad, and her heart hurts. If I promise to do anything you want, will you let us come home so we can be a family again?
Love, Alistair.
The other letter was from Georgie, and it pretty much said the same. With each word Rowen read, her heart broke a little bit more.
How is there anything left of me to break?
Her children missed Tobias; she knew that much even before she had seen the letters. After all, they asked nearly every day when he would visit them and if perhaps he had sent them aletter. And every day, she had to give them answers that she knew would break their little hearts.
The air felt stifling as she carefully put the letters back where she had found them. “I should never have let them get so attached to him.”
Rowen left the room, her footsteps echoing through the corridor. She glanced outside. The sky was brightening. She pulled on a coat and boots and decided that a walk was just what she needed to clear her head.
Her breath plumed in front of her, and the biting breeze tugged at her thick coat. Snow crunched beneath her feet. It blanketed the world around her, covering everything in a thick layer of white as far as the eye could see.
She stumbled once or twice, nearly falling into a snow drift that was deeper than it had seemed at first glance. “What am I supposed to do now?”
The sun was rising as she continued her steady climb up the hill. Her breath came out in thicker puffs of fog, but she kept going.
“I thought he was different. I thought this time, things would be different.” She stumbled again, and this time, she lost her balance and fell into the snow.
The scent of cedar and pine surrounded her as she pushed herself to her feet.
“I wish he would stop haunting me.”
She looked up and saw a figure standing a little way away from her. He was sitting astride a large white horse, with a woolen hood pulled over his head.
Rowen’s heart leapt, but she had ‘seen’ Tobias so many times in the days since she had left Kidlington House that she knew better than to get her hopes up.
Snow was starting to fall, and for a moment, she thought she heard her name on the wind. But surely that was just her imagination.
“Rowen.” It was Tobias’s voice.
Rowen shook her head, looking back to where she had seen his figure only moments ago.
It was still there, but it had changed. Instead of sitting astride the horse, the figure was walking beside it, clearly leading it towards her.
“Rowen!” Tobias called again, and she froze.
He is really here.
He was nearly level with her. She could see his disheveled hair and the faint line of stubble on his jaw. His traveling clothes were wrinkled, as though he had spent a day and a night in them.
“What are you doing here?” Rowen kept her expression neutral, her voice just as cold as the snow around them.
Tobias froze, his green eyes wide. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Then you have wasted a journey. I have no wish to talk to you.”
