Page 64 of My Duke, The Stranger
That was when this marriage, this new life in which Isolde found herself, would finally start for real.
Twenty-Six
Isolde paced the morning room as her nerves steadily built. She ought not to have been so nervous, but she was. Nervous and excited, in fact. It was a cavalcade of emotions that poured through her body, tied together neatly because she knew just how important today was.
Cassian needs to be shown what it means to love and have those who love you in return. He needs to understand that it is not a weakness but a strength.
She had spent all yesterday organizing this. It had been done in secret for several reasons, partly because she did not want Cassian to find out, and partly because such secrets were necessary because of who she now was.
And now that the moment had come, well, she wished that it would hurry up!
“Your Grace…” Mr. Pemberton appeared in the doorway of the morning room.
She looked up, her eyes wide. “Mr. Pemberton! Are they…” Her words caught in her throat.
His smile told her the answer and the tightness in her chest loosened considerably. And then her heart soared so that even the sun seemed to brighten as Mr. Pemberton stepped aside and in rushed two very familiar faces.
“Isolde!” Thomas came first. He wore a dusty old cloak, chosen to hide who he was, but the hood was down and that allowed for Isolde to see that face which she had missed so much.
He rushed at her, his little arms held wide, and she dropped to her knees and pulled her brother into the tightest of hugs.
Next came Marianne. She hesitated by the doorway, her hood still up, a look on her face that was unsure and a little afraid. She bit into her lip as she looked the room over, and then she found Isolde, and her brow creased as she studied her older sister in a way that might have suggested she did not know her.
Still holding Thomas, Isolde raised an eyebrow at Marianne and then beamed. Marianne sniffed back tears, she took a hesitant step into the room, and then she ran for her older sister.
“There she is…” Still holding Thomas, Isolde swept Marianne into her other arm, and for a moment, she simply held her siblings close.
It had been so long since she’d seen them both. Far too long, by her estimation. When the wedding was first announced, she had planned on inviting them to the ceremony and then slowly introducing them to her new world. But with the revelation of who she really was tearing her world apart, Isolde had been forced to stay away from her family for fear of her secret coming out.
Even this visit had been carried out secretly.
Her father was forced to remain behind. Thomas and Marianne were brought here in a carriage, hidden from prying eyes so that no questions would be asked. Even the staff had been given strict instructions to avoid this room today, as well as the back garden where she planned on spending most of the day with them.
But it was done, her heart was full, and Isolde could not remember a time she had been so happy.
“We thought you had forgotten about us,” Marianne said through sniffles as she pulled back from the hug. “Why did you not write to us?”
“I wish I could have,” Isolde said. “But it has not been that simple.”
“I told you she didn’t forget!” Thomas said to his sister. “I told you so!”
“I will explain everything in time,” she promised them. “For now, let us just enjoy the fact that we are together.”
Thomas did not seem to care about where he was. He was just happy to be with his older sister again. Marianne, however, as she was older, seemed to register the strangeness of it all and the seriousness too.
She looked around the morning room, her eyes wide. “You live here…”
“I do,” Isolde said.
“Father said… he told us that you and His Grace…” She frowned as she looked around the room. “He said you were a duchess, Isolde. Is that true?”
“It is,” she said.
“Does that mean I am…” She hesitated, almost afraid.
“Come.” Isolde stood and took her sister’s hand as she held onto Thomas. “Let us go outside, and I will tell you everything.”
She led her brother and sister secretly through the manor and into the back garden. As she had known would happen, Thomascried out in glee when he saw the expanse of it. All the colors. How beautiful and green it was. He released her hand and giggled as he ran ahead, so thrilled that Isolde wondered if he might start to fly.
