“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he said.
“But you are trying,” his mother said quietly, “and that is what matters.”
The lump in Dietrich’s throat tightened as he nodded in acknowledgment. Yes, he was trying, but would that be enough? It seemed like they could hardly change anything for her, and perhaps he would only make things worse. But he had to try.
“You are a good man,” his mother said, “and I know that you want her to be happy. But Dietrich...”
He looked up at his mother, who surveyed him sadly.
“Don’t forget to put your own happiness at stake too.”
Dietrich shook his head. “My happiness is not tied to hers.”
“I don’t think you believe that anymore,” his mother said quietly. “If you did, I wouldn’t be as worried.”
What was she talking about? Even if she thought he and Ella were well-suited, she was a duchess. He’d had no interest in her as anything other than a new friend to replace Beatrice–but even that was no longer an option.
Ella needed to rejoin her family, and that would not be accomplished if she was distracted by him.
The thought was bittersweet, because he’d started to think that they could indeed be friends.
Once she found her family, he would walk away because she deserved to be happy.
He would not hold her back.
But first, he had to go to the café and find her before someone else realized the missing duchess was wandering around town.
Chapter eight
Ella
Dietrich opened the door of the café and entered, glaring once he found her. He stalked toward her, and she fought the urge to shrink back down.
She didn’t need to be afraid of him. She was just used to dealing with her stepmother, and Dietrich, as much as he might bluster, would never be like her stepmother.
“You can’t just leave,” he said as he slid into the seat next to her. “I didn’t know where you were.”
“You’re not in charge of me,” she pointed out.
“It doesn’t matter that I’m not in charge of you,” he said. “Your safety is my concern, and you can’t just disappear.”
“I can do what I want,” she said.
“Not for much longer,” Dietrich said quietly, and her eyes widened at the realization that very soon her life would no longer be her own. If it was true and she was, in fact, the duchess, everything was going to change—and soon.
She shook her head at him. “I don’t care,” she said. “It may be an issue in the future, but for right now, I am still my own person, and I don’t need to listen to you.”
“I’m not losing you again,” he said, pinning her with a stare. “I know this is all new to you, but I can’t lose you again, Ella—not when we’re so close.”
Close to what? she wanted to ask, but she couldn’t find the words to say it. He was trying to care for her, and she should try to be accommodating, even if it rankled her soul to listen to him.
But he wasn’t the one who had lost her in the first place.
“You’re overbearing,” she said. “You are not my father.”
“No, I’m not,” he said simply. “But I know that he wants me to take care of you.”
“He doesn’t know,” she pointed out. “And if you think that’s going to change my mind—”
