Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

“ Y ou must be wanting to leave soon,” Rosalie said, several days later as she and the Duke sat at the breakfast table together. It was a beautiful day. Sunlight was streaming in through the windows, and she felt rested and happy. Ever since the night of Redfield’s visit, when her husband had played with a lock of her hair as she’d fallen asleep, she had been sleeping better than she had in her life.

Not, of course, that she had told him this. She was afraid that if she acknowledged the way he played with her hair at night that he would stop.

The Duke looked up from where he was reading a paper at the other side of the table.

“Leaving soon?” he asked, one of his eyebrows raising. “Why would you say that?”

“Well… you got what you came here for,” she said, shrugging. “We only came here to find out what Redfield was up to, and now that we’ve done that, I thought you would want to return to London.”

The Duke hesitated then glanced around the breakfast room. It was one of the few rooms that Rosalie had managed to clean up thoroughly during the week they had been at the castle. She was proud of it, too. The curtains had been washed and were no longer musty, the windows and floors had been scrubbed, and even a new layer of paint had been added to the walls which she’d had local decorators do while the Duke had been out riding a few days previously. The smell had been strong for a day, but after airing it out, it was perfectly fine now.

“You’ve done such a beautiful job already with the castle,” her husband said now. “I do feel that it would be a shame to leave while we are still in the midst of getting it back in livable condition.”

“But you don’t like being here,” she replied uncertainly. “At least, that’s what you said when we first arrived.”

“Yes, well, things change,” the Duke said, and he smiled mysteriously. “It so happens that some of my memories and associations with this place have been replaced by more recent and more pleasant ones.”

Rosalie’s heart beat a little faster in his chest. What is he saying? That being here with me is erasing the terrible memories of his childhood?

“Particularly the memory of us ensnaring Lord Redfield,” the Duke continued, and he winked. “That will always be a very good one for me. In all my days of working with Scotland Yard, I never had an operation go so well. And of course, it is thanks to your brilliance.”

“I don’t know about that,” she demurred, but inside, she felt her heart glowing. “But I am also happy to stay for a little bit longer,” she added. “It is nice to be away from the city. The air here is so clean and pure, and I feel healthier than I have in a long time.”

“You haven’t spent much time in the country, have you?” he enquired, and she shook her head.

“We rarely visited my father’s country house,” she said. “I think that’s where most of his illegal operations were based, so he didn’t want us there where we might interfere. We stayed mostly in town.”

“I see.” The Duke steepled his fingers. “So, I assume that you are not very familiar with the pursuits that the countryside has to offer?”

“Not at all.” She hesitated. “I have also never actively sought them out. I have always been an indoors kind of person, preferring reading quietly to anything involving exercise, dirt, and mud.”

The Duke laughed. “Yes, I can see that. Still, it can be good for the mind and the body to get outside more.”

“I think you might be right.” Rosalie looked out the window to where the sun was filtering through the leaves of a nearby oak tree. She looked back at the Duke. “I feel inspired to do more things that involve taking charge of my own life and living it fully instead of just reading about other people living their lives fully.”

“That’s good,” he said approvingly, “and I’m glad to hear it because I have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise? For me?” Rosalie felt herself blush at the same moment that her heart pounded in her throat. No one had ever gotten her a surprise before. Even Lord Cain, when he’d courted her, had only brought her flowers—which weren’t exactly a surprise.

“Yes,” the Duke said, smiling slightly. “It’s not a physical object, though. I thought perhaps you wouldn’t want a thing so much as a new experience. Watching you fool Redfield the other day made me realize that you have so many untapped talents. Not only that, but I am sure your father held you back from doing any of the things that might have made you feel independent and free, anything that might make you feel like anything other than a trapped woman confined to the house. Plus, after you completed your first mission as the heroine of your own life, I think it’s time for you to have another.”

“And what might that be?” she asked, unable to hide the smile of amusement on her lips.

“It’s time for you to learn to ride a horse. And I’m going to teach you.”

Rosalie blinked at him in shock. “But… how did you know that I’m not able to ride?” It wasn’t usually something she told people as it was a little shameful. Most ladies learned how to ride from a young age.

“Your sister Violet mentioned it once,” the Duke explained. “She said that your father never impressed upon any of you the importance of learning to ride, and because you never visited the country, the opportunity never presented itself.”

“Violet is correct, but that isn’t the only reason I never learned to ride.” She hesitated. It was embarrassing to admit, but after everything she had shared with the Duke, she knew that she should just say it. “You see, I’m afraid of heights.”

The Duke raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yes,” she said, blushing an even deeper shade of red. “I’ve been like that all my life. The moment I’m even a little ways above the ground, I start to feel dizzy and sick, and terror sets in.”

“I thought you seemed nervous when you were up on the top floor of the library with me,” he mused, his eyes perusing her. They didn’t often talk about that day in the library, and it excited her to hear him mention it, as if it were the beginning of some story they were still writing together.

“That’s probably why I fell when I was leaving,” she explained. “I was particularly clumsy because I felt so ill and nervous.”

“Well, I think that makes sense,” he said, nodding. “You have spent your whole life sitting quietly in corners, reading, occasionally dancing but never getting up onto a horse, climbing trees, or doing any of the things a young girl who grew up in the country might do.”

“I fear that being up on a horse would terrify me too much,” she observed, lowering her eyes in embarrassment. “Even thinking about getting up onto its back makes my hands shake. Look.”

She held out her hands toward him. They were already beginning to quiver at the thought of being high up on a horse’s back with nothing to stop her from falling to the ground and breaking her neck.

“It will be a challenge,” he said, nodding gravely. “But I believe that it is worth overcoming the fear.”

“You do?” She wasn’t sure if she was hopeful or filled with trepidation. Of course, part of her wanted to conquer this fear. But the other part of her was, well, afraid.

“I do,” he insisted. “Just think of the pirate girl from that novel you’re reading. What’s her name?”

“Lizzie ‘Nobeard’ Seacliff?” Rosalie laughed in astonishment. “How do you know about that?”

“What do you mean? You’ve been carrying the book around with you for the past week. And I know you’ve finished it, but then I saw you rereading it.”

She hadn’t realized that the Duke had been paying attention to what she was reading, and she was flattered to say the least.

It shows such attention and care .

“I’m surprised you know the book,” she said after a moment. “It is for women.”

“Don’t be so limited in your ideas of the sexes,” he lectured with a sly smile. “Anyway, can you imagine Lizzie being afraid of heights? If she were, she would never be able to climb the main mast to check the riggings or go up into the Crow’s Nest to look for land. And then she wouldn’t be able to be a pirate.”

His sly smile widened.

“As you become more of the heroine in your own life, I think it’s important you be able to do anything you want and not be held back by fears.”

“It’s not as if I’m going to become a pirate,” she pointed out, laughing.

What is he on about?

“No, but you should be able to experience the joy of riding horses,” he said. “All heroines can ride horses.”

“I suppose that’s true…”

“What if, for example, Redfield attacked us in the night, and we had to flee on horseback? You would want to be able to ride on your own, I assure you, and not with me, which would slow us down.”

She gave him a sarcastic look. “Redfield isn’t going to attack the Duke of Carramere.”

“No,” he admitted, “but it’s just an example. Heroines have to be competent and physically strong. And riding horses will make you stronger.”

She looked down at her hands. Her fingers and wrists were less thin than they used to be, it was true, when she had been eating next to nothing. But she was still skinnier than she knew was healthy, and she knew it made her weak and fragile. It wasn’t a good feeling.

“I don’t know if I’m strong enough to ride,” she said, glancing up at him.

“You will become so,” he reassured her. When she bit her lip, still unsure, he gave her an encouraging smile. “Believe me, you will love riding. There is no greater rush than to be flying along on top of a horse, feeling the wind in your hair, the sweat on your back, your heart racing, and your blood singing. You might not be able to sail the seas as part of a pirate crew, but riding a horse may be the closest you can get to being free.”

Goosebumps had gone up Rosalie’s arms as the Duke had described the magic of riding a horse, and now, she nodded. She was mesmerized by the sight of her husband talking about riding: his eyes were sparkling, and he looked more inspired than she had ever seen him.

“You’re right,” she murmured. “I would like to learn. And I would be honored for you to teach me.”

“Good,” he said, and he smiled wickedly before gesturing at the plate in front of her. “You should eat up, then. You’re going to need all the energy you can get if you’re going to learn to ride. It’s a very active sport, and without food, you will tire too quickly.”

Rosalie nodded then stood and returned to the buffet where, after a moment’s hesitation, she piled her plate high with food. She’d already had one helping of everything, but it had tasted so good that she couldn’t help herself from taking a second of everything.

The food here really is astonishingly good , she thought to herself as she placed a lemon meringue tart on her plate. I actually want to eat everything.

It wasn’t just the flavor though, she knew, that was making her eat more than she usually did. It was also the fact that for the first time maybe in her entire life, she felt safe.