Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

" C an I join you both?" Adeline asked.

"Please, come in," Christine said before Theodore could say anything.

The Duke sported a worse headache than the previous morning. Adeline held her head as she entered the room and found a free chair on the opposite end of the table to the Duke. Theodore had not chosen to sit right beside Christine this time.

She was not sure how much he remembered of the previous evening, but she remembered what he had said to her before he had fallen asleep, and it meant everything amid the trouble their family was in.

"How are you feeling this morning, Theo?" Adeline asked. "You look ill."

"I am fine," Theodore replied. He was drinking coffee again, but it had done little to lift his mood.

"How are you, Adeline?" Christine asked.

"I am fine," she said.

Christine took up her knife and cut some of the hard, fresh cheese that had been made in the kitchen that morning. It was a lot easier to cut through than the tension in the room.

The Duke might have questioned his sister more if he had the energy to do so.

"You look well," Christine said to Adeline. "Far better than your brother, who arrived here very drunk last night." She was trying to lighten the mood.

"Theodore," Adeline scolded, "I thought you were done with that life now you are married."

"Do you wish to talk about how to live your life?" the Duke asked.

Adeline didn't say anything and hung her head again, focusing on the kippers.

For Christine, it was progress. They were all at breakfast together, and the Duke was too hungover to shout at his sister again and demand a name.

Christine almost wanted to laugh at how pale the Duke looked. He held his coffee like a life raft in the middle of the ocean, and it had already been topped up three times.

"Your Grace, the mail has arrived," the butler said. He walked straight as an arrow to the Duke and handed him a small stack of mail. "One for Lady Adeline," he added, walking to her to pass on a letter.

The Duke was too engrossed in his hangover to think it, but Christine wondered if the mystery man had written her back. She stared with bated breath, her body tense as Adeline opened the letter and read it.

Theodore almost spilled his coffee when Adeline let out a shrill scream. Christine wanted to jump up, but she was frozen to the spot by Adeline's anguish. She could only watch as Adeline crumpled the letter and slammed it on the table with a second scream.

Before Christine could go to Adeline, Adeline was on her feet and heading to the door, letter in hand. Christine looked at Theodore, who was rubbing his temple with his free hand.

"I shall talk to her and find out what this is all about," Christine said.

Theodore nodded, quite happy to stay at the breakfast table and drink his coffee, even if he was concerned for his sister.

Christine got up and quickly left the room, trying to find Adeline before she left the house. It was not hard to find her as she continued to scream as she flew through the house like a banshee. Christine saw her slip into the sitting room from down the hallway and was glad that she would finally be cornered.

When Christine entered the room, Adeline was standing before the fire, sobbing. She was shivering, too, as if she was freezing cold. Christine wanted to know what was wrong, but there was an order of business, and the first order was to comfort her sister-in-law. She went straight to Adeline and hugged her.

"It's all right," Christine soothed. "Everything will be fine."

"No, nothing will be fine," Adeline shouted. She wriggled out of Christine's grasp and then pushed Christine away.

"What happened?" Christine demanded. "What did the letter say? It was from him, wasn't it?"

Adeline looked toward the fire. Christine saw the remnants of the letter and envelope going up in flames.

"What did he say?" Christine begged. "What has he done to you?"

"I am a fool!" she shouted. "Oh, I am such a fool! Why did I do this? Why have I ruined everything?"

"You must tell me what the letters said," Christine told her. "I need to know, Adeline."

"He claims the child is not his, and I must have slept with other men!" Adeline let out three loud sobs and then a wail. "I have only been with him, Christine. You have to believe me. He said he loves me, but now, he calls me a harlot! I love him, Christine. I would not do that to him, but he said so many nasty things to me in the letter, and now, I don't know if he ever loved me. Oh!" The wailing returned.

Christine went to Adeline and embraced her again, rubbing her back.

"He is a cad and a rogue," Christine declared. "He tricked you, and you were only fooled because you saw the good in him. This is not your fault; it is his fault, and we will fix this."

"Fix it?" Adeline shouted. "How can any of this be fixed? I am not giving you his name if that is what you are suggesting. Theodore will do something rash, and it will only bring more disrepute to our family. I don't want to go anywhere near him again, and I don't want anyone finding out. Oh, Christine, if Theo takes matters into his own hands, everyone will know what happened to me, and I will be disowned. There is no fixing this."

Christine rubbed Adeline's back some more. "There is always a solution to everything. I know it might not seem like it right now, but we will get through this. I will talk to your brother, and I know he will be able to help."

"I can't face him right now," Adeline said. "He was right about everything when I thought I was right. I am embarrassed and shamed and stupid."

"Go rest some and then get more to eat," Christine suggested. "You are eating for two now. I will speak to your brother again, and I promise you that when we are done, we will have a plan on how to move forward."

"I don't deserve any of this help," Adeline said.

"It is not about who deserves what," Christine stated. "If someone is in trouble, and someone else can help, then they should. Go. Go rest, and I will talk with Theodore."

"All right," Adeline said. The screaming and ranting had sapped her strength, and she looked as pale as her brother.

Christine left the room with Adeline, and then they went their separate ways. The Duchess walked slowly back toward the breakfast room, trying to think of a solution. She met Theodore as he was exiting the room.

"I have never heard her like that before," Theodore observed.

"I am glad you are concerned about her and not angry at her," Christine said.

"Oh, I am both," the Duke replied.

"I was returning to talk about it," Christine told him. "We need to help her."

"I am done with drinking," the Duke stated. "I could drink for a month, and it wouldn't help. We sort this out now, and we move on with our lives. And I am sick of you having to take care of me in my drunken stupors. Would you accompany me on my walk, and we can talk outside?"

"I would like that," Christine confirmed.

They made their way to the door and were helped into their coats. The Duke offered his arm, and Christine took it. As they stepped outside, she could almost fool herself into thinking they were a regular married couple out for a stroll.

"It is hard," the Duke said as they moved into the trees. "I have tried to be a brother and a father to her. It feels as if I have failed on both counts."

Christine opened her mouth to disagree, but the Duke raised a hand to stop her.

"I know I have not truly failed, but it does feel like it." The Duke smiled as a lark sang from a branch. "I only remember snippets of last night, but one thing that I do remember was when you asked me if I had been out fooling around with women."

"Did I?" Christine feigned ignorance. "I don't remember everything we spoke about."

"I never meant to get married," Theodore continued. "When my father died and I became the Duke, I never believed I deserved it. I am trying to believe that I do, but it is hard. My brother should have been the Duke, and he was always a better person than I was."

"At eleven years old," Christine reminded.

Theodore chuckled. "Yes, as a young boy, I looked up to him. He was three years older than me, and I worshipped the ground he walked on. I know that as adults, a three-year gap means nothing, but as a child, it was a vast abyss, a cavern, a wide ocean. I will always see him as the better person, no matter what type of man he might have grown to be.

"I tried to build a reputation as a rake so I would never have to marry. It was just like choosing Percival as my friend. It is much easier to leave a woman I have no attachment to or for her to leave me, and I never became attached to any of them. I don't mean to be morbid, but they could pass, and it would not affect me deeply. I will never feel again what I felt with my brother. Yet, here I am. Married."

"What does that mean for you?" Christine asked.

Theodore thought about it for a while as they walked. The deeper they ventured into the woods, the more the birds sang as if they were welcoming the humans into their domain. They came through the trees and out into a beautiful clear path on the bank of the river. The water widened where they were, swirling gently near the bank.

Theodore walked to the edge and looked down into the water. "This is where it happened."

"Oh," was all Christine could manage. She stepped forward to stand with the Duke at the bank.

"I told Percival something last night," the Duke said. "I told him that you make me a better man, and I still believe that this morning. You have already changed me, and you continue to change me. I have been the worst of the worst, but since you have arrived in my life, I have changed path. I still can't have a family with you, and I can't treat you as you wish to be treated, but I want you to know that you make people better. I have lost too much to put myself in that position again, but I want you to feel wanted and needed. We need you, Christine."

Christine didn't know what to say to that. Everyone wanted to feel wanted and needed, but to be told in the same sentence that you would never have a family was devastating. She was married to the Duke, and there was no changing that.

Can I be happy with that alone?

"I want to help Adeline," Christine said. "She is the one we both need to focus on."

The Duke turned to her, and his eyes were glassy again. Christine could not tell if he was thinking about his brother or was considering the fact that he could not fully give himself to her.

"You found out what was in the letter?" the Duke asked.

"I did," she replied, recounting what Adeline had told her.

"That blackguard!" Theodore shouted, stamping his foot on the ground. "I will get the name someday, and I will go around to his house and throttle him. I don't care if it is far in the future and he has a wife and children by then, I will throttle him all the same."

"I shall go with you," Christine said.

The Duke smiled. "I would not intentionally hurt someone like that, and I would step up and do my duty, but I have known many men who would not. This is diabolical."

"It is, but we have to make it easier for Adeline. There must be a way we can help her."

Theodore paced the bank, his hand on his chin. He did so for ten minutes before he looked back at Christine with his eyes shallow and almond-shaped and his teeth gritted.

"I don't like it," Theodore said, "but I think it is the only way."

"What?" Christine asked.

"She must be married, and she must be married quickly. We still have standing invitations to some balls, and there is one this coming weekend. We will find her a husband, but it must be at either this one or the next. I shall make it happen."

"We trick the gentleman into marrying her and thinking the child is his?" Christine asked.

She did not like it, but it would solve a lot of the problems.

"I don't know," the Duke said. "I don't like any of this, and I don't know if it is the right thing to do, but she needs to be married. We find a man first, and then we will decide how to proceed. Get Adeline ready for the ball this weekend, and I shall take care of the rest."