Page 85 of The Odyssean Duke

“Wonderful,” Theodora replied loftily. “You have discovered the obvious. I am certain that we are all very proud of you.”

“Will youlisten?” he asked, his temper fraying.

Theodora waved a hand for him to continue, but her face remained as hard as stone. Convincing her to tell him where Evelina was would not be a simple task.

“Evelina is a good woman,” Stephan said. “I am a monster for not taking better care of her and for not treating her with the respect that a wife deserves.”

“You are,” Theodora agreed.

Stephan sensed the undercurrent of anger from her. It was apparent that Theodora doubted his sincerity. If anyone knew where Evelina was, it had to be her sister. Stephan must persuade her to tell him where Evelina was. If she did not…

If Theodora would not tell him, Stephan would have to speak to Evelina’s other friends. He would have to journey from townhouse to townhouse until he found her, and Stephan did not know if his pride could survive such a devastating blow.

“Please,” he said. “I know that I have mistreated her. Without Evelina, I am in agony. I care deeply for your sister, and I want nothing more than to prove that to her. If you will only let me see her, I can—I want to make amends.”

“I suppose you are worried,” Theodora said. “Your deadline is looming large, isn’t it? Now, you have lost the one woman who might give you a legitimate heir. That is unfortunate, but I?—”

“I do not care about the deadline!” Stephan exclaimed. “It does not even matter anymore. There never was a deadline, only a desperate woman clinging to her ill-begotten power.”

Theodora frowned and perched on the arm of the nearest chair. The tiniest of cracks appeared in her stony face. “What do you mean?”

He quickly explained what he had learned about Her Grace’s forgery. When he was finished, Theodora stared at him with wide eyes and a startled hand held over her mouth. “Evelina did not need to marry you at all!”

He recoiled at the words, in part because he had already thought of that himself, and the thought of Evelina leaving him was…unbearable. “I know,” Stephan said. “I know, and I want to remain married to her. I—I do love her. I want to be with her.”

“So why didn’t you tell her that?” Theodora asked quietly.

Stephan clasped his hands together and let his forearms rest on his knees. “Because I was caught off-guard by the strength of my own feelings for her. I did not expect that I would love Evelina, but I do. The realization frightened me because I never—I never thought I would love anyone. I always resolved to be alone, to never let anyone close to me. And she…I want to tell her that. I want to give her a choice about whether we ought to remain married or not, even if being left by her will break my heart.”

“Oh,” Theodora whispered. “Oh, you…”

“You want her to have a choice, too,” Stephan said. “That is what any sister would want. Please. Just tell me where she is, so I can go to her. I want to tell her the truth about everything. I want her to know that I love her and want to be with her.”

“And if she does not want to be with you, will you truly let her go?” Theodora asked quietly. “Are you prepared to do that?”

She could not have hurt him worse if she had risen from that chair and physically attacked him. Stephan nodded. “Yes, for Evelina—I am prepared to do whatever must be done. If she does not wish to remain married to me any longer, I am prepared to respect that choice and every other choice she might make.”

Theodora slowly nodded. Her eyes took on a distant look, as if she watched something far away that he could not see. Then, she took a shuddering breath. “If you have lied to me or if you upset her…I will never forgive you,” she said, her voice trembling. “I am only agreeing to help you because I believe it is best for her.”

“I understand.”

His heart was in his throat, and as he stood, desperation surged through him.

Theodora nodded. “Evelina is at our mother’s house.”

CHAPTER 37

Evelina sat on the stone bench behind her mother’s house. The warm spring wind drifted through the air, rustling leaves and flowers. Evelina held a pencil in her hand, her sketchbook laid open upon her lap. After days spent languishing, Evelina’s mother had insisted that she do something besides lie on the sofa—for the sake of her health. Evelina had gone to sit in the gardens, hoping for some rejuvenation from the sunlight and the wind.

As if anyone could really berejuvenatedat having lost a lover, of course. Evelina inhaled the sweet scent of the flowers and drew up her knee, resting her chin atop it. Despite having spent hours in the gardens, her sketchbook remained mostly empty. The blank pages seemed to mock her.

“Your Grace!” Her mother’s maid approached her, dipping into a quick curtsey. “The Duke of Rothbury has come to see you.”

Ice crept into Evelina’s veins, and she stared at the maid as a rabbit might stare at a fox, still and lost. “He…he is here?” Evelina rasped.

“Yes, Your Grace. Should I send him away?”

Evelina swallowed hard and closed her sketchbook. Her chest ached, as if his rejection had hurt her both body and soul. What could he want? She could think of any number of things—the end of their arrangement, his promised heir, her apologies—each item more distressing than the last. Evelina inhaled and exhaled, timing her breaths and imagining that they matched her heartbeats.