“Marriage problems, eh?”
Now he had Roman’s attention. “Why would you say that?”
David sat on a piece of log that made for a handy stool. He stretched out the leg he favored. “Because you are newlywed and out here in the morning air instead of snuggled in bed with your bride.”
“I have things to do.”
“Aye, and you should be doing themtoher. When I married your mother, we didn’t leave the bedroom for a month. We even took all our meals there.
That comment truly annoyed Roman.
“I’m sorry if I take my responsibilities seriously.” He had freed his axe and now gave it a swing on the same hapless piece of wood. The axe head dug in deeper, and was more stuck than before.
Roman swore. He jerked on the handle. The log would not let go. He stepped on it and pulled. The axe barely moved and Roman could have thrown the wood and the axe to the other side of Bonhomie.
Instead, he stomped a step or two and then faced his stepfather. “I believe I should set Leonie aside.”
David’s brows raised to his hairline. “Oh, that is a concern.”
“Aye.”
“You seemed happy with her last night.”
Roman looked down at the axe stuck in wood and thought about the love he’d made to his wife. “I was.”
“We knew you couldn’t have known each other well. When we received your letter, we feared you were marrying her for money. Thaddeus mentioned his suggestion in the last letter he wrote to us.” There was a beat and then he said, “Your mother and I had hoped you wouldn’t listen to him.”
So, they had known. “Her money is the reason I’ll be able to rebuild this estate.”
David looked in the distance a moment and then said, “We were surprised at how lovely she is. And she has a kind manner as well. I thought heiresses a man could marry quick were ugly as trolls... unless there is something that we don’t see.”
Roman walked back to the wood pile. He righted another piece of log and sat. “She was once important to me in India.”
“Oh, now this is an interesting piece of information. Was she the one you dueled over? She would have been young, wouldn’t she? Too young?”
“Seventeen.”
“Young but of an age.”
“Leonie is actually more beautiful now than she was then,” Roman admitted. “There is something about her that attracts men. Certainly, she attracts me.” Roman fell into silence, his mind busy with how he himself had orchestrated his own demise when it came to Leonie.
David interrupted his thoughts. “Why don’t you make a clean breast of it? Tell all and then, perhaps, we can understand why you are out here instead of in bed with your wife.”
Roman’s stepfather was right; his mind was a confused mess—and so he told the story he’d not shared with anyone, including Leonie’s shooting Paccard.
“There was no duel?” David repeated as if needing to realign his thinking.
“No, I fabricated the story to save her reputation.”
“Do you truly believe any court would charge her for murder if this Paccard had treated her the way you say he did?”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. Her reputation would have been in tatters. I don’t know what would have happened to her.”
“So, you sacrificed yourself.”
“I took a risk. I’ve managed.”
“Without the lady. That would have made me angry. But also, you may have unwittingly given her a burden that she has found too great to bear.”
