Thirty-One
Hours after Aurora left for the accident, Apollo sat in his study, contemplating what he’d gotten himself into. He’d have more than a hundred people whose alliances could very well set the course of his dukedom in a completely different path than his predecessors. He didn’t care about any of it. He wished he’d never come here.
He ignored the knock on his door, then sighed when the door opened anyway.
“I thought I was the worst hostess in the peerage, but you have managed to supersede even my abhorrent hospitality.” Cora stopped in front of him and sent him an appraising look.
“Go ahead,” he told Evan, who had also arrived to rub salt in his wounds. “Laugh at me like you promised you would.”
His brother made a pained sound, then glanced at the gold band on his left hand. “I have no intention of laughing at you,” Evan told him with much more sympathy than Apollo deserved. “I’m merely trying to assess how much thought you’ve already given to deserting your title.”
Apollo groaned and covered his face with his hands.
“That you can’t do,” Cora exclaimed, before shaking Apollo by the shoulder. “You’re not robbing me of the satisfaction of knowing that you will be making all those bigots in the House of Lords squirm.”
“I was thinking about the plans to build schools, hospitals, and improve the situation of our long-suffering tenants,” Evan retorted with a roll of his eyes. “But your personal petty vendettas are just as important, Cora.”
“I’m not abandoning anything,” Apollo sighed, feeling like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “Aurora would despise me if I did.” Cora made a sound of agreement and Evan let out one of those world-weary exhales. “She told me she doesn’t love me,” he confessed into the taut silence of the room.
“You didn’t believe her, did you?” This was Cora, who was now standing by the drink cart pouring whisky into tumblers.
“I don’t know,” Apollo admitted.
He knew she cared for him, knew she even needed him sometimes, but he was starting to think that was the problem. That Aurora was petrified of wanting someone too much and then being cast aside. “I don’t know how to make her believe she’s the only thing I want. That I would give this all up for her.” He’d seen the fear in her eyes when he told her he loved her, the despair when he’d said she was punishing herself. “She won’t hear of it. She’s convinced she’d ruin everything for me.” He pulled on the tufts of hair that were probably already standing up on his head.
“She thinks you’ll eventually wash your hands of her,” Cora said, her voice unusually tender as she spoke. When Apollo turned to stare at her, she had a faraway look in her eyes, like she was recalling something buried deep in her memory. “She’d rather push you away now than let herself trust that it won’t happen later.”
She’d told him that. Said time and time again that she knew he’d eventually hide her. The problem was that there was nothing he could do to prove to her that he’d never do that. She would have to take a leap of faith. Maybe he’d just have to keep proving it until she could believe. He was considering this when his aunt and cousin appeared in his doorway.
“Juli, should you be out of bed?” he asked, then regretted it when the girl flinched at the question. She’d always been such a vivacious girl, curious and whip-smart, but the light in her eyes had been dulled by what she’d lived through. He would make the man pay, even if it took him twenty years to find him. He’d done it with his father, after all.
“Mama has something to tell you.” He frowned at the unfriendly look his cousin sent her mother. His aunt had a caged glint in her eyes, and for the first time, she looked her age.
“I talked to Aurora,” his aunt confessed, confirming his suspicions. “I told her to let you go, that she’d hurt your chances as duke.” His aunt’s sense of ownership over him was becoming cumbersome. He loved her, but his life was his own and when it came to Aurora, nothing and no one mattered more.
“You had no right to do that, Tia,” he told her, his voice hard. “If you cost me the woman I love, I will never forgive you.”
“We have fought for this for so long, sobrino,” she argued, her voice breaking. “I wanted this for you, for my sister’s memory.”
He had too, but he was beginning to wonder if this was ever really about what his mother had wanted.
“I want to think my happiness would’ve mattered to her, that it would matter to you.” His aunt’s eyes filled with tears. “I love Aurora, Tia. She’s worth more to me than any position.”
“She won’t stop her rebelliousness,” his aunt pleaded with him. “She won’t ever conform to your world.” He almost laughed then, because that was exactly what made her perfect. Aurora would never compromise what was right for a place in society.
“That’s right, aunt, Aurora will never lie to me to save my pride, she won’t ever turn a blind eye to an injustice because it’s inconvenient.” His tone was harsh, but his aunt had crossed a line and he would make sure she knew that doing so again would be unforgivable. “She will never choose her comfort over another’s well-being. She’s better than I could ever aspire to be, and there’s no woman who could be a more perfect duchess, for me.” That was the heart of the matter. He needed her and everything else they’d figured out together. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go find Aurora.” He reached the door in two steps.
“Be ready to beg,” Cora called after him, and he had every intention to.
He was down the stairs and out the door in seconds, heading for the stables to procure a horse, but was intercepted by a cariole barreling up the gravel path like it was being driven by the hounds of hell.
“Don Duc,” Jean-Louis shouted triumphantly as he raced toward him with—to Apollo’s horror—Aurora precariously hanging on to her seat.
Was Jean-Louis trying to kill her? Apollo was going to break his neck for driving so recklessly with his woman in tow.
“What are you doing, Jean-Louis?” he bellowed, ready to tear the man’s head off, but the moment the horse came to a stop, Aurora jumped off.
Apollo almost went to his knees from relief as she leaped into his arms.
“I’m sorry I left,” she told him as he lifted her off the ground. This was the only thing that mattered, this woman in his arms. If he had her, he could face anything.
“It’s all right, mi amor, I was coming to find you,” he told her, before kissing her on the mouth without caring what the crowd now gathered outside after Jean-Louis’s chaotic arrival thought. “Wherever you go, I’ll go. I won’t let you run from this.”
“I thought it would be easier if I left, Apollo,” she told him in a small, defeated voice he never wanted to hear from her again.
“It will never be easier for me without you,” he promised, his eyes soaking her in. He pressed a small kiss to the fading bruise and pulled her to his chest. “I’ve known you’re mine for a long time now.” He lifted her chin and a knot formed in his throat, when he saw the tears in her eyes. But he thought this time maybe they were happy tears. “If only to save a few men losing their heads at your hands if they attempted to woo you.”
She offered him a rueful smile at that, casting her gaze upward. “Heads will not stop rolling just because I’m in love.” He was certain everyone in Nice could hear the beating of his heart.
“You love me,” he said, lowering his head, needing to taste her lips.
“Did I say that?” she hedged grumpily.
“Docteur, just put the man out of his misery,” Jean-Louis shouted from somewhere behind them.
“Don’t pressure me, Jean-Louis,” she volleyed back, before rising up to meet Apollo’s mouth.
“Tell me,” he pressed, desperate to hear it.
“You say it first.”
“I love you.” He did not hesitate, then pressed a kiss to her mouth for good measure. “I adore every inch of you.” He continued clutching her tight. “I’m jealous of the damned wind that rustles your skirts, because it gets to touch you.” She swayed in his arms and made some kind of protest, but he would tell her everything. Would leave absolutely no doubt in her mind he was hopelessly in love with her. “I love your scratchy hands and your frumpy suits. I love every single little thing about you, and I will worship you for the rest of my life if you let me.” She nodded, her eyes shining with something that cracked his chest open.
“I love you too,” she whispered in a voice like an ember, bright and hot, and burning. “I will believe that you always will, even when I can’t love myself,” she sniffled, shaking her head. “I don’t know if there’s anyone else who can love me like you do. I don’t ever want to be without you.”
“You never will,” he told her, with the blood rushing between his ears.
“Damn you, Apollo,” she said wetly. “I don’t like to cry.”
“Not even happy tears?” She shook her head, an adorable pout on her lips. “Not even I’m-going-to-be-a-duchess tears?” She scoffed, but there was a tiny lift to the corners of her mouth.
“Especially not! Which reminds me, if I am to go to this party on your arm, I should probably wear something with less bloodstains.” She looked down at herself with a frown and he had to kiss her. “I look a mess,” she said with a wince.
He bent down to kiss her again. “I think you look perfect.”
* * *
“Are you ready?” Apollo asked, as they made their way to the garden where the party was already in full force. It had taken a concerted effort and some true miracle work from Luz Alana and Manuela, but in less than an hour they’d managed to make her mostly presentable.
She looked down at the lovely gown and to her surprise, she was. She was ready. Scared, nervous, but ready to be loved by this man. Ready to, day by day, embrace that this was the life she deserved.
They set out together down the path to the garden as Aurora thought of the day they’d had. Of what she’d come so close to losing and she stopped.
“What is it, amor?” Her pulse raced at the warmth in his words, and she lifted her face up to him.
“I need a kiss,” she told him, and as always, he obliged.
“Just one?” he asked, before pressing his mouth to hers.
“For now, we’ll save the rest for when we’re in private,” she told him, thinking anyone could walk upon them.
“I have many things in mind for our private time this evening,” the duke promised, and she could not resist another kiss.
At that precise moment a male voice came from the other side of a row of rhododendrons.
“Annan.” For an instant, Aurora thought it was something to do with the train accident, but then she saw a man pointing a pistol at her. Apollo quickly pushed her behind him and stepped up to the threat.
“Ackworth,” he said with derision, as the man came out into the light.
“Don’t move!” he seethed as he waved the weapon in the air. He looked disheveled, like he hadn’t slept in days.
From the corner of her eye, she spotted Evan behind the man, as he took a careful step forward. Meanwhile, Ackworth was waving the weapon in the air while he ranted about being made a laughingstock. “If anyone comes near me, I will shoot.”
“This will only make things worse,” Apollo said in a surprisingly calm voice, as he confronted the erratic Ackworth.
“Worse than you humiliating me in my club? Worse than my father threatening to disown me?” He was screaming. His face mottled with bruises. He looked unkempt, and there was something unsettling in his eyes. He seemed like a man with nothing to lose. “Worse than her taking my wife and children!”
“Your trouble is with me,” Apollo told him, pushing Aurora out of Ackworth’s sight.
“She started this trouble.” Ackworth’s eyes were wild and he was not very steady on his feet. “And now she took my Sandrita from me.” From where she hid behind Apollo, Aurora saw Cora emerge from the bushes to stand next to Evan. She suspected Manuela and Luz Alana were somewhere looking for help. Ackworth might be here to do mischief, but they had their cavalry.
“If anything happens to her, you won’t walk away from here,” Apollo warned the man.
Ackworth pointed at her with the gun, then fumbled with it when it almost slipped out of his hand. Which was the opportunity Cora used to throw something at the man’s head. The impact knocked him to the ground while Apollo jumped into action.
He knocked the pistol from Ackworth’s hand and proceeded to beat the man to a pulp. Soon Evan, Cora and the Leonas had half of the footmen and a very cross-looking Jean-Louis drag the bloodied Lord Ackworth away.
“What will happen to him?” Manuela asked Apollo, who shook his head in disgust.
“Not nearly what he deserves,” he answered, tucking Aurora under his arm. “Did he hurt you?” She just shook her head as they watched the men carry out the man.
“Are you sure you are all right, Leona?” Luz asked.
“Yes,” she said, her heart still pounding. “But I ruined my dress again,” she lamented, looking at the grass stain on the hem. “Will I ever enter a ballroom properly dressed?”
“There’s never a dull moment with you, is there, Fiera?” Apollo asked, with a grin.
“I told you someone would eventually try to shoot you,” Cora told him, making them all laugh.
“I may have a go at him next,” Aurora groused, palming his clammy face. “What were you thinking jumping in front of a gun?” she asked, beyond annoyed at his damned antics.
“I was thinking, I won’t let anything happen to the woman I love. I was attempting to be heroic.”
“Well, I don’t need a hero. I need you.”
“Does that mean you’ll marry me?” he asked, reaching for her hand. She was amazed no one else could hear the battle drums inside her chest. “You might as well do it. Before one of us ends up dead.”
“We have a party to attend,” she reminded him. Miraculously it seemed no one had noticed the noise coming from the scuffle with Ackworth, since there was still talking and music coming from the garden.
“This is more important,” Apollo said, pulling her toward him.
“I will be a terrible duchess,” she said, looking between him and their friends.
“How terrible?” he asked in that teasing voice that filled her belly with butterflies.
“Hopeless,” she wailed, gesturing to her stained dress. “I will never be dressed properly. I’ll likely offend someone important at every function you bring me to. I won’t ever stay quiet when I think someone is being prejudiced. And there’s no solution when it comes to my hair in the rain.”
“You know what I think, Fiera?” She raised an eyebrow in question and shook her head. “I think you are the absolute perfect duchess for this duke.”
She let herself feel his love, believed what she saw in his eyes and pushed up on her tiptoes to kiss him.
“I think this time you may be right, Your Grace.”