Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
“ O f course,” Lucien whispered as realization dawned on him.
Several realizations, in fact. For, given Lady Edwina’s reaction, he realized that she knew—and she knew exactly why her brother disappeared in the night.
“Laudanum. The opiate they prescribed you when you were injured,” he added, louder this time.
“Get off me,” Nicholas snapped, jerking away from him, but he stumbled back, catching himself on the arm of the settee. He wrenched away when Lucien reached out to steady him. “I do not need your help!”
The broken bottle was empty, and his pockets were dry, which could only mean that he already had his fix.
Lucien could spot the signs now. The rough appearance, the weakened state, the unfocused look in his eyes. He had thought it was some sort of mental illness or alcohol dependency, but laudanum was another subject entirely.
Nicholas was addicted. To laudanum.
It was why he was drowning in so much debt, why Edwina’s distress had grown at the thought of receiving help, and why she had always been so reluctant to answer Lucien’s questions.
“How long?” Lucien asked, trying to keep his voice calm despite the anger he felt at being betrayed.
Nicholas could not meet his eyes. He only looked away, keeping silent.
So Lucien turned his glare on Lady Edwina. “How long ?”
Still, nobody answered him, and the air became unbearably thick with tension.
“Let me help you up,” he muttered, hauling Nicholas up with one deft tug, giving him no room to protest.
Nicholas swayed, knocked off balance by the sudden movement. He looked pale as his eyes tried to focus on something, but they were heavy.
“Brother, are you hurt?” Lady Edwina rushed to her brother’s side. “You could have cut yourself.”
Nicholas remained silent as he shook his head and took off his jacket, which was dusted with more glass shards and tiny specs of dust.
“You cannot go silent now,” Lucien told him, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice. “You had plenty to say when you found me with your sister. Speak to me, dammit. We were friends once—what stops you now? Is it your shame?”
At the mention of the situation Nicholas had walked in on, the Earl’s focus sharpened once more.
“What about your shame, Lucien? You embrace and kiss my sister in such a manner under my roof?—”
“Your roof is one storm away from collapsing on your heads because of your addiction,” Lucien countered. “That is why, is it not? That is why you have fallen into such a state. That is why you let your house fall into disrepair. That is why your sister did not have a new dress in Heaven knows how long. That is why your furniture is old. Because your fortune has been spent on laudanum.”
“Do not throw accusations at me when you turned your back on me! Do you think this is the way to treat me after all these years? By seducing my sister and charming my aunt?”
“I did not turn my back on you,” Lucien spat. “And I did not seduce Lady Edwina. It-It was nothing, what you saw. You closed every door in my face, Nicholas. I tried and tried to keep in touch with you. I wrote letters. I knocked countless times. I tried to speak with you at those infernal social events. You turned me away at every chance, so do not claim that I abandoned you.”
His eyes slid to Lady Edwina. “I told you that I had attempted to remain in your brother’s life, but he turned his back on everyone, even you. Do you still defend him? Do you still claim that I left him when he needed me most? I tried to be there for him.”
“Stop,” Nicholas murmured, and Lucien’s gaze snapped back to him. “Stop… arguing… I cannot… cannot…”
His face was as white as bone, and his thin frame was swaying like a leaf on the breeze.
“Nicholas!” Lady Edwina cried right as her brother collapsed to the floor.
Lucien’s anger evaporated at the sight. “Do you still insist on not involving anybody?” he growled at her. “He needs to see a physician. His addiction could have done a great deal of damage, with it going unchecked. Not to mention the places he visited and the state they may have left him in.”
“What was I supposed to do?” Lady Edwina asked, her breath hitching.
She knelt at her brother’s side, brushing his hair back from his forehead, which was damp with sweat.
After a moment, she nodded. “Send for a physician.”
Edwina did not know how the situation had unraveled so fast. Her brother’s anger, the Duke’s betrayal, her distress. She clutched her brother’s hand as he lay in bed. The Duke had carried him to his rooms with the help of a footman.
The physician had just finished his assessment and sighed.
“I have seen this in many unfortunate cases,” he said, packing up his medical bag. “However, the Earl will be quite fine with rest, water, and some food. It was the lack of food that caused his fainting episode. All I recommend is that he is kept under watch.”
“And I trust we can rely on your utmost discretion with this personal matter,” Edwina said, not entirely recognizing her voice.
It was steely with worry, with the need to keep her brother’s secret. She had done so ever since he returned from the war, and she would not stop now.
“Of course, My Lady,” the physician promised. “Good night. Ensure that His Lordship gets the rest he needs.”
He stepped out of the room and was seen out by Mr. Calloway.
Edwina was alone for only a handful of moments before the Duke entered. He had given them some privacy, yet she did not doubt that he had heard every word of the diagnosis.
“Food,” she scoffed. “My brother must run an earldom, yet he cannot even remember to feed himself.”
“Addiction tends to do that,” the Duke answered. “He is too focused on laudanum to think of food. He is too busy passing out or chasing another bottle of opium to care.”
Edwina’s eyes flitted over her brother’s thinner frame. “He came back from the war very broad. I recall that the most, for I teased him endlessly about how the ladies would fawn over the muscular soldier. And now look at him. He is so, so pale.”
“You worry about him.” The Duke approached the bed, his eyes dark with emotion. “But you have never needed to do it alone.”
“I have done everything alone, Your Grace. Forgive me if I did not see how that needed to stop, or that I could hope otherwise.”
Her voice was flat, and she felt hollowed out by all the commotion, drained by her constantly racing thoughts.
“Except you could hope otherwise when I showed up,” he told her, sitting at Nicholas’s other side. “You were no longer handling everything alone.”
“That is not an easy thing to accept when you have grown up in the environment I have. My brother’s addiction… I had to keep it to myself for fear of it ruining us. I did not see it as my secret to tell. I had to do what I could to protect my family, especially considering your fall-out with my brother.”
“He has been funding his addiction with your family’s fortune, has he not?”
Ashamed, Edwina nodded.
The Duke sighed. “Lady Edwina, do you understand how bad your brother’s accounts are? When you and Lady Isabel ventured out earlier today, I visited your accountant. I have learned the full, harrowing state of your financial affairs. At least, that is the case with official creditors. Heaven knows what sort of unwritten debts he has.”
That thought had already plagued Edwina’s nightmares a thousand times.
She swallowed, her brow furrowed. “It is not right that our accountant revealed such sensitive information. You are a stranger and have no right to?—”
“A stranger?” The Duke’s eyebrows rose in affront. “I am your brother’s business partner. I am hardly a stranger.” He stood up and walked past Edwina, but he paused in the doorway, glancing back at her. “And besides, I am a duke. I can get whatever I want.”
He left the room, but Edwina refused to let him win this time. She followed him into the hallway. He was already making his way to his temporary chambers.
“Your power gives you too much entitlement, Your Grace.”
“And yet is it not fortunate that I found out the truth?” he retorted, rounding on her. “I thought that Nicholas was struggling, but not to such an extent. Do you know how truly close you are to poverty, Lady Edwina?”
“I thought we were not strangers,” she murmured, her eyes falling to his lips. “Yet, you address me so formally.”
“Would you prefer that I call you by your Christian name?” he asked.
She nodded her head.
He blinked, caught off-guard. “Fine then, Edwina. Your brother has almost run your family into the ground. His addiction has corroded this estate and your finances, and the cracks are showing. Soon enough, it will fall apart entirely.”
“But… the venture… the income?—”
“Is a start, but I underestimated the gravity of the situation. That income might take a year or two to land you back on a solid footing where you will not be scrambling to pay one maid, let alone a full staff, as your house requires.”
Edwina’s breath caught, and she found herself unable to speak for a moment.
“I am due to depart shortly,” the Duke continued, “but how can I, knowing what I am leaving you in?” His voice was softer now. “I understand that you wish to protect your brother, but he has not protected you . You thought that covering up your brother’s addiction protected your family, but it has done the opposite. So, protect them truly and accept the help you need now.”
“What more can be done?” Edwina asked, meaning it as a challenge.
But the Duke already had an answer.
“There is only one way to ensure that your family is not completely destroyed.” He paused. “Marry me, Edwina.”
Edwina could only stare at him. She opened and closed her mouth, fumbling for the right words.
“How can you make such a joke when you know the dire situation I am in?”
“It is no joke,” he said gravely. “I could provide Nicholas with an income beyond measure and secure him partnerships in no fewer than five prosperous enterprises. But tell me this—has the man been sufficiently chastened? What is to prevent him from succumbing once more to his vices and squandering every last penny? And pray, where does that leave you in the end?”
His question—all of them, in fact—caught her off-guard. It was not something she had truly thought of.
Nicholas was angry at the changes in the house and the Duke’s presence, but he had said nothing about the income. Was that why?
Furniture could not pay for his addiction, but the income could.
“I have heard enough stories of soldiers addicted to opium, and they are not pretty. You think he will get better if he sees how much pain he puts you through, but that is not always the case?—”
“I know that,” she snapped.
“These men cannot run households, much less take care of their unwed sisters. Edwina, I know the thought terrifies you, but if you marry me, I will ensure that Nicholas is moved to the countryside to recover. With round-the-clock care. I will also make sure that all your debts are settled—but not until he has proven himself indefinitely reformed.
“It would give me the means to provide for you, to see that you are secure. Think about it. Even if I do solely focus on Nicholas’s rehabilitation, you would be left quite alone. Even with your aunt’s presence, the ton would chew you up and spit you out. Marry me, and allow my name and title to protect you.”
“A marriage of convenience,” Edwina murmured, putting the pieces together.
Their interrupted kiss in the parlor flashed through her mind.
What of that situation ?
She pushed that thought aside. “Nicholas will never agree to it.”
“Your brother could not stay awake long enough to agree to my stay here,” the Duke countered. “Let me speak with him. All I need now is a yes from you.”
But Edwina could not dismiss her doubts so easily. “Why would you do all of this? I understand that you wish to use your influence for good, but why ?”
“Nicholas is my friend,” the Duke said simply. “Whether he agrees or not, I still see him as my friend, especially now that I know the truth. I once considered him as close as a brother would have been. Despite our bitter falling out, one cannot easily erase a friendship. Not when their friend is in need.”
“So you are doing all of this for him?” Edwina pressed.
The Duke gazed at her before nodding. “Yes.”
Edwina wondered why her heart sank, as if she had been hoping for more.
“We must plan this properly, and you must keep me in the know. For example, where will you move Nicholas? What will we tell the ton when they ask?”
“I have a more remote country estate where his condition will be kept secret. As for the ton, we will say that he is visiting a relative, or that he is escorting Lady Isabel back home and has found himself eager to stay with her. To ensure she is settled and not lonely.”
He is saying that Aunt Isabel will go with Nicholas, thus leaving us… leaving us alone.
She swallowed. “And our marriage, then,” she continued, “it will be one of convenience.”
“Yes,” he confirmed. “You will be my Duchess, and we will live together. You shall want for nothing and never have one single worry about money cross your mind ever again. You will have security and protection. On my honor, I assure you that you will have that.”
The next question left her in a rush. “And heirs? Every duke wishes to continue his legacy.”
“I will not demand anything of you if you do not wish to bear my children.”
My children .
For a second, her stomach swooped, despite the situation.
But after a moment, she sighed.
It had been a year of tragedy, after losing her father and watching her brother fall deeper into his laudanum addiction. A year of sleepless nights, constant fretting, lack of invitations to social events, and worn dresses that shamed her.
Everything the Duke told her about her family’s situation was something she had known for some time but had not wanted to accept. Now, they were all at a breaking point, and she had to be the one to do something about it. For her brother’s sake, if not her own.
For Nicholas’s sake . He does not deserve to spend his life like this.
“I want my brother back,” she confessed in a moment of vulnerability. “I want to see him laugh again. Truly laugh. So… I agree, Your Grace. I will marry you.”
She could scarcely believe that she said those words. Her world suddenly tilted on its axis.
The Duke nodded. “Then you must rest. I will take my leave tomorrow morning to obtain a special license. And… Edwina? You may call me Lucien. We will not be strangers after our wedding.”
Her face flushed at the permission to address him so informally.
“Perhaps you wish us to be strangers,” he said, moving closer to her. “However, I wish to hear how my name sounds on your lips.”
Edwina gasped quietly, looking up into his eyes. “Lucien,” she murmured, letting the name roll off her tongue.
Lucien’s gaze bored into hers, and he gave her a small, pleased smile. “Good,” he told her.
He lingered, and she half thought he would kiss her again, but he only lowered his face to hers, taking in her every feature.
“I will ensure that you are taken care of,” he said quietly as if needing to reaffirm it. Then, he pulled away and retreated to his chamber.
Edwina was left hovering in the hallway, unsure where she wished to be.