Eleanor’s stomach turned. “Caldwell.”
Aunt Frances nodded. “Yes.”
Roderick’s expression hardened. “He believed he was entering to frighten or harm the Duchess. He did not expect the Duchess to meet him with a man’s grip and a willingness to break his nose.”
Arabella beamed. “He was very convincing.”
Roderick’s eyes narrowed. “Do you want me to thank you for that?”
Arabella smiled sweetly. “Yes.”
The house slowly exhaled.
One by one, the constables departed, Caldwell taken away with his head bowed and his hands bound. Servants were dismissed to their duties with shaken expressions and whispered questions that would take days to quiet.
Aunt Frances declared that she required tea and retreated with the authority of a woman who had survived far worse scandals than this one. Arabella was escorted upstairs by the physician, protesting loudly that she felt perfectly capable of walking on her own and demanding to know whether Roderick intended to return her dress intact.
Eventually, even Roderick was shooed away, still grumbling about corsetry and dignity as he disappeared down the corridor in borrowed trousers at last.
And then there was silence.
Not the tense silence of before, not the kind that bristled with fear and uncertainty, but something softer. Something tentative.
Eleanor stood in the center of the drawing room, suddenly aware of the ache in her limbs, the faint sting at her throat, the way exhaustion had crept up on her now that she no longer needed to be sharp. The fire crackled quietly. Outside, dusk was beginning to settle over the grounds.
James stood a few steps away from her.
He looked at her as if she might vanish if he moved too quickly.
“You are safe,” he said at last.
Eleanor nodded. “Yes.”
“I should have been here,” he continued, his voice low. “I should never have left you.”
“You came back,” Eleanor replied. “When it mattered.”
His jaw tightened. “Too late.”
“No,” she said gently. “In time.”
James hesitated, his hands curling slightly at his sides as though he did not trust them. “I do not know how to stand in a room with you now that there is nothing to chase.”
Eleanor’s lips curved faintly. “You could start by standing closer.”
He did not move.
Eleanor studied him for a moment, taking in the strain in his posture, the way he seemed to hold himself apart by force of will alone. This man who had crossed counties in pursuit of justice,who had faced the woman responsible for destroying his family without flinching, now looked uncertain of how to take three steps toward his wife.
She smiled.
It was small. Unassuming. But it carried every unspoken thing between them.
“Well,” Eleanor said lightly, though her heart was pounding, “now that everything is over, I will keep my promise.”
James’s head lifted sharply. “Your promise?”
“Yes,” she replied. “To live separately. To give you the distance you asked for.”
