Page 31 of A Duke's Unwanted Bride
Her very round stomach.
Knowledge clicked into place in his mind and the words he heard next confirmed his suspicion.
“Martha!” a familiar voice called from behind him, and he whirled around to see Lady Adele sprinting towards him.The servant who made so much more than all the rest.
Adele’s eyes met his as the picture formed in his imagination. He glanced over his shoulder at the servant, but she was nowhere to be found.
He turned back to Lady Adele. Her face was deathly pale, her eyes wide as they darted between him and the space the servant had left.This is her secret.
“I think you have some explaining to do, Lady Adele.” He walked into the hallway. “And I intend to get some answers.”
Eleven
Iintend to get some answers
The Duke swept past Adele into the hallway, the scent of his cologne washing over her.
Adele’s heart skittered, but she could not tear her gaze from the Duke’s cold blue eyes. He had seen Martha, and only a fool would not notice that she was with child. Adele swallowed. A part of her wondered if she should go after the servant, but the rest of her knew it would do little good.
She chewed on her bottom lip and shook her head as she turned to face the Duke. “I think it would be best if we continued this conversation in a more private place, don’t you?”
The Duke nodded. Adele gestured to one of the nearby servants. “Would you please arrange some refreshments for His Grace and myself? I have a suspicion that this may take some time.”
The servant’s eyes flicked from Adele to the Duke, her lip curling slightly before she replied, “Of course.”
“I believe it is customary to use ‘My Lady’ when you speak to the mistress of the house.” The Duke’s voice was so cold it sent a shiver down Adele’s spine. “You would do well to show her the respect she deserves.”
“I am sure it was only a momentary slip.” Adele nodded to the servant, smiling at her.
She was not sure why she was defending the woman. She was one of the ones who seemed to delight in making snide remarks or conveniently ‘forgot’ to do things Adele had asked.
The servant turned towards her, face red as she said in cool tones that were just shy of a reprimand, “His Grace is right, My Lady, one should remember their place.”
Another thing for them to hold against me.She caught sight of the Duke’s eyes narrowing at the servant, his mouth open, as though he was going to say something more, and without thinking, she grabbed his hand and moved towards the drawing room.
She felt his muscles tense at her touch, but he did not pull away. The feel of his skin against her fingers made her heart beat a wild rhythm, and she swallowed.
“Thank you. You may leave us now.” She caught sight of the servant’s eyebrows raising at her contact with the Duke and hastily released him.
The damage had already been done.That is another mess I will have to clean, no doubt.The Duke was still frowning after the servant, and for a moment, Adele wondered if he was going to reprimand the woman. Her heart pounded, and she cleared her throat, gesturing to the door as she walked through it and into the drawing room.
The Duke followed her in, his eyes still lingering on the retreating servant’s back. Adele tugged at a loose thread on her dress as she flopped onto the sofa.
“Well, go on. We might as well get this over with. Tell me what a bad job I am doing of being a marchioness. Ridicule me for my inability to control my own staff.” She hated the way her voice trembled on the words.
“Do all the servants speak to you like that?” Duke Scarfield’s face was impassive as he sat across from her, and she noticed a tension in his jaw.
Adele shrugged. She knew she should deny it, that she should play the incident off as some kind of random occurrence, but even as she formed the words, they stuck in her throat. She thought of the growing coldness of their stares, the little sniping comments.
“Yes.” Her face burned, and she looked at the ground.
“They have no right to treat you like a usurper.” He thumped his fist into the palm of his hand. “Just because one of them is carrying my cousin’s child does not mean that they have any right to treat you with less respect than your station commands.”
“I — what?” Adele put a hand on her chest as though that might keep her pounding heart in place.
“The pregnant servant. The one I bumped into when I arrived. It is Rothwell’s child is it not?” His voice was more gentle than she had ever heard it, and the air of command that usually ran through his words was absent.
Every hair on her body stood on end. A bead of sweat trickled down her neck. The Duke’s eyes met hers, and she felt like a deer before a hunter.I should deny it, throw him off the scent.But she could not.
