“Duncan,” she sighed. “Why must you do this? That is not a straight answer.”
“It is the only one you will get,” he said, and he moved behind the desk. He seemed not to be as forthcoming as he had been earlier, and it felt like a small setback in their relationship.
Yes, Charity was angry. But she could sense that Duncan was not pleased at being interrogated either. They had reached an impasse.
“You think it is your place to decide what I deserve to hear?” she said. “I… I worry sick about them, and you go and reward their wayward behaviors by covering up for them? Don’t you think that it will only encourage them to do this sort of thing again?”
“Once again, I think you’re overthinking….”
“Why must you say that to me, always?” she snapped. “This time, it’s something that genuinely baffles me. I don’t think that it was your place to lie on their behalf.”
“I think it is my place to keep order in this house,” Duncan said. His voice stayed calm in a way that made it worse, sinceit suggested he had already decided that his reasoning was enough and that Charity’s feelings were simply something to be managed. “So yes, if lying for a few minutes keeps your sisters from being dragged through the yard with half the servants listening, then I am not going to apologize for it.”
“How do you know that I was going to yell at them?” she asked. “You do not, it is something that you assume. I wish you would assume better things from me.”
“You are dragging on this argument,” he said curtly.
“Sorry if my feelings are an inconvenience to you, Your Grace,” she said. “But…”
“They are under my roof,” he said. “I am not going to give you any further explanations.”
That confirmed it for her. He was annoyed at being questioned, not anything else.But why should he be absolved of all questioning?she thought to herself.
“Stop saying that like it gives you permission to do whatever you like…”
“It gives me responsibility, and if you want them safe, then you are going to have to accept that I will sometimes do what you don’t like,” Duncan corrected her swiftly.
Charity let out a short breath that was half disbelief and half disgust.
It was a visceral reaction, almost. A flashback appeared in her mind, and she recoiled from him. Seeing her reaction, Duncan grew concerned.
“What?” Duncan probed.
“You sound exactly like my uncle,” she was shaking her head now, “and I would rather that you do not do that.”
The words were out of her mouth before she could take them back. Perhaps with a clearer mind, she would never have uttered them. But their impact was immediate and obvious.
Duncan went still.
So still, in fact, that it startled Charity. He was seething in a manner that she had never seen him before, not even when they had come under attack during the carriage ride. This felt much darker, and it made my heart race.
“Never compare me to him again.”
“Then do not lie like him,” Charity said, even though her voice was shaking.
He had decided to be angry, then so be it. She held his gaze without looking away, because she would not be intimidated out of the truth.
Duncan’s hands tightened on the chair behind the desk, and he leaned forward slightly as though he wanted to pull himself back into calm by sheer force.
“You were two sentences away from making Matilda cry harder and making Augusta harden against you, and then you would have spent the rest of the night trying to repair what you broke,” he said, “so please, I made the situation better for you, if anything.
“Still…” Charity tried to argue, feeling her face heat up. “I don’t think that you should decide on my behalf on what I can handle, or not handle.”
“They are alive. And instead of acknowledging that I brought them back and kept this from becoming a public humiliation, you are standing here speaking to me as if I did something unforgivable,” he said curtly.
“I am acknowledging it right now, and I am still telling you that you do not get to lie to me about them.”
Duncan’s gaze hardened, and the word came out low and blunt.
