by Fanny Finch
Lady Elizabeth nodded but felt a little awkward. She wondered what she could do to bring him out of his sullen mood. “Would you like to take a stroll through the grounds after the meal, sir?” she asked. “I will have Phoebe come along to chaperone. We can speak of pleasant and positive things.”
She saw what she hoped was a look of pleasant hope spread across his face. The look was fleeting, immediately replaced by a look of melancholy.
“I would like that.”
She was surprised when he agreed to go on the walk. Perhaps he wanted some time to think, out in the open air, with someone he cared for.
She hoped he still cared for her. He was acting so distant. She did not know what to think of it. Nor how to act.
She stayed quiet for the rest of the meal, making only the smallest of talk. She would have left the table sooner but the roast, potatoes, vegetables, and bread were better than any she had tasted so far at the castle. Hetty was outdoing herself.
She and the Duke of Thornwall happened to finish at almost the exact same time. She looked at him, glancing at both their plates purposefully, hoping he would see it. He saw her look and glanced down at the plates.
“It does appear we have finished at the same time,” he said without humor. Lady Elizabeth was a little disappointed but did not hold on to it.
“Would you care for a glass of brandy before we go on the stroll?” The Duke of Thornwall asked. Lady Elizabeth could tell by his tone that whether she wanted one or not, he was going to be having one. She nodded quickly.
“I would like that, my lord. Thank you for the offer.” She looked across at Phoebe, who set her sewing to the side and stood up.
“You are quite welcome.”
He stood up and gestured to Smithson, who crossed the room to him.
“Smithson, do you know where Ursula is?”
“Yes, Your Grace, I saw her in the kitchen before I came up.”
“Call down and have her come up in fifteen minutes. We will be taking a stroll in the garden and Lady Elizabeth will need a chaperone.”
Lady Elizabeth giggled. The Duke of Thornwall looked at her. “Oh, my lord, you needn’t bother Ursula. It is Phoebe’s job to watch over me and she is already here.”
The Duke of Thornwall looked embarrassed. “You are right, of course, Lady Elizabeth. I do not know what I was thinking.” The Duke of Thornwall waved to him again. He approached, not questioning his master.
“I would like two glasses of brandy please. Tell Hetty to make something tasty for the lady. I will have the usual.”
Smithson bowed at the waist and then turned to bow at Lady Elizabeth. “Yes, my lord. My lady.”
Smithson crossed the room once more, opening the door and called out the drinks to the women below.
He turned and stood facing them, once again. His demeanor was the same. Lady Elizabeth had a feeling it would be no matter how many times the Duke of Thornwall called him back to say something to him.
The door opened only moments later and Milla handed the two drinks to Smithson. He brought them to the table and set them down in front of Lady Elizabeth and the Duke of Thornwall.
“My lord. My lady.”
“Thank you, Smithson,” they both replied at the same time.
He smiled at them and returned to his post on the other side of the room.
They sat quietly, sipping their drinks.
Lady Elizabeth had not felt awkward with the Duke of Thornwall for almost two weeks. She bit her bottom lip, debating silently if it was a good night for them to socialize. He did not seem to be in the mood.
She did not want to pass up an opportunity to be with him if she could avoid it. She wanted to spend as much time with him as she could. But not when he was in a melancholy mood.
She knew that as his wife, if it ever came to that, she would have to deal with many of his moods. They would not always be working from the same page. They would have their disagreements.
She remembered the disagreement they had dealt with the day of her arrival. Since that time, they had traded guilt when it came to starting a tiff.
But for almost two weeks, they had gotten along wonderfully. It seemed they both had the same goal in mind.
Looking at him now, Lady Elizabeth wondered if the Duke of Argyle had said something harsh to make the Duke of Thornwall react in such a way. He must have used some terrible words to take the wind from the Duke of Thornwall’s sails. He had seemed so happy and chipper since telling his story.
Now he had reverted to the attitude and behavior she had seen when she first arrived.
She hoped it would not be that way for long.
When they got up to go for their walk, Lady Elizabeth’s head was slightly foggy and her belly was full and warm. She smiled at him.
“I am ready to get some fresh air.”
Chapter 40
“How dare you entertain another woman after what you have done?”
The Duke of Thornwall stood in stunned silence, staring at the older man. He had not anticipated this reaction from the Duke of Argyle when he had mention Lady Elizabeth’s presence at his castle.
“I… I beg your pardon?” he stammered. “After… what I have done?”
The Duke of Argyle’s face was turning red again. He pushed himself to his feet and took a step closer to the Duke of Thornwall, who stood his ground, looking up as the man came forward.
“To what are you referring, my lord?” The Duke of Thornwall knew what the Duke of Argyle was referring but he did not want to believe it. The Duke of Argyle had told him he was forgiven. He told him the very day it happened that he was forgiven.
Chills ran through the Duke of Thornwall as he went through his memories of the last four years. The Duke of Argyle had sent constant reminders of Lady Sophia to add to the Duke of Thornwall’s collection. Whenever the two of them got together, the Duke of Argyle only spoke of her, nothing else.
They never spoke on friendly terms. The Duke of Argyle had been using the loss of Lady Sophia for four years as a tool against him. He had forced the Duke of Thornwall never to forget. Because he was always there to remind him what he had done.
He had killed the dearest love of his life.
He understood why the Duke of Argyle had done it. If he thought someone else had purposefully killed Lady Sophia, he would have come up with a plan of revenge. It would have been clever but perhaps not as clever as what the Duke of Argyle had been doing for four years.
If it had been any other time, he would have accepted any punishment, but after four years of mourning, the Duke of Thornwall questioned whether he deserved it.
“Why did you claim to forgive me, my lord?” he asked softly. “When it is clear you did not.”
“If I had blamed you from the beginning,” the Duke of Argyle said, lowering his voice into one of pure rage and anger. “You would not have agreed to meet with me all these times through the last four years. I wanted to remind you of her. I did not and I will not let you forget her.”
“I do not need your reminders, Sir,” the Duke of Thornwall said, resentment in his voice. “I think of her every day. It is a constant struggle for me. I still mourn for her. I still ask God for forgiveness.”
“You have not paid for the time I have lost with her,” the Duke of Argyle said.
The Duke of Thornwall frowned. “I pay my dues, Your Grace. I did not kill her. You said yourself that she ran back inside.”
“If you had not given her the pipe, she would not have choked and dropped it. That is the story you told me, is it not?”
“Yes, that is the truth.”
“Then you are responsible for what happened.”
“What happened cannot be changed,” the Duke of Thornwall crossed his arms in front of his chest, his voice firm. “I pay for what happened every day because there are already reminders of her here. She visited often and we walked the grounds. I planted her favorite flowers and shrubs, bought decorations that she would like. I expected h
er to be lady of the castle and I filled it with her favorite things. I have been unable to get rid of those things.”
Until now, he thought the words but did not say them aloud.
He had, in fact, been thinking about redecorating. It was time to put things right. It was time to sell the old and bring in the new. Lady Elizabeth was not an exact copy of Lady Sophia. She needed to have her own style in the castle.
“You must not move on, Thornwall. You must continue to honor my daughter’s memory. It is a life you stole. Now you must sacrifice some of your own life and happiness so that others will be happy.”
“Sir,” the Duke of Thornwall shook his head, taking a step toward the larger man. “You cannot expect me to.”
“Did you ever love my daughter?” The Duke of Argyle switched up, speaking gently to him.
The Duke of Thornwall was caught off guard. Lady Sophia’s face drifted through his mind. Along with it, a warm flow of love that washed over him like an ocean wave.
“I did.” He replied not able to keep the emotion from his voice.
“Then you must not betray her now. I have my personal motives for wanting you to remember her. But I know you cannot believe that moving on is the right thing to do. Not yet. She deserves to be honored.”
“She has been honored,” the Duke of Thornwall said, though his countenance was shaky. He was beginning to wonder if he was ready to move on. Perhaps the Duke of Argyle was right.
Guilt slipped through him for thinking he was ready to have a new woman in his life. How could he make Lady Elizabeth happy when he was constantly paranoid something might happen to her?
He could see that happening. He would fall in love with her and from that moment on, nothing else in the world would matter but her safety. He would not eat, sleep, or breathe unless he knew she was alive and well.
He cleared his throat, trying to get rid of the guilty feeling. It was only getting stronger.
“Let me tell you, Thornwall,” the Duke of Argyle’s voice was threatening. He glared down at the Duke of Thornwall, who sank back down in the seat behind him. “There are a few reasons why you will not want to take another woman into your life.”
The Duke of Thornwall frowned. “Are you threatening me, Sir?”
“I am telling you this,” the Duke of Argyle remained standing, his eyes blazing with anger. “You will not only be unwelcome in my home if you do not send this woman away, but I will also take villagers from Thornwall and you will be left with empty houses.”
The Duke of Thornwall’s frown deepened. He stood up again. “Your Grace, what are you saying?”
“Some of the villagers are in debt to me. I will call in that debt and they will be put in prison for nonpayment. Is that what you desire for your villagers?”
“Sir. There is no need to go this far and take your anger to others. I loved Sophia dearly. You know I did, my lord.”
“Yes. I know you did. But you should not move on from her. It is a betrayal. Betrayal at its finest, in fact.”
The Duke of Argyle turned and stomped a few steps away from him toward the door. He turned back to stare at the Duke of Thornwall.
“I am staying at the Inn. You will let me know in the next few days whether you will send her away or risk banishment from my home and putting your villagers in debtor’s prison. It is your choice, Thornwall. Choose wisely.”
The Duke of Thornwall watched the man who would have been his father-in-law walking out the door and slamming it behind him. He stood, blinking in shock, for a few moments. Thoughts whirled through his mind.
Was moving on to Lady Elizabeth really a betrayal?
His friend, the Duke of Argyle, whom he had grown close to over the years, had never forgiven him and was, in fact, pushing the mourning period on and on. He did not want the Duke of Thornwall to get over it. He wanted the Duke of Thornwall to never heal.
He sat back in the chair and cupped his mouth and chin with his hands, resting his elbows on his knees. He stared out in front of him, though the unlit fireplace was not what he saw.
He pictured Lady Sophia in his mind and tears welled up inside him.
He swallowed them, as he had become accustomed to doing and pushed his mind away from her. He could not live this way forever. Someday he knew he would be over her.
But perhaps this was not the right time. Perhaps he needed a little more time to sort through his feelings. He did not want anyone to be hurt. Not him, not Elizabeth, not the Duke of Argyle.
Lady Sophia was the only one who would not be hurt.
Because she was no longer alive to feel it.
Lady Sophia was the only one at peace.
Those were the thoughts that accompanied him all throughout dinner and continued to do so, even though he was now walking besides Lady Elizabeth.
Chapter 41
Lady Elizabeth might as well have been on the walk by herself or just with Phoebe. The Duke of Thornwall had very little to say. He walked with her, his hands behind his back but it seemed as though he was not even there.
Lady Elizabeth decided she had grown close enough to the Duke of Thornwall to spark a conversation with him. He had opened up to her about the fire that had taken Lady Sophia. Perhaps he would open up to her about what was bothering him that evening.
“The Duke of Argyle is Lady Sophia’s father, is that right?” She tried to keep all tension from her voice when she asked the question, using a light, soft voice.
The Duke of Thornwall looked down at her. “Yes, he is.”
“May I ask why he came by this afternoon? He did seem quite upset when he left.”
She was looking up at him, scanning his profile in the light of dusk. The sun would be down soon and the lamps around the garden would be lit. He turned his face away from her and looked into the distance. She could not tell if he even saw what was in front of him.
She could tell his mind was heavy with a burden. A burden he did not seem willing to share with her.
Could he be missing Lady Sophia more than she thought?
Lady Elizabeth drew in a quiet breath, holding it for a moment before releasing it slowly through her nose. She did not want him to think she was apprehensive about their growing relationship. But what if he was having second thoughts?
The visit from the Duke of Argyle may have brought back his old wounds, undoing all the progress he had done in the past two weeks.
Lady Elizabeth was disappointed. Was it that easy for the Duke of Thornwall to be drawn back into his depression and mourning? It had been four years. If he was not strong enough to resist the pain, he was probably not ready to be courting another woman.
“I am sorry if I overstepped,” Lady Elizabeth said quietly. “I was merely attempting to start a conversation.”
The Duke of Thornwall looked down at her through sad eyes. “It is not you, Lady Elizabeth, that I am worried about. I am… I have been thinking all day about the… the tragedy that changed my life. It had a great impact on the Duke of Argyle and… I do not know how to console him.”
Lady Elizabeth nodded but said nothing. She kept glancing at him to let him know she was listening. She did not want to interrupt him by making comments as he spoke.
“What would you do in a crisis, my lady?” The question seemed sudden, the way he asked it. As if it had just come to his mind.
Lady Elizabeth remembered having this conversation with someone else. She could not remember if it was Phoebe or Lady Agatha she had spoken to about the subject. She remembered what she had said then.
“I do not know how I would react, my lord. I do hope that I would act with bravery and courage.”
“Would you trust me in such a situation? Do you believe I would abandon you in a crisis?”
Lady Elizabeth drew her eyebrows together, shaking her head vigorously. “No, my lord. I do not believe you would abandon me. You would abandon no one.”
The Duke of Thornwall stopped walking. She halted and turned to him. He was still facing for
ward, his head down, his jaw clenched.
“I do not trust myself. I did not act quickly enough when it was needed. I could have done so much more.”
“From what you have described to me, my lord, you did everything you could. You did not know Lady Sophia was still in the house. You were willing to go back into a burning inferno to get her but you were stopped. It may have been an act of God that prevented you from entering that house at that time.”
The Duke of Thornwall gave her a narrow look, causing her heart to speed up. She did not want to upset him.
