“You should be begging Arabella for her pardon and her forgiveness, down on your knees.”
Gerald looked away, staring at the fire raging in the fireplace.
“We had an agreement, and I honored that agreement. She will still bear my name, and she will have the generous allowance that I had allocated for her.”
“In the off chance that you did not hear me the first time I phrased this,” Morgan said sharply, “you idiot.”
“Is it too much to ask not to curse at me in my own home?”
“Is it too much to ask for you to think clearly for the first time in your life?”
“It is exactly what I have done. I thought clearly and made a rational decision.”
“So, let me understand this. Arabella was nothing more than a means to an end?”
Gerald would have loved nothing more than to answer a resounding yes. Tell him that Arabella was just a shield he used to push back his family and close some business deal.
But then, just to mock him, his mind conjured a vision: Arabella on the blanket in the center of the maze, her blue eyes illuminated by the candlelight, looking at him with a mischievous but forgiving expression.
He swallowed hard and grabbed the glass until his knuckles were white. He downed the contents once more and didn’t even feel the burn.
“I see,” was all Morgan said, and he poured himself some whiskey too.
For a while, they just stood there in the silent study, in his quiet, massive estate, the same one she said she actually liked.
“What are you going to do about it now?” Morgan demanded.
Gerald turned and looked at his friend as if he were going mad.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Morgan frowned. “I asked you what you are going to do about it now.”
“About what exactly?”
“About the fact that you have feelings for your wife and still let her go. Are you not following?”
Gerald looked down at his glass, grinding his jaw and straightening his back.
“Perhaps it is you who do not follow,” he said with a cruel tone. “I just told you that we had an arrangement with Her Grace.”
“I understand that that must have been the initial plan,” Morgan replied. “But that plan went completely awry when you actually fell in love with your wife. Which I don’t blame you for. Arabella is a truly amazing woman who you absolutely don’t deserve.”
“I did not…” Gerald started to protest.
“That is why you are in this state? Because you feel nothing for Arabella? You don’t miss her, and it doesn’t kill you that your agreement is concluded, and she’s gone?”
Gerald turned his back and ignored Morgan. It was that he had just grown accustomed to Arabella being around, nothing more. It had to be that, and nothing more.
* * *
The next day, Gerald was sitting in his study, once more toiling away, pretending to be productive. His late-night conversation with Morgan did not help. He didn’t like stirring these thoughts inside him; they were getting him nowhere, but then again, he couldn’t ignore them.
He was ready to call it quits and get out of the house for once when his butler came into the room.
“Your Grace, you have a caller.”
“I simply do not have the time to see anyone,” Gerald quickly dismissed.
“Oh, but I am sure you can make the time,” a voice filled the study as someone entered.
