His uncle exchanged a look with his son, Larry.
“Are you not convinced?” the Duke raised an eyebrow. “I did not take you for believing petty gossip at face value, Uncle.”
“No, it is just that I am shocked, is all,” his uncle replied. “I am sure that you are right about the curse only being a rumor. Besides, we should not believe in superstitions such as those.”
“Precisely,” the Duke muttered, grateful. “A logical man has no place for it in his mind.”
“I apologize for bringing it up, Your Grace.” His cousin hung his head low. “I was merely relaying what I had heard.”
“Now that you are aware of the truth, I expect you to shut down such conversations whenever you encounter them.”
“Of course.”
“Enough of this serious chatter,” Jacob jumped into the conversation. “I was hoping that we would be bantering with the groom to be. The clock is ticking, dear brother. Tomorrow you will be a married man at this time.”
Duncan nodded, feeling strangely calm about the whole thing. He had been very against marriage from the start, but now that the day had arrived for him, he did not feel as though he was getting cold feet about the matter.
“A married man,” Uncle Charles chuckled. “Quite the serious appellation, is it not?”
“Indeed so.” Jacob grinned. “Your bachelor days are gone now, my dear brother.”
Duncan sipped his wine, a smile forming on his face.
“Your attempts at trying to get under my skin are not working, I am afraid,” he replied. “I am a man of my word, and once I make a decision, I do not back down from it.”
“We can see that,” Jacob observed. “What do you think father would have said about your hasty decision to get married?”
Duncan fought the frown from appearing on his face. The last thing he wanted was to discuss his father… but at the same time, he did not want to make his displeasure so obvious.
“I am sure that he would have been proud of his son, no matter what,” Uncle Charles replied.
“Really?” Duncan raised his eyebrow. “I believe that he would have not even noticed as he would have likely been busy in another one of his gambling binges.”
“Now, Duncan,” his uncle said softly, “I understand yer grievances with me brother, but ye must not let them dampen your mood before yer big day.”
“Am I meant to delude myself into thinking otherwise then?” Duncan challenged. “That he would have been quite happy and supportive of my decision? Dear Uncle, that would be a lie and both of us are aware of that. He was never that involved to begin with.”
Arthur, who had been mostly quiet until this time, chose this moment to jump into the conversation.
“You lot are jumping from one difficult topic to another,” he said, shaking his head. “I was under the impression that we were meant to have a grand ol’ time with each other tonight, a last hurrah for the Duke before he embarks onto a life of marriage. What happened to that notion?”
The men exchanged looks between each other. They had gotten so carried away with their conversations that they had lost track of what this meeting was supposed to be. Jacob took this moment to dash over to the cabinet and procure another bottle of wine.
“Cousin Arthur is right,” he said as he brandished the bottle in his hands. “We have gotten far too serious for what the night demands. How about we share another bottle?”
Duncan laughed as Jacob poured them each another glass.
“To my dearest nephew,” Uncle Charles said, toasting his glass and clinking it gently against the others’. “To life full of happiness and to a life full of satisfaction.”
“May he never become what his father was,” the Duke chimed in sarcastically, touching his glass against the others.
“Let us drink to that,” Jacob laughed, finding the humor in the situation.
CHAPTER 12
On the morning of his wedding, Duncan did not feel any different than he did any other day. To him, it felt like just another day.Except perhaps he was nursing a small hangover from the wine that he had consumed last night.
Of course, that did not mean the rest of his family felt the same way.
