Chapter 21
First Course
“Well, the Covington Estate screams,” Prim said.
Leo looked at her from across the carriage as it went up the entrance of the mansion.
“Screams of what?” he asked.
“Screams in general.”
Leo chuckled at her deadpan assessment. She looked out the window. She was not completely wrong. It was symmetrical, titanic, and it looked that it disliked the lawn and nature around it. The edifice of grey Palladian stone seemed to leach the very warmth from everything.
“I find it mostly looms,” Leo said.
“While screaming,” Prim added, her eyes outside, her profile calm.
“I am not sure I should be happy or worried you decided to come.”
“Both,” she said, turning her gaze back to him.
Her eyes were calm, but in their depths, he saw the same focused readiness he felt coiling in his own gut. He decided he was worried. Prim was walking behind enemy lines with him. For him.
“We are here,” She said. “Now, help me out. Me falling on my face would be terribly anticlimactic for the psychological warfare we’ve been preparing.”
“You won’t fall. Remember, Prim. The Dukedom of Mildenhall is one of the oldest in the kingdom. You outrank everyone in that room except me, and on a good day, I’m not entirely sure about me.”
Prim chuckled heartily. She took his hand and stepped out the carriage. He nodded and offered his arm. She took it, her gloved hand resting in the crook of his elbow.
“What a discreet, monstrous, ornate door,” she hissed.
“Inspired by Dante’s Inferno for sure.”
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,” she added.
He was ready to take another jab when the door opened.
“Leo! Primrose!”
Bridget was there, on the top of the stairs, with a bright look in her eyes.
“That is an interesting ambush technique.” It was his turn to hiss.
They went up the stairs to meet her, Leo stiffening with each step. She bowed formally to his mother and he tightened his jaw when he saw her lean for a kiss for Prim.
“It is so great you are here,” Bridget bubbled.
They were led inside to a big drawing room as the sun left to poetically mirror the dimming of light the moment he and Prim entered.
Leo scanned the room quickly. The gathering was not massive, it was a private family dinner after all. The Duke got up from his massive armchair to greet them. If he was surprised to see them, he didn’t show that.
“May I formally introduce the Duchess of Mildenhall?” Leo said.
He sensed Prim tensing for the curtsy that was integrated in her, but when he lightly tapped her hand, she held back. The older Duke bowed slightly at her.
“Welcome to my home and the family, Your Grace.”
“This is a unique occurrence,” Aaron said.
It was Prim’s turn to hold him back, gently tightening her fingers around his arm.
“The Duke of Mildenhall, gracing a family dinner,” Aaron continued, happily oblivious of how close he was to death. “And with his lovely new bride. We are… blessed.”
Aaron bowed deeply in front of Prim. If he made a move to kiss her hand, Leo would end the Covington bloodline in their own drawing room.
“I insisted on meeting the family properly,” Prim said with a wide smile.
Leo smiled. Aaron probably regretted his decision to implicate Prim in this nasty plan. Any other pliable, ignorant, innocent lady would have been a less formidable opponent.
“I hope our humble gathering meets with your approval, Duchess,” Aaron said.
“Gatherings are defined by their company, Lord Aaron,” Prim replied, her tone light.
The room went silent in the few seconds Prim allowed for her whip to strike before she added with a smile.
“That is to say, I am, as you said,… blessed.”
“Primrose,” Bridget cut in, “that is an exquisite necklace you have there.”
Prim touched the pearl, and a genuine smile adorned her face. Leo felt something swell inside him to see her wear his gift with pride. And it suited her better than sapphires.
“A Mildenhall heirloom,” Leo cut in.
Bridget’s smile faltered. The title that once was hers now belonged to Prim. He expected a reaction, but she only offered a smile at Prim and nothing more.
There were a few other people there, the Duke’s nephew and his family, and an elderly aunt.
“Let us move to the dining hall,” The Duke of Covington ordered.
Leo placed his hand over Prim’s.
“Round one is over,” he whispered in her ear. “You did great.”
“I did?” Prim sighed. “I mean, I did.”
Leo smirked.
“We will probably be separated now. Any time you want, feign a headache, and we are leaving.”
Prim nodded and followed him in the dining hall. She took the place in.
“I will never speak ill of our dining hall again,” he hissed.
“I agree. If ours is a martial courtroom, this is a mausoleum.”
She had to disagree with Prim. This was not a mausoleum. With all that dark wood paneling and those somber candelabras, this place looked more like a coffin. This is where joy came to die.
“Primrose!” Bridget called her over. “You will sit with me.”
Leo wanted to pull Prim to him and glue her to his side. Even more so when he saw that Aaron was going to be seated across from her.
“Your Grace,” the Duke called him, pointing at the chair on his right side.
“Be wary,” he whispered in her ear. “And remember…”
“I am basically the queen in here.”
He smiled at her. She was so brave for doing this for no other reason but to help him die with his enemies.
Everyone was seated, and Leo threw a glance at Prim. She was smiling politely at something Bridget said. His look fell on Aaron, who looked as if he was a cat eyeing the canary up in the golden cage.
The first course was served, and the servants went about when the wife of the nephew, a colorless Lady Nothing-ton looked at Prim with a smile on her face.
“Your Grace, it must be such a shift to dine in such a grand room. You must miss the coziness of your father’s table.”
Leo braced and wanted to slap the woman.
“How thoughtful of you,” Prim replied with her most saccharine, fake smile. “I think that one’s perspective changes with the view he is blessed with.”
The woman bit her jaw. Leo smiled. Prim parried the opening shot with grace. The Duke’s nephew picked up where his wife stopped.
“But your social calendar must be filled. I do hope you’re not feeling overwhelmed. It can be a dreadful burden for someone unused to the spotlight.”
“It could have been,” Prim cut her meat elegantly. “I am lucky to share the burden with my husband.”
Leo snorted audibly. Perhaps this was not a disaster after all. He got to see his wife navigate the Clashing Rocks of the ton and the soup was excellent.
“It is so good to see couples support each other,” Aaron said so sweetly that sent chills down Leo’s back. “I am happy that you ignored all these vile rumors about Leo.”
Prim dropped her polite smile. Leo saw that cold determination that she shows only to him. He was ready to talk, but Aaron had more poison to drop.
“How amazing to find someone who is not intimidated by the rumor of the Unholy Duo and the rakish Duke of Mildenhall.”
Leo fisted his knife till his knuckles turned white. He was keen to hurl that knife across the table when Prim laughed lightly.
“You praise me, Lord Aaron,” she said firmly.
“But one doesn’t need praise for dealing in facts and not whispers.
And the fact is that my husband,” she looked at Leo, “is an honorable man. More than the rumors give him credit for. Perhaps it is because of that that they stay rumors and nothing more.”
The white-knuckled fist around his knife loosened. Leo looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. In the silence of her declaration, she was radiant. He pushed aside all the malice and the murmurs, the hate and resentment. And she defended him.
Prim was not ashamed of him. Instead, she defended him, she became his shield.
That girl, alone and defenseless, now sheltered him.
No one in his whole life had done that. Not his mother, who abandoned him.
Not Edwin, who teased him about his reputation.
Not even he himself who believed that this was all it was.
He never saw himself as anything more than a reckless rake.
But Prim, the girl who was brutally bound to him under the worst circumstances, saw him as honorable.
She didn’t just say those words, she truly meant them.
He saw the slight, defiant lift of her chin, the unwavering focus in her eyes as she held Aaron’s gaze.
This was no calculated move in a social game.
This was a line drawn in stone, a declaration of war on his behalf.
Leo realized that there was someone. Someone in his life for him. The thought was not a whisper, but a tectonic shift in the bedrock of his soul. And Leo was not ready to let Prim fight his fights for him.
“My wife,” he said calmly, “to spare you. I am not.”
The room shifted. Everyone at the table realized that they had invited a wolf into their home. They stilled as Leo looked at each one of the guests.
“I had let this go on for too long.” His voice was a cold, sharp sword. “From now on, any attempts to ruin my wife or me will not be tolerated.”
“Leo,” his mother tried.
“I am talking, and I will not be interrupted.”
Bridget jumped up at his tone. He didn’t stop.
“I know that there was an orchestrated attack on the Duchess and me. I would strongly suggest that anyone at this table behind it, stop now.”
“What are you saying, Leo?” Bridget said softly.
“That you or Aaron, I really don’t care who, have paid for that vile article in the sheets.”
Bridget’s eyes went wide with shock when he uttered those words. Her face distorted in surprise. She instinctively turned to her younger son. Perhaps to find guidance from her co-conspirator.
“This is preposterous!” Aaron said and dropped his napkin on the bed.
“This is the truth,” Leo said.
“Truth?” Aaron said, through gritted teeth. “Do you have proof of this… truth?”
Leo dropped his chin, his gaze fixed on the young lord. Everyone at the table recoiled in fear. It was not often that Leo allowed the civilized mask drop.
“Hurt my wife again, and you will find the extent of my patience.”
“I did nothing to hurt either of you,” Aaron said.
Bridget studied her son as he protested his innocence. Her eyes were searching his, an incredulous look distorting her pretty features.
“Aaron?” she asked.
“It is a lie! His Grace said so himself. He has no proof.”
“I think I was courteous enough,” Leo said and pushed his chair back. “I did warn you, didn’t I?”
Leo walked to Prim’s side. His wife was studying Bridget and then looked at Aaron.
“Prim?”
She looked at him, almost startled, deep in thought.
“Let’s go home.”
Prim nodded, took his hand, and followed him out.
“Pity,” Prim said as they walked through the door.
“Whatever can you possibly mean?” Leo hissed.
“Their cook was not bad.”
Leo chuckled and helped her in their carriage.
“I owe you dessert.”
They leave the Covington estate behind.
“How do you feel, Leo?”
Leo’s face hardened.
“I am perfectly fine.”
“Leo, I hope you are not fine after what happened in that dining room.”
“Why not? I made myself clear, warned my enemies, and you didn’t have to bloody your hands.”
“You told your mother and half-brother you know they are after you.”
“Like I said. I merely warned my enemies.”
“Leo,” Prim said softly.
Leo turned to her, only to find her looking at him worried.
“You have thoughts, Prim.”
“I do.”
“Dangerous habit.”
“I think… I am almost sure that your mother is not part of this plot.”
“Prim,” he cautioned her.
“Her shock, the way she looked between you and Aaron. She knew nothing of this.”
“You will not talk of her again! Especially to defend her.”
“You know I am the first to-”
“I said,” Leo roared, “stop talking about her!”
They looked at each other, and his chest heaved.
Leo had just stared down a room of enemies and didn’t bat an eye.
But in this carriage, he was besieged by a woman simply regarding him.
The rest of the journey passed in a silence more profound than any argument.
The ghost he had forbidden her to name now sat in the space between them.