She was weaving flower chains and putting them in the girls hair. Showing them how to do it. They made her one, a wonky crushed wreath that she wore as proudly as a queen.
The duke and richard had looked at her and seen something pure and innocent. Someone with too much love to give.
While the other misses were preening and hovering quietly behind their parents, or ignoring the revelries, or…
She was just enjoying herself. Even though her parents were glaring at her, she was oblivious to their censure, giving and receiving simple pleasure.
The duke saw somebody with the capacity to love, just as his mother had been, despite the treatment she had received at the hands of the old duke.
He had decided that if he was going to take someone to be his wife, it would be someone with a good heart.
Someone he couldnt destroy or who could withstand his darkness. ?
Someone that deserved more than a dreary life, who loved children and laughter.
CHAPTERNINE
Violet awokefrom her nap to a dim room, the late afternoon sun shining weakly through the sheer curtains. Another week had passed as if in a dream, and Violet had taken to resting in the quiet hours before dinner. It was a luxury she had never indulged in before.
She found she needed the rest now. Life had changed and she no longer kept the country hours of her girlhood home.
Lately, Ashton and Richard had taken to spending their evenings in the drawing room with her. Sometimes Violet read aloud from her current novel, or else they might play cards or merely converse late into the night over one too many glasses of sherry.
It meant even later nights for them, after, but she no longer felt like an outsider in their presence. Rather, there was something sweet in the pure domesticity of those moments.
She stretched, then felt a disturbance in the space next to the bed.
Turning her head, she found the doctor sitting in the chair across from the bed, his head tipped back to lean against the plush padding of the upholstery as he watched her awaken in silence.
“Hmm… How long have you been sitting there?” murmured Violet, still half dazed from her sleep, as she propped herself higher on the pillows. She was accustomed to his comings and goings now, no longer surprised to find him in her room.
“Long enough,” said Richard, his manner distracted as his eyes wandered from her face and down over the blanket draped over her body.
Violet shivered. Something had changed, but she couldn’t place her finger on it. She knew only that she wanted to coax his habitual smile onto his face, chase away the pensive mood she found him in.
“Did you need me for something?” she asked, blinking over at him as he shifted in his chair.
“No. I was just checking in on you. But then, I got distracted and…” his hand waved in the air vaguely.
“And?”
He pursed his lips, flashing her a guilty look
“Do you know why I became a doctor,” he said, not acknowledging her question.
“Why don’t you tell me,” answered Violet softly, turning on her side and tucking a palm beneath her cheek, giving him her full attention.
Richard cocked his head, a serious expression falling over his boyish features.
“I had a wife once, a long time ago.” His mouth twisted wryly. “I was young, and so was she, and I had such hopes for our lives together.”
“But, something happened?” guessed Violet, urging him on gently.
“Yes. Something.” Richard looked away, his hands smoothing themselves over the armrests to grip the edge of the chair hard with his fingers. “Our babe caught a fever, my wife soon following…A malignant croup that took my child within days.”
He pursed his lips, sighing heavily. “My wife passed soon after. I suspect her heart could not take the pain and her body could not fight off the illness.”
He rolled his head on his shoulders, his body tense, and Violet fought the urge to say something placating, allowing the doctor to finish the story in his own time.
