Page 20 of Five Nights to Claim His Duchess

The maid bobbed and fled. He came back and sat on the edge of the bed beside her.

Diana swallowed. “I must beg your pardon. I had no business in your study. I only wished for a book, and I⁠—”

“There is no room in this house you have no business in.” He said it without any particular emphasis, gently turning her ankle toward the light. “You are its mistress. Go where you like.”

She looked at his bent head.

He is so gentle, she thought. Is he like this with her? With the woman he keeps in his thoughts? And then, quieter and colder: no. Of course not. This is duty. He has a wife with a cut foot and a duty to see to it, and that is what this is.

The water came. He cleaned the cut himself, which no duke in England ought to have done.

Then he set the basin aside and said, “I shall sleep in here tonight.”

Her heart leaped into her throat.

“Very well,” said Diana, and nodded calmly.

He was watching her face. “Something troubles you.”

She hesitated. Then she said it, because she was too tired not to. “My father has refused. My sister is not to come. I am trying to think of some way to⁠—”

“Tomorrow we will call on him,” he said, “and I will make the request myself.”

Diana’s mouth opened. She could not remember anyone ever doing this. Not once. Not in eight years. Every trouble she had ever had she had carried up the stairs alone and solved alone, and never once had anyone said, “Leave it to me,” and she found she did not know the words to answer it.

“You wish to say something,” he observed.

“No. I only—” She swallowed. “Thank you, Your Grace.”

“It is my duty.”

Duty. Something foolish in her chest sat down.

“Is there anything else?”

She hesitated. It was not her place. It was not her place⁠—

He leaned in.

“Speak, Duchess.” His thumb came up and traced slowly down her lower lip, and his eyes followed it, and Diana’s heart stopped entirely. She caught the scent on his fingers. The soap and leather, all of it him. “Or must I make you speak?”

His hand dropped to rest against the side of her neck.

“I did not see you all day,” she said. “I was not aware you had gone away on business.”

He grinned. He leaned closer still, until she could feel his breath. “So my Duchess wishes to know where I am at every hour.”

“No — I was only—” She was looking at his mouth. He was very near. Will he kiss me? Her whole body had gone heavy in that way she was beginning to recognize, and she could not do the first thing about it. Why does it do this? Why does it always do this?

He drew back.

“I confess I am not accustomed to it,” he said. “Informing anyone of my movements. I tell Mrs. Fletcher and think no further about it.”

Of course, thought Diana, and sank.

“But I shall inform the Duchess in future,” he said.

She felt the smile come up before she could stop it.