Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

C hristine sat alone in the breakfast room which she did not like but had expected. She was not hungry but forced herself to eat to keep up her strength. She felt like she was going into battle and had to be ready to fight. She did not know when the fight would come, only that it would, and she would have to be the one to deal with it.

At least the fresh marmalade she spread on her toasted bread was delicious, and the tea didn't need as much sugar in it when paired with the sweet spread on the bread. Plum tarts had been served up alongside smoked kippers, boiled eggs, and slices of ham. Christine took a little of everything, enjoying the multitude of flavors that helped to take her mind from her problems a little.

When she heard a scuffling noise at the door, she looked up to see which of them had ventured down for the morning. The Duke stood in the doorway with a hand on his head.

He groaned and then grunted. "Coffee. Lots of it."

A maid scurried off from the breakfast room to brew up some fresh coffee. Tea was always served with breakfast, but ground coffee was kept in the kitchen should the Duke request it.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Christine asked.

The Duke groaned again and made his way around the table to sit beside Christine. Even after their agreement to dine and talk at night, the Duke had usually taken up a position on the opposite side of the table.

"I have felt better," the Duke said. "This is not the worst I have felt by far, but I need some coffee before I am ready to attack the day."

He sat in the chair beside her and stared at her. The Duke's eyes were red around the edges from sleeping badly, and the brown in the middle was more earthy in the morning light of the breakfast room. He took Christine's hand and patted it.

"I wish to apologize again for my behavior last night," the Duke said.

"You do not need to apologize to me," Christine replied.

The Duke held her hand tightly. "I shouted at you when you did not deserve it, and then I got drunk and fell asleep."

"I ordered you to drink," Christine told him. "You opened up to me last night, and you told me about your past and your brother. I appreciate that you did that, and I know it must have been hard for you."

"I wondered if that were a dream," the Duke admitted. "There are very few people who know what happened when I was a child. I don't wish for other people to know."

Christine patted his hand. "I won't tell a soul. You told me your story in confidence, and I shall not betray that."

"Thank you."

"You should not be apologizing to me, but there is someone you should apologize to," Christine noted.

Coffee was brought into the room, and a cup was poured for the Duke, giving him ample time to consider the comment. He took a sip of the hot, black liquid and then tightened one side of his mouth.

"I have never shouted at Adeline like that before," the Duke said.

As if the mention of her name brought her forth, Christine spotted Adeline down the hallway that led into the breakfast room. She was not coming toward it but hovering at the other end of the hallway before turning away.

"I was justified to get angry," the Duke added.

"I agree with that," Christine said. "Adeline will not, and she is as stubborn as you are. The only difference is that you have more maturity. Neither of you wants to back down, but one of you must if you are to move forward after this."

"I know," the Duke groaned. "She is a woman, but she is still a child. She believes she knows what is best. I thought the same when I was eighteen, but I was young. She does not know what is best for her, and she will not listen to me tell her what is best for her."

"She needs time and perhaps a lesson to learn. Right now, the man she loves has told her he loves her, and she believes him. She clings to him, and the more you fight against it, the more she will cling to him. You need to be on her side, and she must understand that it is not a competition. If you want to talk with him, then she must know that you want to meet him, and not so you can destroy him."

"What if I want to destroy him?" the Duke asked.

"Then you convince your sister that you want to meet her love because you are genuinely interested in the man she loves, but if you believe he will not treat her well, then you destroy him."

Theodore smiled. He brought Christine's hand up to his lips and kissed the back of it. "That is a wonderful and diabolical plan."

"It is nothing of the sort," Christine claimed with a laugh. "It is only common sense. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. We don't know anything about this gentleman, so the first step is to get to meet him, and the only way to do that is to put your sister's mind at rest that you mean no harm."

The Duke took a deep breath in and let out a long sigh. "You are a wonderful woman, Christine. I don't like waiting, and the longer I have to wait, the more can go wrong. Yet, I suppose that the worst has gone wrong, so nothing else can add to that. I will try, but I don't know if I can do this without you."

"You don't have to," she said. "I am here with you, and I want Adeline to be as happy as you want her to be, and I want any man who hurts her to be destroyed."

"I like you more and more every day," the Duke observed with a large smile.

Until then, Christine had only been thinking about how she could sort the problems between the Duke and his sister, but his words stirred the feeling that had only been shoved to the back less than twenty-four hours ago.

She knew it was an off-hand comment, but she could not help but wish it were his true feelings. She held his gaze, waiting for him to say the next thing in case she messed everything up by saying the wrong thing at a time when he was furious for good reason.

"Thank you for taking care of me, Christine. And not only with Adeline. If I had been left to my own devices after that, I would have gone back and made things worse. I have an anger bubbling inside me, and I know I have to keep it in check, but she is the only sibling I have left. If I can't protect her, then I have failed at everything."

"Protecting her is not about stopping her from making her own mistakes but about being there for her when she makes those mistakes. You could not have saved your brother, and you could not have stopped your sister from becoming pregnant. The only thing that matters is what you do next."

"What I do next," the Duke murmured.

Before Christine could respond in the affirmative, the Duke leaned forward and kissed her.

It was not a kiss appropriate at the breakfast table. He did not peck her on the cheek or delicately place his lips against hers. He took her head and pulled her lips to his while he pushed with his lips and then his tongue. It was a kiss that made Christine forget they were sitting at the breakfast table. Even the slight taste of coffee did not jog her memory.

It was a kiss that caught her off guard but was most welcome, a kiss that stirred more than when his lips had been elsewhere, all because of the words that had preceded it. He told her he liked her. It was not love, but the words carried weight, even if they were not truly meant.

Christine felt her head in a spin with everything happening around her, but the kiss rooted her. The kiss reminded her that she wanted more kisses, that she wanted more with the Duke. It was a feeling that she wished she did not have, but it was there. The Duke would not return her desires or let himself explore them because of what had happened as a child, but Christine found some satisfaction in knowing who he was and why he did things.

When the Duke drew back, it was as if the world spun back into existence. Christine gasped as she got her breath back, her face as flushed as the raspberry preserves.

"I do appreciate what you have done for me and for Adeline. I thought I had everything in control, but your help has shown me how much room there is for other people in our lives," the Duke told her.

Again, feelings were stirred deep in the cauldron of her stomach. If there was not a possible pregnancy to deal with, she might have probed him for more, but there were other things on his mind.

"You should leave," Christine said before adding, "Only for a short while. Adeline has been walking the hallways for the past ten minutes, and I know she wishes to talk with me. She is still afraid to face you."

"I am her brother," Theodore argued.

"Which is what makes her afraid to talk with you. You are the closest person to her, especially with your mother being out in the countryside. Let me speak with her first, and then I can relay what she tells me."

The Duke bit his bottom lip as he thought about it. He pursed his lips and then leaned forward and kissed Christine gently. He took his cup of coffee and stood up.

"This helps with the headache, but fresh air will do me wonders." Theodore left the room with his cup.

Christine didn't have to wait long for Adeline to appear. It was perhaps ten minutes later that the young woman scurried down the hallway toward the breakfast room, peeking in, even though she must have seen her brother leave.

"I am so hungry," Adeline said.

"You need to speak with him eventually," Christine observed as Adeline entered the room.

Adeline hung her head and walked to the closest chair, sitting down and spinning a kipper onto her plate.

"Did you think you were going to be let off the hook just because your brother is not here?" Christine asked.

"I thought I could have a little time where I didn't have to think about how much of a mess my life is."

"Well, you thought wrong," Christine replied.

When Adeline looked up from her plate, she looked heartbroken.

"You are like a sister to me, Adeline," Christine said. "I love you, and I wish to help you, but we have to attack this now. You can't avoid the issue and then deal with it. The longer you leave it, the more painful it will become. You must talk to your brother eventually. I can talk to him for you before you do, but your best option right now is to speak to me."

Adeline spent a couple of minutes deboning the smoked fish and chewing on morsels before she looked at Christine again.

"I understand I have to deal with it," Adeline said. "Sometimes, I wish for a moment when I don't have to consider how I have ruined my life."

"You have not ruined your life," Christine told her. "I will tell you what I already told your brother. Mistakes will be made, and problems created, but it is what you do afterward that counts."

Adeline was silent for a moment again, taking a plum tart and eating it as if the world would stop turning for as long as she ate, and everything would be frozen in time.

"I'm sorry for dragging you into this," Adeline said.

"You and your brother are very similar," Christine noted. He had also apologized to her.

Adeline looked over sheepishly at Christine and then continued, "I wrote to him two days ago, but I have not heard back."

"You told him you might be pregnant?" Christine asked.

"Yes," Adeline confirmed. "I told him we should announce our courtship and speak to my brother about it and that everything would be fine. I spoke of marriage and lots of other things, and I bared my heart to him." Adeline started to sob. "I opened myself up to him, and it feels like he has thrust a dagger into my heart with his silence. Oh. Christine, what if I have scared him off?"

"If he loves you, you could not scare him off," Christine assured. "The news is big, and I am sure he is taking his time to consider it."

"You really think so?" Adeline asked.

Christine was not sure. "He loves you, and you know he loves you. That is all that matters, and I firmly believe that love conquers all. We will discuss it together, and we will solve the problem together."

"I only want to talk to him, and I am sure everything will be fine. I have thought a lot about it, and we love each other and would have a child anyway. What does it matter if we do so early?"

Christine could see Adeline was trying to convince herself as much as Christine.

"Give me his name," the Duke stated as he strode back into the room, "and I will ensure he comes here to speak to you, Adeline. If he is ignoring your correspondence, then he is not a worthy man. Tell me his name, and I shall drag him here."

"Theodore!" Christine shouted.

"Theo, I made a promise, and I can't break it. I will not tell you his name until he is ready," Adeline pleaded.

"His name, and all of this is over," Theodore shouted.

"No, Theo! No, no, no!" Adeline showed back.

"Ach! You are insufferable!" Theodore ranted. "I'm leaving!"

Christine stood up to stop him, but Theodore stormed out far too quickly. The last she heard of him was the front door slamming closed.