Page 108 of Last Comes Fate

“Oh?” I said.

Frederick examined his fingernails as though we were discussing the weather. “She doesn’t seem that way, but in her heart, Imogene can be a vindictive little cunt.”

I blinked. I didn’t think I’d ever heard Frederick use such language.

“Like her mother, my mother, and all the rest of them, she is exceedingly scheming and conniving. Even better at planning her revenge.” He cocked his head, like he thought he’d heard something. “She thinks I’m too young to remember what she did to Lucy.”

I frowned. “Her sister?”

Frederick nodded.

I gaped. “She didn’t—she wasn’t the reason Lucy—”

“Died? God, no.” He shook his head. “But she did cause her a fair amount of stress. I don’t suppose Xavier told you about their failed engagement?”

Two months ago, something in me would have tensed immediately at the memory of his last engagement. But I found I trusted Xavier, just as he trusted me. Now, I was only full of curiosity.

“What happened?” I asked.

Frederick sighed, almost as if the entire affair bored him. “The Orthams always dreamed they might one day join their estate with the Kendal. When Xavier was announced as heir, they were over the moon about it. Mostly because he was already friendly with one of their girls.”

“Just not the one he could make an heir with,” I said wryly.

“No,” Frederick said. “I suppose you could say they all found it rather insulting when, in the end, he got engaged to Lucy simply to spite the duke and give the girl a bit of romance before she died.” He shrugged. “Rather nice of him, I’d say.”

“How old was Imogene at that point, though?” I wondered. She was younger than me. She couldn’t have been more than twenty.

“Old enough that she’d heard the talk of their imminent match for years.” Frederick shook his head. “Imogene made Lucy’s life bloody miserable there for a bit, just before things really went pear-shaped. She was so angry that he’d not only refused her but had gotten engaged to her sickly sister instead. Everyone knew Lucy wouldn’t live very long—Lucy herself most of all. So to Imogene, it just felt unfair. An entire family’s dream tossed to the side out of spite.”

“Well, no one should have forced him to begin with,” I said, feeling the need to defend Xavier. “He was already shoved into this world where he didn’t belong, and suddenly everyone was pressuring him into essentially an arranged marriage. That’s not fair to do to a twenty-five-year-old.”

Frederick appeared to agree. “Indeed. But I still felt for the girl. She’s always thought she was in love with him, waited forever for him to come back. She’d complain to me about it. It’s very hard to love someone when they can never love you back, you know.”

Something in his voice made me stop. It made sense then why she had come to Frederick, of all people, to act as a sounding board for her concerns.

Something else made sense too. Why else Frederick might have been listening to her nonsense at all.

“Do…you…love Imogene Douglas?” I wondered.

It was only a split-second, but the entirety of Frederick’s blue-blooded being froze there in the garden before he resumed his typically stiff, yet nonplussed pose.

“Ah,” I said. “I see.”

He shot a sharp, brown-eyed glance my way. “I didn’t realize you were so direct.”

I shrugged. “Not always, but you people seem to bring it out in me.”

Frederick seemed to relax more as he gazed in the direction Imogene had gone, as if he was envisioning the pair of them walking together. “I am four years younger than Imogene Douglas. She still thinks of me as barely out of nappies and knee socks. I can’t imagine she would ever consider me as anything more than a sympathetic ear. And therefore, neither would I.”

“I see,” I said again. “Well, things change. She’s young. You’re young. Give it another few years. A four-year difference won’t mean anything at all.”

He seemed to think on that for several moments. Frederick, I noticed, rarely gave anything away. It was an unusual trait for someone so young.

“For what it’s worth,” he said at last, “I think you will be an excellent duchess. You may be exactly what this place needs.”

I balked. Whatever I’d been expecting him to say, it certainly wasn’t that. Ever.

“What’s your deal?” I asked him. “Are you on your mother’s side or not? You came to our wedding, so obviously you care about Xavier a little. But now I hear you gossiping with Imogene and practically plotting your stepbrother’s demise.”

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