Page 60 of The Duke's Sinful Deal
You asked, lastly, whether I find the quiet here agreeable.
It is not as it was.
I suspect that answers more than the rest.
Continue writing as you have.
—M
Arabella flipped the page over and scoffed lightly before taking the second letter.
It was an invitation. Light in tone. Entirely proper. A picnic in the park the following day. Jane and Cissie both. A request for her company.
Nothing more than would suggest the weight of the conversation Arabella had just relived in her mind. And yet Arabella read itagain, but slower this time. Her fingers tightened slightly against the paper.
“She wishes to see me again,” she said quietly. “More than what I can say for His Grace…”
Poppet, still upon the settee, flicked her tail in vague acknowledgment.
Arabella folded the notes carefully, though her thoughts had already begun to move ahead of them.
Tomorrow would be another opportunity to say what she had not, and decide what, precisely, she meant to do before her husband returned.
Arabella lifted her gaze, something sharper settling behind it now, something far less uncertain than it had been that morning.
“Very well,” she said.
But the words were not as light as they had been before because now, she knew this would not be a simple outing.
Tomorrow would bring more questions than she had yet given answers to. And she was not entirely certain she would be able to remain as composed as she had been before. Even amongst friends.
CHAPTER 16
When the day came to depart, the house stood as unchanged as it always had. The staff assembled, their farewells measured, their expressions composed.
In the entry hall, a footman bowed with a post tray held between them. “Your Grace, this just arrived after breakfast.”
Maxwell cracked open the letter from Arabella.
It was brief.
So brief, in fact, that he read it twice.
When are you to return?
—Your wife
Maxwell’s gaze lingered on the final line longer than the rest.
Your wife.
There was no hesitation in it. No careful phrasing. No distance placed between the words and what they implied.
His lips twitched, nearly a smile. Nearly.
He requested for paper without delay, and when it arrived moments later, the pen did not pause.
I am on my way back.
