Page 89 of Duchess Material

“No, they don’t. They chased Lucy. They have linked Lucy and I and now claim that I broke you up.”

“Oh, so this is about you, then, not Luce?”

“No,” Winston said, already wanting to lose his mind.

“Well, then what is it?”

“It’s not me. The press can call me dozens of names and I will just let it go, Georgie. No, it’s Lucy. She is mortified. She feels she’s being punished. She feels like she’s a marked woman because it looks like she was up to something. I can assure you, George, we weren’t up to anything. Lucy has never been anything but loyal. There isn’t a bone in her body that—”

George cut him off with a terse, “I know, Winston.”

“Then… can you do something?”

“Do what? Make things worse for Lucy? Mate, what would you have me do? I could ring the Mail tomorrow and say ‘hello, yes, I’d just like to know that I dumped Lucy because I saw an unhappy future with her. My cousin decided my second pickings were his best bet and he took full advantage of me fleeing the country.’ Yer?”

“George, that’s not completely accurate—”

“Did you not go for what I cast aside or what? This is just getting back at me for what? Two girls you believe I stole out from under you.”

“You’re being a dick, George. She’s… Lucy is a wonderful human.”

“She is. I never said she wasn’t. But you and I went round and round before about this—even before Lucy.”

In university, George and Winston had gotten into it over a girl. After a bit of a row, they both went to their separate corners and nothing serious happened between George and the girl. George was reading much too much into this.

“And you were apparently thirsting over her for years. I was the last to know, I guess. You never once made a move? I don’t believe you.”

“Of course not! George, I was in love with her. I also would never do that to you. I swear that I tried to avoid all of this, but I do love her. She loves me. We are happy.”

“Then why do you care what I do?”

“Because I am watching her suffer because a man she loved and trusted never stuck his neck out for her—”

“And she never stuck hers out for me!”

“George, there is a massive power imbalance there. First, she has stuck by your entire family in time of crisis.”

“That’s her job. I never said she wasn’t a good person. I tried very hard to make sure she had some level of stability before I left. I was never unkind to her while we were separating. Nor am I being unkind now. Talking to the press will not work, Winston. It will prolong things for her.”

“She could have left! She could have made more money talking to the press. She wouldn’t do that.”

“I don’t see the power imbalance.” George was playing daft.

“Don’t be petty here, George. You know what I mean. You were the heir to the throne. She was a girl who grew up on the wrong side of town. She got lucky with a scholarship and remade her life in Britain as a social chameleon.”

“Winston?”

Winston turned to see Lucy standing there, looking bewildered. How much of this conversation had she heard?

“Um… gotta go,” Winston said, hanging up.

“You think I’m… I’m just from the wrong side of town? That’s how you see me? Like a project?”

“Oh, Lulu, no,” Winston said nervously. “I never thought that about you. I was explaining to—”

“You were talking to someone about how out-of-it I am? How much I don’t fit in? How much I don’t belong. You know, I know my family is shitty and fucked up but they’re still my family, Winston.”

“Oh, darling, that is not what I meant.”

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