Page 96 of Yours Truly, the Duke
To abide through the sullen weather.
The overnight journey back to London was arduous. Not only did Wyatt have wind and rain to contend with, the horse he’d borrowed was skittish at times and sluggish at others. He would have probably made it home faster and in much better spirits if he’d just taken the coach as his friends had urged him to do.
He walked through the front door, whipping off his drenched cloak, and stumbled over baggage in the entryway. Who the hell had come to visit, and why had Burns left the satchels in the middle of the floor?
Irritated, Wyatt looked around as he stripped off his saturated hat and gloves. Something didn’t feel right. He’d grown up in this house and knew it like the back of his hand. The early hour of morning had nothing to do with the quietness that surrounded him.
He looked at the bags again. The damp hair on theback of his neck stirred as Burns quietly appeared in the entryway.
“Where’s the duchess?”
“In your book room, Your Grace. Said she needed to do something in there before she left.”
Left?
Where was she going this time of day? Forgetting about his soggy boots and wet coat, Wyatt strode down the corridor with only one purpose in mind: to make up with Fredericka.
She was standing in front of the window holding sheets of foolscap in her hands. Sunlight had broken through the rain clouds and shimmered in her hair the way it had on their wedding day when they’d walked to the fence at the back of Paddleton. Their kiss in the fresh, crisp air flooded his memory with sweet feelings of how warm and right she’d felt in his arms the first time he held her close.
Yet, he sensed something wasn’t as it should be. Something more than remnants of the argument they’d had before he left. His breathing felt fast and pitchy. “Fredericka?”
“You’re home early.” She turned to face him. “I thought to be gone before you returned.”
Her rigid movements caused him to tense more. She had every right to be upset and disappointed in him too. He understood, but not the quietness of her tone and disposition. “Where are you going?”
“That’s none of your concern anymore.”
Not his concern? Everything about her mattered to him. His damp collar and neckcloth did nothing to lower the hot flame of irritation that flashed through him at her comment, but remembering why he rode most of the night to get home to her, he tamped down his irritation.He wanted to make things right between them. Not to keep their argument going. But he’d never run from an opponent. He wasn’t going to start with his wife. If she wanted another quarrel before they made up, he’d give it to her so they could settle their differences.
“I beg your pardon, Duchess. What you doismy concern.”
“Not any longer.”
She was too calm for her emphatic words. The blush was gone from her cheeks, and the sparkle had left her eyes. That worried him. Maybe their argument had been worse than he thought.
“I am your husband,” he stated with no equivocating.
“But you are not my master or jailer,” she said confidently. “I am leaving unless you are going to go back on your word and force me to stay with you.”
“Fredericka.” He whispered her name, walking closer to her. She sounded far too serious. “I stand by my word. I’ll never force you to do anything.” He inhaled short and tight, trying to control the uneasiness spreading over him. “Do you want to go to Paddleton? I have no objection.”
“I don’t have time to talk about this right now. I must go. Let’s leave it at we married for convenience. That’s no longer a relevant situation for either of us.”
She was far from just serious. She was resolute. The silence in the house bothered him again. No noise, no running of little feet from the schoolroom directly above where they were standing. His stomach tightened. “Where are the children?”
“With Jane.”
His stomach clenched. “For the day?”
“Forever.”
His gut wrenched. “What happened?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Hell, yes it does,” he snapped back at her, tension getting the best of him. “What are they doing with your cousin?”
After inhaling a deep breath and slowly letting it out, she said, “Jane came with the constable. She’d told Nelson and her brother-in-law what she’d witnessed in the book room. They talked to the Lord Chancellor and he agreed the children would be safer in Jane’s care.”
