Trapped with the Forbidden Duke (Forbidden Lords #5)

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

“ W hy not? You have constantly rambled about caring for your brother and wishing him to be safe. Why do you refuse the authorities’ help?”

The Duke’s question made Edwina anxious, and she was already riled up enough from the night they had.

“My brother and I have always believed in handling things within the family,” she answered. “We have managed well enough.”

The Duke gave her a sharp look, and she could already feel his judgment. They were not managing at all.

He sighed. “Deal with this situation however you need. But if it does continue, you will understand why I will insist on seeking the authorities’ help.”

Even though Edwina nodded, she swore to herself that she would see her brother safe and freed from his terrible addiction, or at least managing it much more safely, before the Duke intervened.

“Yes,” she finally answered. “I will understand.”

After that, she let silence fall between them. Her mind kept replaying the moment the Duke had protected her in the brothel, how he had threatened the man who’d implied awful things about her.

What had possessed him to do such a thing? For her, of all people.

She decided to keep her thoughts and questions to herself, lest he press her in return. This was a dance they were learning—questions were kept to a minimum. Neither wanted the other involved in business that was not theirs. Nicholas was their common ground, but that was all. This tentative understanding kept them steady.

And yet it kept Edwina’s thoughts in a tailspin.

What would it be like to share the burden of her brother’s addiction? Would the Duke of Stormhold be furious that she kept it to herself? Would he be more furious at Nicholas for burdening her with this, for reducing her life to a shadow of his chase for poison?

If her brother’s addiction became public knowledge, it would ruin the Montgomery name for good. Her aunt would be disgraced, Edwina herself would never secure a match, and her brother would be turned away from every respectable establishment. He’d be stripped of his status, and their name would be raked through the mud before Edwina could speak up for her brother’s pain.

“What is on your mind?” the Duke asked.

Edwina started, so used to the silence. “Nothing of import.”

He hesitated long enough that she turned to look at him and found him warring with himself.

“I understand what it is like to keep something within the family. I know… it is hard, and that support seems far-fetched in those moments. However, I do not wish to see you suffer through whatever is going on alone. And something is going on, Lady Edwina. I just do not know what it is. While that frustrates me, I respect your request for privacy. Family matters are complicated, and I am angry with Nicholas for making you go through this alone.”

“I am going through nothing,” Edwina answered tightly, defensively.

“The places we have visited suggest otherwise, even if you wish to deny it. Your brother is dabbling in a lifestyle that I have seen before, even though I do not know the full extent of it. And when I do find out—and I hope I find out from Nicholas himself, so you no longer have to carry the burden of his actions—I shall make him pay for what he has caused. Seeing you in those places these last few nights…”

“What?”

“It does not please me.”

“And what does a duke need to be pleased with in regards to a lady who is no more than a stranger to him?” Edwina breathed, and she swallowed at the intensity of his gaze.

He did not answer her directly. He only looked at her long enough that she thought of their kiss in this very carriage. She thought of the muscles beneath the layers that she found troublesome, for she could not stop thinking about sliding buttons through holes and undoing fastenings.

Her face flushed, and she turned away quickly, trying to banish her scandalous thoughts.

Heavens, I should not be thinking such things .

“You may retire to your chambers,” Edwina told the Duke when they sat in the parlor where her brother had been found passed out the other night.

She had hoped and dreaded to find him in the same state, again. At least then he would have passed out in the house.

“I am fine waiting here with you.”

“You do not have to be a hero every moment of the day. I am perfectly capable of waiting up for my brother alone.”

“I believe you have done that far too much already,” the Duke muttered. “I will stay.”

I cannot deny that it is nice to not be alone for once.

“Ah, yes, you will stay with my dear sister, and you will use it against me, I imagine.”

The voice that came from the doorway, thick and slurred, had Edwina on her feet in a moment. She gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth.

Nicholas narrowed his eyes at her. “Oh, do not look so shocked, Sister. This is nothing new, is it not?”

So he is the nasty version of himself tonight .

Her heart sank at the realization.

“Do not make me warn you again of how you speak to your sister,” the Duke growled, standing up. “Look at the state of you, Nicholas. Have you no shame?”

“Have you no shame, Your Grace?” Nicholas sneered, his lip curling. “This is my home, my family. You have no place here. Go home, and stop bothering us. We need nothing from you.”

“Frankly, I believe you need a great deal from me.”

Nicholas snarled at the Duke, stumbling into the room. But then he gripped the doorframe, his fingertips white.

“Nicholas,” Edwina whispered, her heart breaking at his disheveled state.

His eyes were wide and bloodshot, and his shirt half hung off his frame, his jacket gone. A bruise was forming on his jaw.

“Have you been fighting?” the Duke demanded. “Your sister has searched the worst of places, worrying herself ill over you, and you are fighting?”

“Oh, do stop meddling, Stormhold!” Nicholas shouted, his tether snapping. “I do not care for it, and I do not need it. Just because you fancied yourself a fixer of your own family, it does not mean anybody else wants you to fix them.”

“You have grown selfish, Nicholas,” the Duke scoffed. “I am not here for you. I am here for the lady you should be providing for. I am doing what you should be doing. I am here because you are one small debt away from losing everything.”

At that, Nicholas only laughed. His hooded, unfocused gaze flicked to Edwina.

She flinched at the hatred in it, and she tried to remind herself that this was not her brother. This was a product of his addiction, the conclusion of laudanum, and nothing else.

Still… Where was the boy who had brushed leaves from her hair when she was a little girl? The boy who gave her an extra slice of toast when she was hungry after her mother had told her that a true lady kept her figure slender and beautiful?

This man, who had been worn down by an addiction he hadn’t chosen to have, stood now in his place.

Grief struck her for a moment for the brother she had lost.

As if Nicholas saw that grief in her—and it angered him, perhaps made him ashamed—he glared at her.

“Oh, Sister. My dear sister. The one person I thought would stand by me through it all.” His lips curled. “You are just like him . The two of you are conspiring against me, are you not? You whisper about me when I am not here, and you accuse me of ruining us. I have protected you, Winnie?—”

Her chest ached at the name she usually hated. Now, it was being used against her, and he knew how to do it.

“Nick,” she beseeched calmly. “Calm down. Sit down with us. Have a warm cup of tea. Or how about some hot milk, the way I used to make for you when you first came home from deployment?”

“Milk,” Nicholas scoffed. “Milk will not fix me , Edwina. You know this very well. How about you both simply stay out of my way, out of my business, and let me manage my own affairs?” He looked between them questioningly.

“Manage your own affairs?” the Duke echoed. “Nicholas, do not be a complete fool. If this is managing your own affairs, then I would damn well not like to see what it looks like when you’re not doing it. You dishonor your family—your sister, especially. But most of all, you dishonor yourself.”

“Do not dictate to me?—”

“Have you no shame?” the Duke snapped, his temper rising. “I implore you, Nicholas, to take a long, hard look at the state of yourself in the mirror, and then at the state of your life, for I believe it has been some time. And I dare say that if you can live with what you see, then I am ashamed to have ever called you my friend. Your sister deserves to be surrounded by much better.”

Nicholas only growled in response before turning to Edwina. “ You brought him here. Remember that, when everything goes wrong.”

With that, he stormed off.

Edwina had long since counted his footsteps through the house to know that he had reached his bedroom. On the nights when she had been too hurt to follow him, there had been times when she had found him collapsed on the stairwell.

“I should go after him,” she muttered half to herself, moving towards the doorway.

But she stopped when the Duke asked, “What did he mean by ‘ when everything goes wrong ?’”

Edwina froze. “Nothing.” The lie was quick on her tongue. “I am sure he only means that he worries that something will not happen in the right way. It is a fear he must have, as the master of the estate.”

The Duke snorted. “Some master he is. He cannot even care for you properly.”

“He is doing his best,” Edwina argued.

She knew that if everyone else stopped believing in Nicholas, she needed to be the last one. He needed her support, above anything else.

“Is that what you will tell yourself when you are even more desperate?” the Duke asked, his eyes flashing with anger. It wasn’t directed at her, she knew, but she still shrank as he advanced on her. “Do you realize how severe your situation is, Lady Edwina? Your brother is very close to dragging you all into ruin with his behavior.”

She nodded. “I do.”

“Then why do you still excuse his negligence?”

Edwina stiffened, straightening. “Nicholas was right—it is our business.” She did not mean it; it was her only defense to avoid his questions. “I will handle my brother. You handle the household.”

Without another word, she swept out of the room, eager to change out of her old dress, which felt somewhat grimy after visiting the places they had that night.

But before she did, she knocked on the door to her brother’s room. He was indeed passed out on his bed, one leg hanging over the side, and his shirt half unbuttoned. No doubt he had chased away his valet, as usual. His chest rose and fell steadily.

For a moment, Edwina stood next to his bed and reached out to brush some of the hair from his face.

“You are putting me in a terrible situation, Nicholas,” she whispered, her voice firm and tight with anger. For once, she was glad he could not listen. “I am a prideful woman, as Mama taught me to be. But this is… this is awful.”

She pulled her hand back and clasped it with her other one. She looked at the boarded-up window. Their funds couldn’t cover the repairs, and the Duke had already offered to have somebody see to it.

“You cannot hear me, Nick,” she murmured. “So I will speak my mind. When you first turned to this… When you fell prey to it, I was more scared than I have ever been in my life. Even more than when Mama died before my debut. Even more than when Papa died last year, and I feared for the earldom beneath your rule.

“I sat at your bedside, making sure that you took another breath and then another. I have long stopped sitting vigil, but that fear does not ever go away, and I cannot tell you that as honestly as I perhaps need to. We have lost enough people, Brother. Do not let me lose you, too.”

Her voice cracked over the last couple of words, and she blinked back the tears.

“I am incredibly furious with you for putting me through this fear, and I wish you would speak to me. I wish to speak with my brother when he is not incoherent with laudanum, instead of brushing it all off.”

With resignation in her heart, Edwina retreated to her bedroom.

“Something smells incredible.” Isabel stepped out of her room and met Edwina in the hallway. Her eyes were wide with wonder as she began to follow the scent. “Heavens, I have not smelled a full-cooked breakfast in this house in quite some time!”

Her glee seeped into Edwina, despite the restless night she had.

But as soon as they got to the main hall, Edwina’s steps faltered. The frames on the walls were new, and the gilded mirror just past the breakfast room was also new.

The scent of fresh paint was potent, and her attention was drawn to the workers on the ladders, their brushes gliding easily over the walls. None of them paid any mind to her, clearly focused on carrying out their employer’s orders.

Edwina could not help but continue to the breakfast room, only to find a new dining table laden with a breakfast big enough to feed a family much bigger than hers.

Unfamiliar chairs gleamed in the morning light, expensively crafted, and her stomach flipped. Around her, new furniture and trinkets decorated the room. And at the head of the breakfast table was a duke who knew how to use his authority.

He cocked his head at her, his auburn hair brushing his shoulders. “Good morning, Lady Edwina.”

His low voice was indication enough that he knew exactly what he had done for her and how stunned she was. He was not being arrogant about it, only smirking as if he knew he had done exactly what he wanted.

“I… What on Earth…” Edwina trailed off, at a loss for words.

Montgomery Manor hadn’t looked so drenched in splendor for a long time. The windows had new curtains, and the candles on the table were polished to a shine, alongside new utensils.

“I took the liberty of having some furniture from one of my larger properties brought in,” the Duke told her, never once looking away from her.

He was so casual about such a huge gesture, and Edwina couldn’t explain it, but it made her stomach flutter.

“And before you worry, it is not only the breakfast room and hallway that has been renovated. I have already tasked more servants with repainting the parlor and drawing room, and refurnishing those rooms.”

“Heavens,” Edwina whispered, dizzy with incredulity.

“This is most generous, Your Grace,” Isabel said, beaming. “I do wonder if this mirror shall make me look thinner, finally! The other one was most unflattering.”

“I do not think the mirror shall change your reflection, Aunt Isabel,” Edwina commented, biting back a laugh. “Your Grace, I… I find myself at a loss for words.”

“I plan to have you and your aunt fitted for new gowns, should you require them.”

Edwina’s pulse spiked. “Your Grace, this is too much. This is…” She shook her head, overwhelmed. “I swear that we shall find a way to pay you back.”

“Now, do not sound so ungrateful, dear,” Isabel interjected loudly, reaching out her hand so she could pinch Edwina.

Edwina yelped and turned her focus to her aunt, glaring at her.

“I am sure you will be most happy with a new gown, especially with the upcoming social events,” Isabel argued, flashing her a warning look. “Now, how about I ask which modiste we shall visit? Mrs. Hatworth is rather admirable, but Miss Giselle knows my preferences most excellently. Heavens, let me take a look at the hallway again! Your Grace, did you mention that the parlor will be repainted? I must oversee it all!”

She bustled away, chattering happily, not even needing someone to hear her ramblings, and Edwina was left hovering before the breakfast table.

The Duke’s gaze flicked to the spread and then back to her. “Will you join me, or will you simply stand there, gaping?”

“I am overwhelmed.”

“I can see that. So do sit before I tell you the next part of what I have done.”

Edwina was not sure she could handle much more. The weight of the truth as to why they needed such help was heavy. The Duke had done all of this for them, and she could not even properly explain why they were in such desperate times.

“Do tell me,” she said as she slid into the chair opposite him.

“Nicholas is a partner in one of my business ventures.” The simple admission stunned her. “I breed racehorses that notorious members of the ton pay handsomely for. When race season comes, the income grows almost triple what it is throughout the year, and even then the base figure is very lucrative.”

“I did not know you owned such a venture,” Edwina muttered, feeling foolish.

“I have a large equestrian property,” he told her simply. “It is not far from Stormhold, close enough for me to check on it, but far enough that it does not often demand my attention. The income from it has funded the renovation of your house and the commissioning of your dresses. So, no, Lady Edwina, you do not have to pay me back. I will hear nothing of the sort.”

“Since when was he a partner?”

The smirk that graced the Duke’s lips had her weak in her knees. “Since today.”

Edwina was reeling from such generosity, from the lengths this man was going to for them. For a moment, she could only gape at him.

“Edwina!” Isabel called out, her eyes landing on the breakfast table. “Plans for the parlor are most admirable! You must accompany me to the park while we let His Grace’s servants do their work. Let us not get in the way.”

But Edwina’s thoughts went to her brother, who still had not awoken from his deep slumber. He was still in the house, though. She had ensured that.

“I am hesitant to leave Nicholas,” she admitted quietly, not sure if she was aiming it at her aunt or the Duke.

“I am staying,” he told her.

Her heart sank. “That is what I am most afraid of.”

Something unreadable crossed the Duke’s face as he gazed at her. The spell was broken, however, by Isabel tugging on her arm.

“Come, come! We can indulge in these delicacies when we return.” As soon as Isabel pulled Edwina close, she said quietly, “And you can answer some of my questions about your brother, and why he never comes down for breakfast. It has always been his favorite meal since he was a boy. And the tension between you all… Something is afoot, and I wish to know.”

Even as they got into their carriage, Edwina was already thinking of an illness she might use as an excuse for her brother’s behavior.

Her aunt was often easily placated, but she could be sharp when she wished to be, so Edwina prepared herself for the incoming questions.