Page 21 of Two Blessings For His Duchess
Nathaniel froze, his hand tightening around his riding gloves until the leather groaned. “She is with Cordelia?”
“Yes, Your Grace. They are?—”
But Nathaniel didn’t stay to hear the rest. A hot, sudden surge of fury rushed through his veins. She had disobeyed him. He had laid out the terms of their existence with absolute clarity less than twenty-four hours ago, and she had already crossed the line. If there was one thing Nathaniel hated above all else, it was disobedience. It disrupted order, it challenged his authority, and it proved every single one of his worst instincts about her correct.
As he stormed down the long corridors toward the eastern wing, his mind raced. This was precisely why a union between them was an impossibility. She was the absolute antithesis of everything he required in his life. She was dramatic, she was impulsive, she was entirely disobedient, and she possessed a fierce, exasperating habit of talking back whenever he issued a command. She simply did too many things without a single thought for consequence.
He was a man who was usually right about most things, and his decree to keep her separated from his family had been for everyone’s protection.
He threw open the doors to the conservatory. At the sight of him, the laughter on Cordelia’s face vanished, and she scrambled off the bench, Barnaby instantly whining too. Euphemia stood up slowly, her chin lifting as she met his furious gaze.
“Cordelia, go to your room immediately,” Nathaniel commanded. “Gable, take her.”
The young girl didn’t dare hesitate. She gathered her skirts, called for the dog, and scurried out of the glass room without a word, following Mrs. Gable.
Nathaniel turned his hard, emerald eyes onto Euphemia. “Follow me to my study. Now.”
Euphemia didn’t move an inch. She stood her ground among the orange trees, her blue eyes narrowing. “Why must we go to your study? Why can we not simply speak here?”
Nathaniel paused. He slowly pivoted back to face her, his chest rising and falling with suppressed anger. He took a step toward her. “Are you deliberately trying to upset me, Euphemia? Is that what this is? A game to see how quickly you can defy my orders?”
“I am not trying to be disobedient, nor am I playing games,” she shot back. “But I cannot act like a fool, Your Grace. I cannot avoid your daughters. We live under the exact same roof.”
Nathaniel’s hands clenched into fists behind his back. He was so close to raising his voice, a rare and deeply unsettling occurrence for him, but he forced his voice into a strained hiss. “It is a remarkably simple ask. Your wing is entirely separate from theirs. Why is it so impossible for you to just stay away from them? Explain it to me.”
A profound look of disappointment settled over Euphemia’s features. The fire in her eyes suddenly flickered, replaced by a deep, weary frustration. She let out a long, ragged sigh, staring past him into space for several agonizing seconds as if searchingfor something that simply wasn’t there. When she finally looked back at him, the anger was gone.
“I think we should get an annulment, Your Grace,” she said softly.
Nathaniel felt as though the breath had been completely knocked from his lungs. He took a literal step back, his stunned expression breaking. “An annulment?”
“Yes,” Euphemia replied, her voice trembling slightly as the panic began to visibly settle into her posture. “I think it is best if we get an annulment. I cannot possibly live like this. When I agreed to this arrangement, I honestly thought it would be easy. I thought I could just blend into your household, do my part as a duchess, and move forward with my life. But I cannot do this. It is too much.”
She shook her head, her hands fluttering anxiously against her gown. “I refuse to walk on eggshells in a place that is supposed to be my home. And furthermore, I have absolutely no desire to ruin your life, or my family’s name further. It is entirely clear to me that you are deeply annoyed by the fact that you had to marry me at all. Perhaps it is best if I simply leave, so that I do not ruin your existence any more than I already have.”
Turning away from him, she gathered her skirts, her movements frantic as she attempted to march past him toward the exit.
“Wait,” he muttered.
She didn’t listen, her pace quickening as she tried to brush past his shoulder. Without thinking, driven entirely by an instinct he couldn’t name, Nathaniel reached out and grabbed her by the arm, stopping her dead in her tracks.
Euphemia stopped, her breathing shallow as she looked down at his hand wrapped around her forearm. She followed the line of his arm back up to his face, her gaze questioning, her posture still rigid with the urge to flee.
“Why?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “Why should I wait, Nathaniel? What else is there left for us to say?”
Slowly, Nathaniel released his grip. He took a single step back, giving her space but remaining directly in her path, his eyes locked onto hers. Up close, he couldn’t help but notice just how remarkably pretty her blue eyes were. They were wide, luminous, and filled with an intense light. Looking at her now, it seemed entirely obvious why she was a woman who refused to hold her tongue or accept blind orders. She possessed the kind of eyes that were born to ask questions, to seek truth, and to challenge the world around her.
The brief, unexpected thought brought a faint, almost imperceptible smile to his lips. But it vanished just as quickly as he lowered his head, the echo of Thaddeus’s blunt reprimand ringing loudly in his ears.
He took a slow, grounding breath and looked back up. “My wife died ten years ago,” he began quietly, the admission sounding foreign even to his own ears. “She passed away long before I wasever able to fully understand how a marriage is truly supposed to work. I know that I am rigid. I know that it might seem as though I am entirely uptight, or that I am a man who cannot be levelled with. But my rules... they do not come from a place of malice. I never intended to hurt you.”
Euphemia’s head tilted slightly to the side, her brow furrowing in genuine surprise. The defensiveness around her seemed to soften, her wide eyes blinking as if she couldn’t quite credit the fact that he was explaining himself to her.
“I am sorry for my behavior,” Nathaniel continued, forcing the words past the lingering pride in his throat. “I am sorry, Euphemia. It was never my intention to make you feel unwelcome in what is meant to be your own home. That is not what I want for you, nor is it what I was thinking.”
He paused, his gaze drifting momentarily toward the glass doors where Cordelia had vanished, before returning to Euphemia. “When I walked into this room, I saw that Cordelia looked... remarkably happy to be with you. I will admit, I did not think that would be the outcome of any interaction between you. In truth, it surprised me.” He shifted his weight, his tone growing honest. “My fear... my only real fear was that a sudden change would make everyone awkward and miserable in this house. But Cordelia was laughing, and if she is capable of laughing like that with you, then I have no right to take that joy away from her. Perhaps I made the wrong call.”
Euphemia let out a soft, breathy sound, halfway between a startled laugh and a sigh of relief.
