Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“ Y ou’ve been an excellent host, Your Grace.”

It was easy for Selina to nod along with the murmurs of agreement, smiling at how her friend blushed slightly at the appreciation.

“Oh, goodness.” Nora shook her head quickly. “It’s been my pleasure getting to have so many people in my home for my enjoyment and theirs. I’m glad you do seem to be enjoying yourself.”

“Of course, Your Grace. You’ve been nothing but gracious towards us, and we’re thankful to have been granted such a lovely vacation. And thanks to your masterful planning, many young women were given chances to make ideal matches!” a Baroness, Lady Winters, said delightedly as she reached for her fifth scone.

“Oh, yes! It has been quite a treat watching young romance bloom at the beginning of winter. Very whimsical,” Lady Clemonte added cheerily.

“I did not do much more than try to give others a chance at love. I will admit, it has been quite thrilling watching all these young people fall in love,” Nora sighed wistfully.

“And we even have a very anticipated potential match for the Duke of Crauford!”

Selina felt her heart burn deliciously at the mention of Aaron, nearly consumed by the memories of their meeting last night. She had told herself that everything would return to normal with enough time apart.

But seeing him at the twelfth night dinner brought back the feeling of his hands and mouth on her, her lips throbbing in memory of his bruising kisses, and her body yearning for more of his heat.

She could understand now why he said what they had done was far too dangerous because it had been very difficult for her to act like she wasn’t being consumed by the desire for someone she couldn’t have.

“Oh, right! Lady Eleanor seems to have caught the Duke’s eye. Well, tell us, Lazy Eleanor! What do you think of the Duke? He seems quite charming if a bit stiff. What is he really like?”

Selina couldn’t help herself, letting her gaze travel down the table to where Lady Eleanor sat, her cheeks slightly tinged with pink.

“He is very kind. And smart. He is quite the gentleman as well,” she told them quietly.

“And? Has he expressed his interest in you directly?” another woman asked.

For some reason, Selina’s breath halted on its way out of her lungs, waiting anxiously to hear her response.

Eleanor hesitated momentarily, but she nodded.

“He has.”

Hurt flashed through Selina’s chest as she shakily inhaled. She tried to hide her disappointment by reaching for her cup of tea, but she found it empty.

The feelings in her turned sour, rapidly festering into something she did not understand and wasn’t sure she could hide away, but then, someone refilled her cup, and she looked up to find Nora smiling at her sympathetically.

Selina’s confusion intensified, but she was grateful for the act of kindness regardless.

“How wonderful! Who knows, you two might get married shortly! Winter weddings are always so romantic —”

“I wouldn’t trust the Duke of Crauford so easily if I were you. Or any man for that matter. They are a quite a wholly unreliable bunch.”

The table fell silent immediately, the women exchanging uncomfortable glances between themselves while an elderly woman simply stirred her tea with a calm expression.

Selina recognized her as none other than the Dowager Duchess of Crauford, Aaron’s stepmother.

“Ah, Your Grace,” Lady Clemonte laughed uneasily, “I think you must give yourself some more credit! You raised a proper gentleman. From what we’ve seen, he’s very well-behaved and is quite nice.”

“Good breeding hardly keeps a seed from growing up without the rot it has always had within. The Duke might appear to be the very picture of perfection, but can we really ever know what a man thinks? They are quite cunning, always devising some scheme, all the while putting up fronts of propriety. I do not mean to imply anything by it, my dear. Just that you must know your husband well enough before you are married,” Bridget responded coldly as she raised her cup and took a sip of her tea.

Selina’s hand curled up into a fist on the table as she stared down at the Dowager Duchess in irritation.

How dare she?

“But His Grace does seem genuine. His kindness shines brightly, and he really is more well behaved than most of the men I have met. I couldn’t possibly imagine him being anything other than the man I have spoken with,” Eleanor said quietly, her eyes holding a storm of confused emotions.

“I fear that you might be mistaken,” Nora spoke up suddenly, resting her gaze on the Dowager Duchess seated at the opposite end of the table from her. “Surely, you must know the man you raised is as good as they come. After all, you did raise him.”

There was a note of warning in there, and Selina noticed. Almost as if Nora was beseeching Bridget to think of what she was doing and how it would affect her as well.

An uncomfortable, awkward air settled upon the other ladies, who exchanged subtle glances of confusion between themselves. But before anyone could say anything, Bridget looked directly at Eleanor, who appeared startled by the woman’s attention, and smiled before saying, “I am merely concerned for you, dear. A lot of lifelong problems stem from marrying the wrong person. I merely wish to keep you from making a decision you would inevitably come to regret. You seem like a lovely young woman, so I believe obtaining a line of suitors would not be hard for you. I urge you to choose wisely.”

Eleanor nodded silently, clearly uncomfortable after her potential suitor had been ridiculed by his own stepmother, of all people, but seemingly unwilling to argue that the Aaron she had come to know was nothing like that.

Selina’s frustration and annoyance grew, flaring at the sight of Bridget’s smug expression. She knew it was none of her business. It wasn’t like she held any fondness in her heart for the Duke. Still, it was not right that someone who clearly didn’t know or understand Aaron could slander him mercilessly in public and get away with it.

“That’s not true.”

The women turned to her.

Bridget raised an eyebrow at Selina, seemingly disinterested in the words of a nobody.

“I beg your pardon, child?”

“None of what you said about the Duke is true. He isn’t deceptive or pretending to uphold proprietary — because who in their right mind would choose to be such a boring person? He really values and possesses a good character, which is as infuriating as it sounds. He is responsible and easily one of the most reliable men I have come to know. I have learned all of this from simply being under his care for the last few days in place of my sister and brother-in-law. It is a shame, Your Grace, how you’ve lived with him through his whole life, and you still have no idea how wonderful a man he is. And it is not very motherly of you to publicly slander him like this. With all due respect, regardless of what your true feelings for him are, a good mother would rather shield her child from shame rather than announce it so boldly for others to know and pick her child apart.

“You do not have the right to ignore and belittle all the efforts he has made to grow into the sort of man he is — a good man. Even if you have concerns, it is wrong to voice them the way you have. If you are truly worried about Lady Eleanor, you can wish her all the best, sincerely, without insulting the Duke. Their courtship has no place for you, anyway.”

The Dowager Duchess stared at Selina in shock which felt reasonable because the lady in question was just as surprised at herself.

“You — how dare you? What gives you the right to speak to me like that?” Bridget snapped.

“Oh, you do not like my words, Your Grace? I apologize, but your impression of the Duke might not sit well with him if he had heard your remarks as well,” Selina said as politely as she could.

“Watch your mouth, girl. This rude behavior is unbecoming of a lady — especially one who is seeking a husband. Perhaps that’s why you are still unmarried. You will do better to behave sensibly, moving forward,” Bridget hissed.

Selina’s eye twitched. She’d had enough.

The true disappointment lay in the fact that even Lady Eleanor hadn’t come to Aaron’s defense as the woman who was meant to protect and care for him tore apart his character before others.

She thought bitterly that neither of them deserved him, only to be struck by how strongly she felt about the issue a moment later.

Why did she care so much? Why had she just made a public spectacle of herself on behalf of a man she always fought with whenever they were together? Why had her heart hurt so much at the thought of him being seen as anything less than the good man she had come to know him to be?

Did she perhaps… love him?

“E-Excuse me,” she mumbled, hastily rising to her feet and leaving the drawing room.

Selina quickly returned to her room, her heart pounding so hard that it seemed to cause her whole body to shake. Once she was alone, she locked the door in a bid to hide from discovery.

Yet, something told her it was futile to try because it was far too late.

She was wholly, utterly in love with Aaron.

And he would never love her back.

Aaron knew from the moment his stepmother had spoken up that nothing good would come from it.

It wasn’t anything he hadn’t heard before, either behind his back or straight to his face. She had never spared his feelings or hesitated to tell him just what she thought of him, not since he was a child, and after she exposed the illegitimacy of his birth, Aaron thought there was nothing more she could do to humiliate him publicly.

Even as she degraded him to a group of women, along with Samuel, who had been walking by his side until they’d heard Aaron being mentioned, the most he felt was mild embarrassment and exhaustion.

Then the strangest thing happened. Selina defended him.

Aaron couldn’t believe his ears, wondering if his sleepless night had bore consequences that manifested late, but the impressed look on Samuel’s face told him the occurrence was, in fact, real.

“Well done, Lady Selina,” Samuel grinned proudly. “It is about time someone put that old, despicable crone in her place.”

Aaron stood, listening as she complimented him — in a way that was not unlike her at all with her little jabs at how he infuriated her — and his heart throbbed painfully in his chest.

He had never felt the need to defend himself to Bridget, so he never bothered. There was only so much that could be done to change the opinion of someone who had never looked kindly upon him.

And hearing Selina put herself on the line for his sake weighed down his heart and mind.

“We should leave. It is wrong to eavesdrop,” Aaron said just as the Dowager Duchess began to scold Selina for being rude.

Samuel looked like he wanted to complain, but then he relented, gesturing forward to urge Aaron to walk ahead. Wordlessly, Aaron did just that, his mind overrun by a flurry of thoughts.

Why would Selina do that? Why would she challenge the Dowager Duchess like that? Why would she put herself at risk of looking bad before the other women just to protect him?

He didn’t understand her or her actions, but the same couldn’t be said about the thrum in his chest when he recalled how determined she’d sounded when she spoke of him.

She was constantly stirring his heart, and it was making things so much worse for him.

“I didn’t think Lady Selina liked you at all. In fact, I was willing to bet a small fortune that she despised you,” Samuel noted cheerfully.

“That is why gambling is for fools with nothing better to do,” Aaron grumbled.

Samuel nodded in agreement, momentarily hesitating before he said, “I think you should speak to the Dowager Duchess. Tell her to cease interfering with your life. It is one thing if she was being rightfully vengeful, but you have done nothing wrong. It is ridiculous and unnecessary how insistent she is on making you out to be the villain when your only ‘ crime’ was being born.”

“It wouldn’t yield anything,” Aaron responded tiredly. “She is far too attached to her hatred, and I am well aware that all she can do is talk as much as she wishes. We’ve lived that way for years, and I have learned to drown out her incessant complaints easily enough. It is not as though she can harm me — I’d actually like to see her try.”

Samuel sighed, clearly exasperated. “But you wish to get married, friend. No woman would wish to have such a bothersome mother-in-law. And if you do not find it in you to care enough to defend yourself, do it so that wicked woman doesn’t consider switching targets or looping your wife in alongside you.”

It was a good point, especially as Aaron considered the fact that Selina had stepped in on his behalf and had ended up facing his stepmother’s wrath.

A part of him longed to stand between them, to snap loudly enough to make sure his mother never looked in Selina’s direction again.

But still, Aaron knew it would be a waste of his time, combating with someone who only responded with her stubbornness, leaving only one viable option left for all of his problems.

“Let us leave. It is rude to eavesdrop.”

Samuel pursed his lips, looking as though he wanted to argue but was choosing not to out of respect of whatever hard expression he saw on Aaron’s face.

As his friend turned around and began to walk away, Aaron granted himself four quiet seconds to linger by the door before he walked after him.