“Do not ask questions that you might not like the answer to,” he said. “You know well enough what is said of my first marriage.”
“I don’t believe a word of it.”
He scoffed. “Perhaps you should. Perhaps it would be better if you did. It would save you a lot of time.”
“But –”
“No,” he cut her off. “We are not having this conversation. Not now. Not tomorrow…” He scowled at her in warning. “Not ever. Is that understood?”
She forced herself to match his scowl with her own determined stare. But it was a pitiful thing, like a flower wilting in the heat. He would not be bullied in this. He would not be convinced. And if she pushed too hard, it might be the end of them as she knew it.
“Alright,” she said softly. “I am sorry.” She reached for his hand, but he snatched it away. And then, he turned and faced the window.
That had Clara gasping, a pain stabbing through her chest. She had been so close. Right on the cusp of breaking through his defenses. But a wrong move was made, and she felt that she was right back to where she started.
They rode the rest of the way home in a stony silence.
It was a state that she was all too used to.
Twelve
“Ido not understand why you insist on doing this yourself,” Alicia bemoaned as she watched Clara from afar. “Why not hire someone! Or many someone’s. I would.”
“That is where you and I differ,” Clara answered without turning around. She was busy at the moment, her hands buried to their wrists as she folded soft fertilizer over itself, packing it so it was not too tight but not too loose.
“That is one of the many ways,” Alicia said with an upturned nose.
Clara chuckled. “I am almost done.”
“I would prefer if you never started.”
“Perhaps you should have told me you were coming,” Clara shot back, making sure to look over her shoulder this time and wink at her friend. “I might have made myself more presentable.”
“I told you I could not,” Alicia said. “If my father had found out that I was visiting the Duke of Ravencourt’s estate…” She shuddered. “He would have locked me inside my room.”
A roll of the eyes, and Clara went back to what she was doing. “Ridiculous. This estate is nowhere near as bad as that. Nor is the duke, for that matter.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes.”
Alicia exhaled sharply from her nose, and Clara could sense her friend turning around to look upon the looming castle with a sense of unease. The day was dreary, as they so often were here, with thick clouds hanging over the towers of the castle, so the large structure was cast in perpetual shadow. It added a sense of dread to the estate and to those who lived within, which did nothing but bolster Alicia’s claim that this was not a place any sane person would like to be seen.
“Is he home?” Alicia asked warily. “Is he… is hehere?”
“Maybe.”
“You do not know?”
“I do not keep track of my husband.”
“Yes, but… well, I thought you would at least be made aware of his comings and goings. That way, you would know when it was safe to leave your rooms,” she joked.
To this, Clara stopped what she was doing, turning back on her friend and fixing her with a warning gaze that was devoid of humor. “That is not funny, Alicia.”
Her friend’s face dropped. “I… I was only joking.”
“Well, don’t. That is my husband you are speaking of, and I would ask that while you are here, you show him some respect. And myself, for that matter.”
