Page 63 of Sincerely, the Duke
Stripped down to his white linen shirt, opened down the front, and tucked into the waistband of his well-fitted black trousers, she stared at him with awe. With his broad shoulders, tapered waist, and muscular thighs, he had to be the most powerfully built man who lived. Even in bare feet with hair that looked mussed, he appeared as strong as all the mighty warriors she had ever read about.
When their gazes met across the room, she wondered if she had the strength to fight for him. He looked at her with such questioning eyes she wasn’t sure. Her greatest fear wasn’t how he would react to her revealing news but that she would lose him, and that he would never take her to his bed as his wife. She wanted the chance to feel his kisses and touch without having to repress and deny all the wonderful stirrings in her body. She wanted to lie in bed with him and respond to his every touch, and more than anything, she wanted to give him a strong, healthy son.
All the different feelings she’d had for him since they’d met now made sense—how his kisses made her feel, and why she was eager to see him and spend time with him even when he was grumpy. Could it be that she was falling in love with him the way a wife should love her husband? All of him. His irritability and impatience, his kindness, and his caressing touch. Everything. Light from his room shined brightly into hers. There would beno hiding from him tonight. Edwina had to face Rick with the decision she, her father, and sisters made long ago, and accept the consequences of keeping silent about the truth.
Would he ask her and her sisters to leave the house, banish them to a small cottage on one of his estates, or—worst of all—file for an annulment on grounds the marriage hadn’t been consummated? That was a very real possibility she couldn’t bear to contemplate.
Inhaling a deep breath, she continued to meet his steady blue gaze, but didn’t know what to make of his expression. There was no anger or disappointment in his features as she had expected. He didn’t even seem perplexed. He looked resolute. That made her shiver more than the chill in the room.
Staring at him, knowing how she felt about him, an unwavering strength came over her and settled in her bones. No matter how he chose to deal with this information, she had to match him and remain resolute too.
Quietly, he said, “Why didn’t you trust me with the truth of your birth?”
Trust?
Edwina’s heart skipped a beat. Maybe two or three. Of all the things she’d thought he might say or ask, that wasn’t one of them. It wasn’t an emotion she’d thought about when considering her birth.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you.”
“Really?” He walked farther into the room and stopped near the foot of her bed where she could clearly see him. He lifted his hands in exasperation and then dropped them to his sides. “Explain that to me, Edwina.”
“I trusted you with the proposal letter you sent to me.” She felt her voice growing stronger. “I handed it to you.You could have thrown it in the fire. My claim would have vanished quickly and no one would have ever been the wiser.”
He nodded. “Yet, you didn’t trust me with this.”
“My father…” Rick’s eyes narrowed tightly and he flinched when she mentioned her father. She hesitated, cleared her throat, and continued. “It was Papa’s instructions that it wouldn’t be talked about among us or with anyone else. To his knowledge, there was no written record of triplets ever living to adulthood that he could find. No one assumes we are triplets because it’s never happened before. He told us not to lie if ever we were asked about it but to never offer the information to anyone, and to live as all young ladies do.”
Rick nodded and looked around the room before settling his troubled gaze on her again. “Are you sure that was supposed to include prospective husbands?” he asked callously.
“Quite sure,” she added, feeling a bit of ire at his tone, though she knew it was justified. “Anyone. Everyone. It should never be mentioned.”
He grunted a laugh and shook his head painfully slow before his gaze locked on hers once again.
“I find that almost irrational.”
Her father was not an irrational man, but she chose not to have that argument on top of the current one. “Perhaps,” she decided to agree, sadly, but what was her father to do other than what he thought was best to try to keep his daughters safe? “After so many years of shielding us from most of society, it was his desire that we be treated as any other young lady with sisters. While growing up he didn’t want us to suffer from extreme cruelties that might happen if anyone knew about the rarity of our birth. I know you are angry with me, but I stand by what I did.”
He scoffed another half laugh as his eyes stayed on her face. “I don’t know what I’m feeling right now, but anger is certainly part of it. That first day we met I kept having feelings of suspicion about you. I felt you were hiding something.”
She winced at the honesty of his words.
“I sensed there was more to you than what you were saying or I was seeing. I allowed my infatuation with you and other things that were weighing on my mind to keep me from delving into what was bothering me. There was an innocent boldness about you that overruled my misgivings. And all the time my first reaction to you was correct. You were hiding something from me—by omission, if nothing else.”
His words wounded her again. Could he stay married to a wife he couldn’t trust? Would he truly consider annulment?
“No,” she said firmly, and with much trepidation. She moved away from the dressing area to step closer to him. She wrapped her hands around her chilled upper arms. “I did not hide the truth of my birth from you. Hiding and not telling if asked are two different things.”
He shifted his stance and placed his hands on his hips. “I’m not believing that right now, Edwina.”
“It’s true,” she insisted.
“Call it whatever you wish. You hid it by omission.”
“I simply withheld the details of our birth.”
Frustration etched his handsome features. He touched his chest with his thumb. “Whichever word you chose, don’t you think that was something I’d like to know before I agreed to marry you?”
His words stung as if hundreds of bees had swarmed her. It hurt that he was right, but she couldn’t let his question stand without answer.
