The door was often closed, but sometimes she would forget. And once or twice, she was certain that she heard the floorboards creak outside the door. She knew beyond a doubt that she could feel eyes upon her. When she did, she ignored them. But she wore a smile, guessing well enough who it was that watched her with such curiosity.At least he is not angry with me. Although I do wish he would say something.
It was the third day when a most unexpected delivery was brought to Clara’s attention.
“Your Grace!” It was Mr. Winters, striding into the breakfast room with a package tucked under his arm. “This was just delivered for you.”
“My gardening supplies?” she brightened up.
“I do not think so, Your Grace.” He placed the package down on the table. “It feels like bedding.”
“Bedding…” Clara was quick to unwrap the package, her frown deepening as it was revealed to be what looked like drapes. They were sapphire in color, made of velvet, with gold trimming. “What on earth?”
“Perhaps they are for your bedroom, Your Grace?” Mr. Winters suggested.
“Maybe…” She bit into her lip as she considered where this had come from and why. That was when a thought hit her.
She wore a smile as she scooped up the drapes and carried them through the castle, up the stairs, and toward the west wing. There, she ducked into the music room, spreading the drapes before the large window. It was just as she suspected; they were fitted perfectly for the window’s dimensions.
Her smile grew because she knew without having to ask where they had come from.I was right. He was watching me.
Clara spent the rest of the day thinking to herself what she would say to Alaric when she saw him at supper. Should she ask why he had bought her the drapes? Should she ask why he had not thought to check with her first what color she might want? Perhaps she should ask if he wished to join her on the morrow, when she continued to fix the room? In the end, she did no such thing.
Rather, they sat in their usual silence as they ate, and it was only when the duke rose to leave that she finally spoke.
“Oh, and I’ve been meaning to thank you,” she said.
He frowned. “For?”
She smiled at him. “The drapes you had commissioned for the music room. They are perfect.”
The duke did not smile with his lips, but she saw it reach his eyes. A glimmer that he tried without success to hide. “You are welcome,” was all he said before leaving the room.
This had Clara smiling even more. Another small step in the right direction. The path was the correct one. The journey would be long. But they were getting there.Oh, how we are.
Nine
“It simply isn’t good enough,” Lord Reginald Wolfe blustered. “And do not try to say any different.”
Alaric kept his temper at bay. Lord Wolfe was his uncle, a man who bore a striking resemblance to his father in both his physicality and his abrasive personality. When he was with his uncle, Alaric was transported back to his childhood, reminded too well of the trauma he suffered under the disciplinary hand of his father, and the mental degradation borne on him because he had been raised in a world where nothing he did was ever good enough. Every action he took was the wrong one.
He did not fear his uncle. Dammit, he barely respected the man! But Lord Wolfe was a cold and calculating figure with his pulse on the movements of the ton, and there was little he would not do to ensure that his family’s name remained untarnished and untouched.
“I have done exactly as I promised,” Alaric said with more calm than he thought himself capable. “You cannot fault me for that.”
“The bare minimum,” Lord Wolfe dismissed with a wave of his hand. He was grotesquely overweight, skin blotched, jowls wobbling as he snarled and snapped. “And I told you at the time, it would not be enough.”
“It is going to have to be.”
“Excuse me?”
Alaric made sure to fix his uncle with a warning stare. “I married Lady Tremayne because I had no choice. Because I knew that if I did not, people would talk. I did that for you, Uncle. Do not think otherwise.”
“You did it for yourself,” Lord Wolfe said. “I am no fool, Alaric – I know of the troubles you are having with parliament. This marriage, although brought about by less-than-desirable circumstances, arrived at the perfect time. For both of us. Do not pretend that your motives are for my own benefit.”
“Be that as it may, it is done. We are wed. What do I care what is being said after the fact? It worries me not.”
“It should!”
“And yet I am telling you otherwise,” Alaric snapped. “People say far worse about me, Uncle. They have been saying it for sometime now. What are a few more rumors? There is no truth to them.”
