Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

L ouise and her mother walked slowly through the gardens, admiring the shoots that were popping up from the soil.

“That camelia is beautiful,” Lady Northbridge said wistfully as they passed a plant on their left that was entwined around the fence.

The trunk was dry and wiry. To the uneducated eye, it might look almost dead, but there was a riot of flowers all over the branches. The pale pink petals looked like a baby’s blanket in the weak spring sunshine.

Louise waited until they were a good distance from the table before she slowed her steps.

“How have you been, Mama?”

Her mother looked down at her, a flash of pain crossing her face, her eyes strained and tired. “You should not be worrying about me, Louise. You are married now. You have too many obligations to ponder on your old life.”

“Mama, you know that is not why I am asking. How has Papa been since I left?”

Lady Northbridge tutted under her breath and then gave a small cry of delight as she spotted something on the path ahead of them.

“Oh look, Louise, a robin! He must be searching for worms in the soil. He will have his breakfast today, no doubt.”

“Mama.”

Lady Northbridge’s excitement faded. Her eyes followed the bird, which was hopping across the gravel path and pecking at the hard stones, its little wings fluttering madly as it searched for food.

Louise waited. Her mother’s whole body was tight with tension, her teeth worrying her lower lip, the skin dry and cracked.

“You must not concern yourself with me,” Lady Northbridge insisted. “I am quite well.”

“I will always be concerned about you, Mama. There is nothing you can do to prevent it, and you know I would never have chosen to leave you. I simply want you to be safe.”

“I am,” Lady Northbridge insisted. “Truly. He has been preoccupied of late. He spends much of his time at the club or in his study. I have barely seen him. It suits us well. We pass each other very rarely, and that makes things easier.”

There was a stiffness to her expression that Louise found hard to interpret. It felt as though her mother was keeping something from her.

Would she tell me if Father was hurting her again? Perhaps she thinks she is protecting me from the truth.

“And he has not said anything about his agreement with the Duke?” Louise asked.

Her mother stopped, watching a large bumblebee lazily drift past on the breeze. “He never speaks to me about his dealings with other men. All I know is that your father made the arrangement with the Duke in haste. He insisted that the wedding take place as soon as possible. When I asked him for the reason and told him that I did not feel it was the right course, he would not hear any objection.”

Louise thought back to her wedding day and her father’s agitation as they waited in the room above the chapel.

“He said if I did not marry the Duke, we would lose our house, Mama.”

“I know,” Lady Northbridge said gravely. “There is every chance that your father has done something exceedingly foolish, but I have no evidence to prove that. All we can do is keep a watchful eye and be on our guard.” Her hand came to rest on Louise’s arm. “And it is not only you who has suffered a great change, dearest. I have missed your presence in the house. I hope the Duke is treating you as he should.”

Louise watched the little black bee zoom up into the trees and away into the cloudless sky.

“He is not what I expected him to be, but the reason for our marriage remains the same. I think that he cares a great deal for his brother and that finding out what happened to him is the only reason he entered into this arrangement.”

Her mother eyed her for a little while, a soft smile playing on her lips. “Yes, I am sure that is the only reason.”

Louise frowned. “You think there is another?”

“Perhaps not intentionally, but the man’s eyes certainly do not stray from you for any great length of time.” There was a teasing note in Lady Northbridge’s voice now. “I think perhaps he realized the other benefits of having you for a wife.”

Louise scoffed derisively. “He has no interest in me , Mama. Neither of us wanted to be married. I shall be quite content to spend my life among the flowers. The Duke has a beautiful country estate—think of the time I could spend walking the grounds. Perhaps we shall be as you and Papa are. We can spend most of our time apart. I will not have to tolerate his presence overmuch.”

Once again, her mother only smiled as they continued along the path, the swishing of their skirts disturbing the gravel as they walked between the beds.

“And how is your book coming along?” Lady Northbridge asked. “This space has a lovely design to it, but it is hardly the size you might need for your research.”

“I am hoping that I can persuade Christian to take me to Kew Gardens, or even some of the events held by the Royal Horticultural Society.” Louise glanced behind her furtively. “Thank you for the books you put in my trunk, Mama. I have been up very late reading some of them. They have been incredibly useful.”

Lady Northbridge beamed. “I am so pleased. I knew your father would never read them. Should you need anything else, you need only ask. I hope you know how proud I am of all the work you have done. And please continue with your sketching. Your drawings of the flowers in our estate are so beautiful.”

Louise’s heart swelled at the praise so rarely bestowed upon her by her mother. It occurred to her that they rarely had time alone like this, often occupied with their duties.

Wandering in the gardens and speaking about the flowers was not something they did often, and she felt a pang of unhappiness that she might have missed the opportunity to do it more now that they were no longer living under the same roof.

Finishing their circuit of the gardens, they made their way back to the table. Louise could only admire Christian’s unapologetic attitude toward her father. The two men sat in stoic silence, and the Duke was making no attempt at small talk. The disdain he held for her father was even stronger now.

Unwilling to sit in silence for the remainder of the afternoon, however, Louise took her seat and pointed to the primroses in an urn at the edge of the lawn.

“I may paint those this afternoon, Mama, as you have requested more sketches. I adore their color.”

Her father grunted loudly. Then, he reached across the table, his thick fingers picking up another scone as he gave her a withering look.

“You are a duchess now, Louise. It is high time you pulled your thoughts away from such trivialities as plants and concentrated on being a good wife. Your duty is to produce an heir. We can only hope you will not fail at that like the other women in this family.”

Everyone at the table went utterly still.

Christian shot the Earl a vicious glare. He noticed poor Lady Northbridge’s cheeks turning crimson at the insulting words spewing from her husband’s mouth.

“You forget yourself, Sir,” he snapped, his voice like a whip between them. The Earl paused, looking up at him in shock. “I have made it very clear that you will not disrespect me in my own home. I did not believe it was necessary to extend that rule to my wife, but I shall do so now. Never speak of her pursuits in such a manner again.”

The Earl’s response was simply to laugh as though it were a great joke. His reaction sickened Christian to his core, and he was reminded of that moment at the betting tables, where the Earl had callously bet his daughter to the room at large.

The man was utterly heartless.

Christian uncrossed his legs, about to rise to tell him to remove himself from his home, but Louise got there first.

“How dare you!”

His eyes darted to his wife. Her face was red with rage, her eyes flashing with anger he had ever seen from her.

“I do not know why I ever believed that you would be different now,” she spat. “There was a part of me that thought if I complied with your wishes and did your bidding, you might treat us more gently. But I was mistaken.”

She stood up, her hands clenched into fists, her body leaning slightly over the table, her eyes spitting fire as she addressed her father. The venom in her voice was startling, days of repressed fury pouring out of her.

“You will leave this house, Papa, before I throw you out. Mama, you will stay here, and I will ensure that you are escorted home when you are ready.”

There was a stunned silence around the table, and Christian clenched his jaw to keep himself from smiling. The Iron Harridan had spoken, and her will would be obeyed.

The Earl was still buttering his scone, staring up at his only daughter as though she had gone quite mad.

“Did you not hear me?” Louise bellowed.

The only sound now was the wind in the trees. Lady Northbridge was watching her daughter with an expression of awe.

The silence stretched, and then the Earl was moving. He pushed his chair back so hard that its metal frame ricocheted backward and bounced over the flagstones of the terrace. His dark eyes were blazing with suppressed fury, but as he glanced at Christian, he seemed to rein in his temper with a gargantuan effort.

“Your Grace,” he said stiffly but did not bow, “I shall see myself out.”

He spun on his heel, stalking away and back into the house.

Christian watched him, wondering if he should call Fenwick to escort the man to his carriage to drum home the point, but he decided against it. Glancing at his wife, he felt a rush of pleasure as their gazes met, a smile of satisfaction passing between them.