“You are giving me orders now, Mr Arnold?” The duke scoffed as he released Diana again. He tossed her through the entrance hall towards the staircase. She stumbled, colliding with the stairs before losing balance completely and nearly landing on her face as she fell to the stairs.
“Diana!” Owen called out for her, trying his best to run around the duke, yet the man got in his way, blocking him off.
“Diana? You even call her by her Christian name?” the duke asked, barrelling towards him, making him back up fast across the room.
Owen could feel his hands balling into fists, feeling that temptation to strike the duke once again. Yet, what good would that do? It would surely only see Owen arrested for assaulting the duke, then he and Diana would be separated forever.
“I do,” he said, not willing to deny it as he jerked his chin higher.
“Your place in this house is not in her bed!” the duke roared the words. They echoed back at them all, bouncing off the marble floor and the vaulted ceiling.
“It is to make sure she is happy.” Owen would not back down. He feigned trying to get around the duke one way, and when the duke went to block him, he escaped the other way, sprinting across what remained of the entrance hall until he reached Diana’s side. She was trying to peel herself back up from the bottom of the staircase as he went to help her. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” she said, though the word sounded rather weak to his ears, as if spoken in desperation. As he helped her to her feet, he could feel she was trembling, and a quick bruise was developing on the underside of her chin showing she had collided with the steps after all. Gently, Owen took her jaw, lifting it higher so he could inspect the damage.
“Mr Arnold, I will not tell you to release my wife again.”
“Good, because I will not heed to the order.” There seemed little point in obeying the duke’s orders now, Owen knew he had lost his job as it was. No more damage could be done in that regard. “Diana, you’re hurt.”
“He’ll send you away for this,” she whispered, her hands clinging to his upper arms as he rested his hands on the underside of her elbows, cradling her within his grasp.
“I know,” he said with a sigh. The moment had come that he had feared, why he was so scared to tell Diana that he loved her in the first place. Now they would have to leave each other, knowing what they could have shared.
“I cannot believe my eyes,” the duke said, his harsh words accompanied by firm footsteps that struck the marble floor as he marched towards them. “My wife in the hands of a butler? What kind of harlot are you?” He spun his accusation on Diana, who flinched at his words.
“Do not call her that,” Owen spat with anger, feeling the full force of the duke’s rage as he turned on him.
“You won’t be so good at dodging the next blow, I can assure you of that. Release her. Now.” Gilbert’s order was left unanswered. “Wonderful, I have a cheap harlot for a wife, who would give herself to my staff, and a butler that dares to take my place in my wife’s bed.”
“What makes you better than I?” Diana’s cry made Owen freeze, just as the duke turned widened eyes on her. “I’ve seen that house you keep, of your former lovers, all those poor maids, and your illegitimate children.” Her words might as well have struck him in the face with a firm slap, for he backed away, the redness in his cheeks turning more and more purple by the second.
“They want you to visit, by the way,” Diana said, lifting her eyes higher. “Do not lecture me on not sharing my bed with another, husband. You have no moral high ground on which to stand.”
“Pah! This is what I get for asking for an obedient wife? This is absurd. I have had enough.” He walked forward. Owen tried his best to cling onto Diana, even as her arm was taken by the duke again. “Release her.”
“No.” Owen tried to thrust her behind him, to keep her safe, but the duke was stronger and snatched her from his grasp. “No!” Owen was aware of the fist coming towards him, but he was unable to see it clearly this time; his worried gaze was too much on Diana. When it connected with his nose, he stumbled, falling and landing on the marble floor with his back cracking in objection.
“Owen!” Diana cried out for him and yelped.
It took a long time for Owen to push past the pain. It ricocheted up the top of his nose and into his eyes, drawing tears of pain from the sheer extent of the tingling. He firmly pushed those tears away and sat up, pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket and pushing it straight to his nose. He saw the blood as fast as he felt it.
“You have broken his nose. How could you!?” Diana cried out. Owen peered over the edge of the handkerchief to see she was pushing against her husband, trying her best to get around him.
“That is enough, Diana.” He barked at her. “You have been disobedient for long enough. Quiet your lips this moment.”
“No.” Her staunch refusal would have made Owen smile any other time, but not now.
The duke lifted his hand, preparing to slap her.
“No!” Owen roared in objection, but the duke didn’t do it. Diana didn’t even flinch. She just kept staring at her husband, blinking at him.
“You would hurt me so?” she asked. “I have done nothing wrong, and deep down, you know that. I have done no worse than you have done. Would you truly hurt me for that reason?”
The duke’s hand still hovered in the air, clearly undecided.
“There will be no more of this.” He breathed deeply and adjusted his hand, pointing at her. “I have a house in the north. A small thing, removed from anywhere else.”
“What of it?”
