Page 6 of Claimed By the Duke of Ice

“Do not,” he growled, his voice laced with threat. “I understand the issue at hand, Aunt. But I won’t have boundaries violated simply because of your feelings on the matter.”

Aunt Tabitha shrunk back, but her eyes narrowed, and she sneered at him.

“You must do something, Nathaniel,” she hissed.

“And I will,” Nathaniel countered. “But I need a moment to think. Go. Wait for me in the carriage. I shall join you shortly.”

Aunt Tabitha looked at him furiously. “You cannot tell me what to do! I am—”

Nathaniel focused his eyes on her, his gaze deadly.

“I. Said. Go.”

Aunt Tabitha met his gaze, just as equally hate-filled as his, and nodded.

“We shall discuss it in the carriage then,” she agreed then walked away.

Finally alone, Nathaniel sank to the floor of the balcony, his emotions and body a wreck, and he worked to pull himself together.

CHAPTER FOUR

“It’s impossible,” Nathaniel murmured to himself, facing the flames dancing in the hearth of his office. The light outside was slowly dimming, the bright orange of the sunset slowly fading into purple through the windows. It had been a day since he’d met Miss Grace Rowley. A day since, for the first time since his mother’s death, he’d been able to touch someone without his retched symptoms. How had she done it? Was it a trick of some sort? He couldn’t figure it out.

Behind him, his office door opened, and he sat up as he heard his aunt’s familiar voice break through the silence. He turned to look at her and saw the disappointment still written all over her face. It was only then he remembered that he’d been caught in an unfortunate position, and his duty required action.

“I have tried so very hard to help you, Your Grace,” Aunt Tabitha said, her voice fringed with rage.

“I know you have,” Nathaniel sighed, wishing he didn’t have to focus on yesterday’s scandal. He wanted desperately to use his time and thought to figure out why touching Grace hadn’t affected him instead. Why, instead of making him repulsed, had it made him become at ease—more so than ever before? He’d never kissed a woman before yesterday, but no one, not even his aunt, knew that.

“Yesterday was…unfortunate,” he continued, “for all involved.”

“Unfortunate?” Aunt Tabitha hissed, followed by a hollow laugh. “Your Grace, it is much more than unfortunate. By next week, the talk will have reached the entirety of London’s society, and you’ll be branded as a rake.”

At this, Nathaniel chortled. He was many things but a rake? You can’t be such a thing if you can’t even bear to touch another.

Obviously annoyed with his reaction, Aunt Tabitha groaned and began pacing in front of him. It was clear that she was distraught, and Nathaniel felt for her. But try as he might, he couldn’t muster up her level of disappointment. He was too fascinated by what had happened.

“Could you take this more seriously, please? I have already set up some appointments with some of the other less popular ladies and their mothers,” Aunt Tabitha continued. “I shall begin meeting with them in the morning. By Monday, I will have you a wife. She might not meet your particular requirements, but with everything going on, you shall have to take what you can get.”

She pressed her hand to her stomach as if she might be sick. “Oh, your mother would have wanted better for you than this, my boy, but I’m afraid I did the best I could.”

Hearing the mention of his mother, Nathaniel stood and approached his aunt. He attempted to take her hand, but the moment he did, his arms began to go numb, and he quickly dropped them to his sides. It was clear that what he’d experienced with Grace the day before had yet to extend to others.

“I know you have done your best to do right by me, Aunt,” he replied emphatically. “And I am grateful. But you needn’t worry about my future wife. I have found the woman I intend to marry.”

For a moment, a look of elation passed over his aunt’s face. Then, as understanding dawned on her, it was replaced with worry, and she began to adamantly shake her head.

“No, you most certainly do not mean you intend to marry Grace Rowley,” she stated gravely.

“Indeed, I do,” Nathaniel replied calmly. “In the short moments before our little scandal, I found her character to be most refreshing. And I am truthful when I say she was attempting to save me from my fall. I don’t believe any other woman here would be willing to do that; they are all too wrapped up in their properness and poise. It was only my sheer weight that pulled her down with me. The least I can do is save her some grace by giving her the protection of a marriage.”

“You speak naively, Nathaniel,” Aunt Tabitha countered quickly. “You don’t know that scandal has already touched this woman’s family.”

“Actually, she did mention such yesterday, but she didn’t offer the specifics,” Nathaniel mused. “Pray, what are they?”

Aunt Tabitha gave him an exhausted look, but she took a seat and began to tell him of all that had befallen Grace’s family name.

“She is the daughter of a viscount, you see,” she began, “which would be fine if his eldest daughter had not chosen to marry a commoner! Some printer or such thing, barely above a beggar, really. But that is not the only issue! As if bad luck had been cursed upon them, the Viscount himself made a bad investment not long after the scandalous marriage, and he all but lost the family’s entire fortune.”

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