Page 45 of The Duke's Lesson in Love

Sadie gasped, easing away to hold his gaze. “Your parents did this to you?”

“My parents cared about reputation and bloodlines. Politics and what their name represented. My sole purpose was to carry on their legacy. Nothing more, and I failed.”

“That can’t be true, Gill. I’m sure they loved—”

He pressed a finger to her mouth. “They did not possess one parental bone in their body, I assure you. They had me for no other reason than to control what became of Montdale House, nothing more. My mistake was in telling them I was in love. They whipped me with the first leather riding crop they found until I passed out.”

“I am truly sorry that your first experience with love was unforgivably painful.”

“Sometimes I hear the snap of the crop as it whips the air. Taste the sting as it hits my skin.”

“It will never go away, will it?” She pressed her forehead into his chest.

He hoped.He prayed that with time and their new beginning, the memory would fade and the only balm he needed was his family. Now that she knew, Gill wanted to tell her everything. “I woke days later to Mary, my valet, and the stable master tending me.”

“What of Layra?”

“She was gone and by the fall, I was in school at Cambridge.”

“And Caleb?”

Gill shook his head.

“He promised to help you,” Sadie said, anger weighing her voice.

“Months later, Caleb sent letters claiming he had tried to find Layra, but was unsuccessful. The one summer I returned home, my cousin had changed and had become close to my parents.”

“Why? Especially after knowing what they did to you, their son.”

“It wasn’t until after my parents’ accident that I found out about the promises they made to Caleb. They paid for his schooling and introduced him to society.”

“He betrayed you,” Sadie said, the words that had chilled his heart for six years.

He tilted her chin. “You were wrong. Layra was a lesson in trust, not love. I know now those feelings were not so deep. As painful as it is to admit, she was playing her part, using me for her own escape.”

Her eyes clouded, and he swiped a tear that leaked from the corner. When another came, he kissed it. Gill would kiss all of them because they were tears of sympathy, sorrow, and heartache. They were tears for him.

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