Chapter 14
Prudence felt sick with regret as she changed out of her peasant clothes and into a gown.
The decision to dress herself down and go to a club this afternoon had been an impulsive one, and she had known at the time that it might be unwise, but she hadn’t imagined that it would end this badly.
Was there any way to avoid surrendering her peasant clothes?
Leonard had insisted she bring them down, and she thought it fairly likely he would just throw them straight into the fire.
Her heart ached at the thought. These clothes didn’t just represent freedom—although they certainly were an invaluable ticket out of the confines of her life—but they meant more to her than that.
These things had been with her for years. It would be sad to have to let them go.
Once she had changed back into what she knew her husband would consider proper attire, she folded her trousers and shirt lovingly and carefully.
Then she sat on her bed for just a moment, holding them in her arms. He had said not to keep him waiting, so she knew that she needed to go, but the thought of getting up and walking down to his study was intimidating.
She didn’t know exactly what would happen when she got there, but she was sure it wasn’t going to be anything good.
No point in putting it off. With a sigh, she rose to her feet, clothes still in her hands, and left her bedroom.
The door to the study stood ajar, and she paused for a moment outside it, wondering if she ought to knock anyway.
“Come in,” Leonard called—he must have heard her moving out in the hall. With a sigh, Prudence went into the study.
Leonard pointed to the chair opposite his desk. Prudence’s heart sank as she walked over to it and sat down—it was clear to her that she was here to be scolded.
Leonard folded his hands together on top of his desk and looked across it at her. “So,” he said, “you and I have a problem, Prudence.”
“It doesn’t have to be a problem,” she said.
“I agree. It doesn’t. Because, thankfully, no harm has been done so far, and there is an easy solution that will help us out of this predicament as long as we can both agree to make use of it. Do you think you can agree?”
She didn’t know quite what he was getting at, but she had a feeling that whatever it was, she wasn’t going to like it. “It’s not very fair of you to ask me to agree to something before you even tell me what I’m agreeing to,” she argued.
“Well, that’s true enough,” he told her. “Still, I’m not sure that I would start talking about what’s fair if I were you, Prudence. Your actions today haven’t been very fair to me.”
“I haven’t done anything to you,” she protested. That was taking things a bit far, surely.
“You don’t think so?” He raised his eyebrows.
“Prudence, you may be accustomed to a life in which the only thing you have to worry about is yourself, but that isn’t how things are now that you’re married.
What you do has an impact on me as well as you.
You are certainly within your rights to make choices that will tarnish your own reputation, but when mine is on the line, it becomes my business as well. ”
“I don’t think I’ve done anything that would tarnish your reputation.”
“No, because I stopped you in time.”
“I told you again and again that I don’t get caught when I do this.”
“You said you never have. No one ever has been caught at something until the one time when they are. And personally, I am not willing to sit around and wait for that day to come. I’m putting a stop to this now. You will never dress yourself as a man and go out like that again. I forbid it.”
She had expected that. She would have been shocked if he hadn’t said it. Still, she couldn’t take it without a fight. “You can’t forbid me to do things,” she protested. “I am not a member of the household staff. I am the Duchess of Desford.”
“And I am the Duke of Desford,” he countered, his voice dark and dangerous.
“Do you truly believe I have no power to forbid you from doing things I don’t want you to do?
Would you like to test that theory? You may rest assured that I will stop you from going out like that again.
The whole household will be informed of your activities and instructed to keep constant watch on you and to stop you if they see you doing anything you shouldn’t. ”
“You’re confident that everyone will take your side in this?”
His eyes widened. “Is that why you raised their pay? Has this all been part of a long plan to buy their favor, to ensure that they would side with you when you eventually challenged me?”
She had to laugh, even though she felt no humor in her current situation. “I haven’t been scheming like that,” she said. “You flatter me, thinking me that clever. No, I was never trying to buy the favor of your staff.”
“Well, that’s good,” Leonard said. “Because you may have thrown a few extra coins their way, but I wouldn’t want you to have the wrong idea.
They work here at my pleasure, and I can dismiss them any time I choose.
They know that. They know their positions are only available as long as they respect the orders I give them.
And if anyone under my employ allows you to sneak out of the house, if any of them gives you assistance in doing so, they will be sent off.
” He met her eyes. “That would be on your conscience. You would have deprived them of their work. So I would think long and hard before asking anyone to conspire with you in this.”
Prudence pressed her lips together and said nothing. He had hit upon the perfect tactic whether he knew it or not. There was no way she could ask any of the members of staff here to put themselves at risk just to help her sneak out. He must have realized it.
She wouldn’t give up hope. She could still find another way. But now she would have to make sure that, whatever she did, it was obvious that nobody had helped her.
He held out his hands. “Give me the clothes.”
She held onto them. “These are special to me.”
“Why?”
“I… Well, I’ve had them for a long time. I have good memories associated with them. I don’t want to give them up.”
He met her gaze. “I can understand why you might feel that way,” he said.
“And it’s no pleasure to me to take away something that has meaning for you, Prudence.
But I can’t trust that you won’t try to sneak out again if I leave you with the means to do it.
I can’t have my wife behaving in that manner. ” He held out his hands again.
Prudence gritted her teeth, but she knew there was no avoiding this.
If she tried to resist giving him the clothes, he would only take them from her, and he was sure to be successful since he was bigger and stronger than she was.
Prudence was clever enough to know that it made more sense to wait for a fight that she might be able to win.
That didn’t mean it wasn’t hard. Handing over the clothes felt like allowing herself to be shackled. She closed her eyes briefly, expecting that he would throw them into the fire behind him, but he didn’t. Instead, he tucked them into a drawer and then turned back to face her.
“You must promise me that you will never do such a thing again,” he said.
Prudence took a deep breath. “I wish I understood why it matters so much to you,” she said softly.
“I have a hard time comprehending the fact that you don’t understand.
Have I been unclear in some way? Do you need me to explain in more detail the things I fear might happen if society were to catch on to these little escapades of yours?
Do you want me to tell you the things I believe they would say about you?
I don’t think you would enjoy hearing them very much, but if it would help, I can do it. ”
She shook her head. “I’m not concerned with what society has to say.
I know you are. I don’t fault you for it.
But what I want to know is, how can you be so confident anyone would ever find out?
I tell you I have done this for years. I have never even been noticed before.
No one remembers me from one visit to the next. I don’t stand out.”
“You can’t possibly know that.”
“I’ve seen you at that club before,” she said. She leaned toward him across the desk, cocking her head to one side, and it felt like a challenge. “Do you remember that?”
“No,” he was forced to admit. “When was this?”
“Before we were married—before we met—I saw you there once with Peter. He had been in a fight with someone, and you were breaking it up. You don’t remember that?”
“I remember plenty of nights like that. You might be talking about any of them.” He ran a hand over his face. “And you don’t see why your behavior is dangerous, Prudence? Why it isn’t a good idea for you to be in places like that? You don’t see how you run the risk of putting yourself in danger?”
“I thought this was about reputation, not putting myself in danger,” she said.
“It’s absolutely both. If you were seen, you might be talked about, but you might also come to harm.
And I don’t care how unlikely you think it is.
I’m not going to take a chance that something horrible might happen—either to you or to your reputation.
I want you to promise me here and now that you’ll never do that again? ”
“And what if I don’t promise?”
“Then I’ll have to instruct my staff to post a guard at your bedroom door at all hours of every day,” he told her. “Like I said, I have no intention of taking chances, Prudence. Promise me.”
She sighed. “All right. I promise. I won’t go out to the club again… unless you tell me I can.”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath for that to happen if I was you,” he told her. “I’m never going to change my mind and think that’s a good idea.”
“Could you really stand to stay in the house all the time if you were me?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I would do whatever it took to protect my family,” he said. “That’s what got us here in the first place, you know.”
“I know,” she said, unable to keep a note of bitterness from creeping in. “I know that all too well. Am I dismissed?”
“You’re not a servant as you said yourself. You’re free to go whenever you choose.”
“You’ll have to forgive me,” Prudence snapped, rising to her feet. “It’s just a little unclear, sometimes, when I am and am not free to make my own choices as a member of this household.”
She turned and stormed out of the room, more angry with herself than with Leonard.
If only I could have waited until he was gone to try going out like that! But no, I got impatient… and now, everything is ruined.