Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
“She is a beauty I hear… Your new Duchess. Surely that counts as a massive triumph, no?”
Thaddeus grinned from behind his mahogany desk, swirling a crystal glass of Sherry. They were seated comfortably in the quiet warmth of his private study, the scent of expensive tobacco hanging in the air.
Nathaniel didn’t return the smile. He simply sat in the opposing wingback chair.
By all societal standards, he should not have been here.
It was the very height of what the ton considered the honeymoon period, a time when a newlywed should have been entirely captivated by his bride at his country estate.
Instead, Nathaniel had escaped Greymoor at the first opportunity, seeking the grounding, familiar company of his oldest and closest friend, Thaddeus Somerset, Duke of Stonehaven. They had known each other since their university days, sharing a bond forged through many shared years.
Nathaniel set his glass down on the side table and began to pull on his riding gloves. “I must take my leave, Thaddeus. I have an immense backlog of estate accounts and shipping ledgers waiting for me at home.”
“Oh, absolutely not. Sit back down,” Thaddeus said, waving a dismissive hand as his smile quickly faded into a look of genuine disbelief. “I am still entirely scandalized by how you have handled this entire affair. I am wounded, Nathaniel, deeply betrayed.”
“How so?” Nathaniel asked with a tilt of the head.
“To think that my closest companion marries the most talked-about lady in London, and I am not even granted an invitation to the wedding? It begs the question... are you purposefully hiding your new Duchess from me?”
Nathaniel’s jaw tightened, his eyes flashing with brief irritation. “There is absolutely nothing to hide. The ceremony was rushed for obvious reasons, and you know it.”
Yet, even as the words left his mouth, a small, uncomfortable truth pricked at Nathaniel’s conscience.
In a way, Thaddeus was entirely correct.
He was hiding her. He had spent the last twenty-four hours putting as much physical and emotional distance between himself and Euphemia as the grand architecture of Greymoor would allow.
“I know you never desired a wife,” Thaddeus continued, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the desk. “But she is your wife now. Surely you aren’t treating her like one of your cargo disputes.”
“We have established very strict boundaries,” Nathaniel said coldly, adjusting the cuff of his coat.
“I have made the terms of our arrangement perfectly clear to her. We will not be interfering in each other’s lives.
I have told her that she is to have her own wing, that we will live entirely separate existences, and that she is to stay away from my daughters. ”
Thaddeus froze, his glass stopping halfway to his lips. He blinked, staring at Nathaniel as if the man had suddenly started speaking a foreign language. “You told her to stay entirely away from the children?”
“Yes,” Nathaniel replied and nodded. “It is a marriage of convenience to salvage a reputation. We do not possess a real union, and I will not have the twins’ routine disrupted by an unnecessary complication.”
Thaddeus let out a sharp, incredulous breath, slamming his glass down on the desk so hard the liquid sloshed over the rim.
“Nathaniel, that is an absolutely monstrous thing to say to a woman! She is a lady of the ton. These women are trained from birth to manage grand households and guide families. To look a lady in the eye and tell her she is forbidden from even interacting with the children under her own roof? It is utterly absurd. It is cruel.”
Thaddeus stood up. “If you truly said those exact words to her face, then you need to return to Greymoor this instant and offer her a profound apology.”
Nathaniel looked up at his friend, his expression turning incredulous. “Apologize?”
“Yes.”
Nathaniel rose to his feet. “You must have had one too many glasses of Sherry. I’m leaving.”
Thaddeus held up a hand, gesturing for him to stay. “Wait, just wait a moment. Calm down. I’m not trying to argue with you. Think about what you are saying, Nathaniel.” He leaned over the desk. “Did you truly, explicitly tell her to stay away from your daughters?”
“Yes,” Nathaniel said. “I did.”
Thaddeus shook his head, a look of profound disbelief crossing his features as he massaged his forehead.
“Then you absolutely must apologize to her. Even hearing you repeat it now sounds completely off. I know you, Nathaniel. I know you better than anyone else in England, and I know how incredibly cold and detached you can be when you speak. But you cannot apply your mechanical logic here. Think of how deeply insulted a lady of her standing would feel to receive such a command on her first day in her new home.”
Nathaniel shifted uncomfortably, his jaw setting tightly.
“She is not a business deal you can simply conclude and file away, old friend,” Thaddeus said gently. “She is your wife now. You need to handle her with care, don’t you think?”
Nathaniel shut his eyes and sighed. He would never admit it aloud to Thaddeus, but the truth was, he had been thinking about her all night.
Their argument was the most heated he had ever had in his life.
No one... not even the most seasoned politicians in Whitehall, held that much fire in their eyes when they spoke to him.
Yet Euphemia had stood her ground, matching his commands with a fierce, untamed fire that had thoroughly unsettled him.
If he were being completely honest with himself, he and Euphemia did not have a single thing in common. They came from different worlds, possessed different expectations, and had been forced together by a cruel stroke of luck. Yet, there was one undeniable trait they shared.
An unyielding stubbornness.
Against his own better judgment, he found himself deeply impressed by her boldness. He respected strength, and Euphemia had refused to break.
Perhaps Thaddeus possessed a valid point. Perhaps he had delivered his terms too cruelly, with too sharp an edge. But his intention had never been to make her feel insulted or small.
In his mind, his logic had been entirely flawless.
He was merely protecting his children. For ten years, he had shielded his daughters from the vultures of the ton after their mother died, and the cold realities of the world.
He did not want their carefully managed routine disrupted, nor did he want a stranger making them uncomfortable in their own home.
In a strange way, he hadn’t wanted Euphemia to be uncomfortable either. He had assumed that lifting the burden of motherhood from her shoulders would be a relief. To prevent any friction, any awkwardness, any pain, he reasoned that they should simply stay away from each other.
“Fine,” Nathaniel sighed, turning back to his friend.
“I will not deny that I understand your perspective, Thaddeus. But you know as well as I do that I am entirely unaccustomed to offering apologies, let alone handling... things with care. You know firsthand the immense trouble I have faced trying to raise my daughters for that very reason.”
“That is because you try to manage children the same way you manage a fleet of merchant vessels, Nathaniel,” Thaddeus said gently.
“It is the only way I know how to function,” Nathaniel replied.
Thaddeus watched the shifting shadows across his friend’s face. “Nathaniel, your past does not have to dictate your present. Euphemia is not your late wife. You do not even know who she is yet. Why must you immediately assume that this union will be the exact same cold, dry arrangement?”
Nathaniel let out a heavy, weary sigh again. “Because it is far too risky to do otherwise. I have absolutely no desire to form a friendship or any sort of cordiality with her. It is safer if nothing happens between us.”
Thaddeus tilted his head, a look of amusement and intense curiosity breaking through his features. He looked at Nathaniel in a funny way, narrowing his eyes. “What on earth do you mean by nothing happens?”
“It does not matter,” Nathaniel muttered. “I simply refuse to risk it.”
Thaddeus remained silent for a long moment, letting the ticking of the grandfather clock fill the space between them. A slow, knowing smile began to curve the corners of his mouth. “You find her attractive, do you not?”
Nathaniel stiffened. He was a man who prided himself on his absolute honor. He did not like to lie, and he thoroughly despised pretense.
The truth was, Thaddeus was entirely correct about that too. Nathaniel found her deeply, terribly attractive.
His mind flashed back to that fateful morning, when he had opened his bedchamber door and found her sleeping soundly in his bed.
He could admit one truth. He hadn’t woken her immediately.
It had taken him at least five minutes — though he hadn’t been counting the agonizing seconds — just to find his voice.
He had simply stood at the edge of the mattress, utterly transfixed, staring down at her.
Having been awake all night managing a crisis with Theodore, he had genuinely believed he was hallucinating from exhaustion.
He thought he was seeing an angel. She had looked breathtakingly beautiful, her soft, golden blonde hair spilled across his pillows like silk, her bright blue eyes hidden beneath long, pale lashes, and her flawless, porcelain skin practically glowing in the early morning light.
She had looked so fragile, so serene, that it had felt like a crime to disturb her. Of course, the moment she had opened those blue eyes, the illusion of a serene angel had vanished instantly, replaced by a fierce, sharp-tongued woman who countered his every word.
But the memory of her beauty remained, burned into his mind.