Page 70 of Raising the Duke’s Unexpected Twins

He was smiling, but Nicholas was thrown back to the evening before when he’d revealed what he’d really thought about Cordelia all these years.

Delectable. And I wasn’t wrong.

“You know that’s not the reason,” Nicholas said with a sigh.

“I figure you needed time to adjust to your new life situation. A big change for a man who I always thought was going to be a rake until the bitter end.” He raised his glass in the air. “You give hope to the rest of us wretches.”

A little smirk crossed Nicholas’s lips. “I had no idea you wished to have hope.”

“Well, it is nice to know if us sinners will be redeemed in the end.” Leonard finished his cup, and Sara came by to fill it again. “Good service here, even if you haven’t been around.” He tilted his head to the side. “So, you still haven’t said. What has you rushing in in a huff, looking as though you’re wet through?”

Nicholas rubbed a hand over his face, grateful for the heat of the fire to dry his boots. “To be honest, I don’t know.” He held his breath for a moment. He had never been one to easily share, but he felt as though he was going to burst if he didn’t get the words out. “I think I’m confused. And I may have given my new wife the impression that I wish for there to be more than there has been between us. And that, of course, would be a terrible mistake.”

“Ah,” Leonard gave him a knowing nod. “The usual trap.” Frowning, he leaned forward. “You’ve never been a man to intentionally lead a woman on. Are you saying that you made her believe that this is possible, or are you starting to believe it yourself?”

“It doesn’t matter what I may or may not feel.” He shook his head. “She deserves so much more than I could ever give her. She would deserve someone who had been like her own father: honorable, good, and kind.”

“But you are married. It is not as if she is free to go and find these things elsewhere.”

Nicholas stared at the flames. He had known this of course, but there were many couples in the ton who enjoyed relationships outside of their marriages, even ones that made them happy. But Leonard was right. For a woman, it was a little more difficult.

“She should not have to settle for me just because I’m her husband, and we married for the sake of the children and our friends’ will. Women take lovers, just as men do.”

Leonard chuckled. “Yes but, you sound nonsensical.”

Darren suddenly appeared at Nicholas’s shoulder in the private room, a note in hand. He cleared his throat.

“Your Grace, a note’s come from you. From your wife.”

She is likely trying to get me to return to finish the conversation after I left so awkwardly. But she cannot repair me, even if she has tried.

“Darren, put the note on my desk in the study. I will answer it later.”

Darren hesitated, but Nicholas nodded at him, and then he was gone, nodding at Leonard in greeting on his way out.

“Ignoring letters from her as well,” Leonard remarked with a low whistle.

“I am not nonsensical. I am reasonable and logical. We need space between us before things become even riskier.”

“Ah,” Leonard said again, and Nicholas was growing irritated with his cousin. “So, you’ve slept with her then.”

“Yes,” he said on a breath, keeping his eyes on the fire.

And I shall never be the same.

“And it was better than you expected.”

“It was better than I expected.”

“You are mad! Go home and be with your wife instead of running away from her. Like I said, you are already married. It only makes sense that you should enjoy one another and come together as a family, no?”

“Is this a determined rake I’m hearing this from? I can’t believe my ears.”

Nicholas finished his whisky and leaned forward towards the heat, feeling more exhausted than ever.

“Yes, because it’s far easier to give advice than to take it. You should know that.” There was a sparkle of mischief in Leonard’s eye. “I saw the two of you together at the ball. You were so distracted by one another you didn’t even come to greet your own cousin.”

“Ha! As if you were there in the ballroom asking women to dance in hopes to court them one day. I have no doubt you were drinking in the card room with the other confirmed bachelors and tired husbands.”