Chapter 7 #2
She should have removed it. Under the disguise of the table, no one would see her shove it away. Yet instead, she let it stay, drawing on the warmth of his touch for strength. It was, after all, just his palm and her knee. What sort of hurt could come from that?
Cedric looked utterly perplexed by the time their carriage ride to Calder came to an end. He had not spoken a single word, nor did he have the opportunity to do so. Adeline was far too quick and eager to speak to Deborah, leaving him no chance to get a word in edgewise.
Deborah did not mind in the least. In fact, she was grateful for the distraction, for her mind had wandered to some strange places while she’d felt Cedric’s palm on her person. Places that had nothing to do with her plans of revenge.
Adeline had first talked for several minutes about Grace and how much she enjoyed being able to show her old room, even if all of her toys and furniture had been moved to the Calder estate.
Once she had finished her story about Grace, though, her questions came.
What was going to happen now? Who was Deborah to her?
Did this mean that she no longer needed a nurse or governess?
Deborah had done her best to answer all of the girl’s questions, and while she appreciated the distraction from Cedric, she was most grateful when the driveway of the Calder estate came into view.
“Do you love each other?” Adeline asked as the carriage came to a stop.
Deborah shot a look toward Cedric. His eyes were widened, if only slightly, and he was looking to her as if she had the answer.
“Um…” Deborah hesitated.
“My mama and papa loved each other. That is why they were married,” Adeline went on. “Mama told me. She said their wedding day was the happiest day of her life until she had me. So are you? In love with each other?”
“We…understand one another,” Deborah answered after a moment.
She glanced at Cedric, who only gave her a short, confirming nod.
“That does not seem like a suitable reason to get married,” Adeline countered.
Deborah forced a laugh, grateful that it was at that moment that a footman appeared to open the carriage door.
“Come along, Adeline, let us get you settled back in your rooms,” Deborah encouraged.
“Then what?” Adeline asked as they all left the carriage. “What happens after that?”
“Well…”
“I think we have all had quite the exciting day,” Cedric said, speaking for the first time since they’d all gotten into the carriage. “Perhaps it is best that we take the rest of the evening to relax and start fresh tomorrow. I am sure Deborah would be more than happy to talk to you again then.”
“Oh, certainly,” Deborah agreed with a ready nod.
Though Adeline did not look entirely pleased by this announcement, she made no protest before heading toward the stairs.
“I swear,” Cedric sighed as Deborah and he stood alone in the foyer, “I have heard her talk more in the last hour than I have in the entire year she has been here.”
“She is just curious,” Deborah replied. “This is as new for her as it is for us.”
“I suppose so,” Cedric mused. Then his gaze moved from the stairs that Adeline had just ascended and settled on Deborah.
“Well, shall we have you meet the staff? The housekeeper? She will give you the tour, explain your new duties as lady of the house, go over-”
“No,” Deborah cut him off, shaking her head. “I thank you for all you have done and the deal you have offered me, but I never agreed to be the lady of this house. I have my own business to attend to, and I have already wasted enough time as it is.”
Not waiting for his counterargument, she turned from Cedric and went up the stairs, hoping that she would not get lost like last time.
“Where are you going?” Cedric asked, following her.
“To my room,” Deborah answered, “I believe I remember where it is.”
Behind her, she heard Cedric laugh.
“That is not your room. I just put you in there for that one night. It was my sister’s old room, and since you had no clothes, I assumed you might need to borrow some of what she left behind.”
Deborah paused on the steps, disappointment sweeping through her. She had liked that room. Found it beautiful and warm. She was also disappointed in the new fact that she could not just walk away from Cedric, but was forced to let him show her where she was supposed to stay.
She turned to him with a straight face, and he smirked as he raised a brow.
“May I?” He asked, gesturing toward the stairs.
Gritting her teeth, she stepped aside, allowing him to take the lead.
“You do realize that becoming the Lady of the house is not something you can just decide not to become, don’t you?
” Cedric asked as he led her up the stairs, “It is a responsibility you must take on whether it interferes with your plans or not. Even that is beyond my decision, but what society dictates.”
“And what if I do not have time?” Deborah replied.
All that warmth she had started to feel for him at the wedding was draining away, emptying her of any momentary fondness.
“I have to take care of your niece, which will obviously require quite a large amount of my time, and I will not put my plans on hold.”
“Well if you would tell me what those plans were perhaps I could help you with them as you asked me to,” Cedric countered, stopping at a set of white double doors.
“These are your rooms, by the way,” he added, pushing one of the doors open for her.
When she did not enter at first, Cedric bowed dramatically at his waist, sweeping his arm into the room in a grandiose gesture.
Could the man not take anything seriously?
Deborah tsked her tongue as she rolled her eyes, then swept past him. She had meant to grab the doorknob and slam it shut in his face, but as she stepped inside the room, she stopped and let out a small gasp.
“This is your sitting room,” Cedric explained from behind her, “My mother used to host her friends here quite a bit. That is why there is so much seating. Of course if it is too crowded for your taste, I can have some of it removed.”
Deborah shook her head, still in awe over the decor.
It reminded her a lot of the first room she had stayed in the other night.
The only difference was that instead of just baby blue and teal, there were splashes of other bright colors, all blurring seamlessly into one another.
The ceiling was painted the same, but the blue hue bled into not just teal, but lavender purple, grass green, watermelon pink, and a sunny yellow.
The columns of the room had been painted a glittering gold, and each piece of the light blue velvet furniture had a gold trim around it.
There were no paintings because the room did not need them. The entire space was a work of art.
“There is a bathing chamber through that door over there,” Cedric explained behind her, “It adjoins the bedroom as well. Through the bedroom, there is one more room that I wager you might like.”
Cedric moved past her, and she heard another door open.
She looked and saw that he was waiting by it.
Still in awe, she left the sitting room and entered the bedroom.
It was nearly a replica of the room she’d slept in before, all save for the windows.
There were no windows. It kept the room dark, but a kind maid had come in and lit several of the glass bulb oil lamps and the fire in the hearth.
“There is no light,” she said softly, peering at the dark wood paneling where the windows would have been.
“Not like this,” Cedric agreed, going to the wood paneling, “However…”
She watched him dig his fingers into an invisible groove in the wood and lean hard to his left.
The soft sound of small, rolling wheels filled the room, and as the panel was slid to the left, light flooded the room.
Deborah gasped as the panel gave way to a narrow, long space filled with plants in brightly colored pots, a beautiful writing desk, and a small wrought iron table with two chairs; delicate metal strands resembling vines and leaves wrapped around each piece of the set.
“My mother. She needed a space that was her own. A place to tuck herself away when the world became too strenuous for her. So she created this. My father never knew that the wood paneling was more than a wall, so he never discovered it. It was her place of peace.”
Deborah turned to him, more than ever confused by the man she had just married.
He dropped his head as he put his hands behind his back and sighed.
“I am not a kind man, and I will never pretend to be. There is a delicacy required to be such, and I have found myself to never hold the talent. However, that does not mean that I lack understanding.”
Deborah only continued to stare at him warily.
“This is not where you would prefer to be,” he went on, stepping into the light, “You made that very clear. You also made it clear that I foiled your plans. A regrettable reality. To be honest, I thought I would always be the sort of man who joked harshly about the auction, criticized it. Not use it to my own benefit. My plans were disrupted as well, through no fault of your own. Yet here we both are. Stuck with one another, as some might say. And if there is any possibility of either of us finding contentment in such a situation, I propose we should take it.”
“Thank you,” Deborah said softly. She was not sure what else to say.
Cedric took a step closer as he nodded, then raised his head.
“I delegate some my responsibilities as the Duke to my steward,” he went on.
“It is possible for you to do the same with our housekeeper. I will ask her to wait a few days, but at the very least, you do have to meet with her, and get a grasp on what is expected of you before you can delegate to her. I know that is not what you wish, but it is all I can offer.”
Deborah pressed her lips together, not sure how to handle the endearing side of Cedric. He was trying to help, even if his options were limited.
“My mother taught me how to run a household,” she explained, “It is the…social demands of my new position that I am wary of.”
Cedric grunted.
“In truth, I take little joy in such demands either,” he replied, “However, it must be done.”
Deborah nodded, knowing it was true.
“I will meet with the housekeeper in a few days then,” Deborah agreed after a while, “Once I am settled and have some more time to spend with Adeline. She and I need to find a routine before I can take on anything else.”
“Noted,” Cedric said, nodding his head.
“Now,” he said, taking a step back and clapping his hands, “Your luggage arrived a few hours before we did. Your things have been put away in that dressing room over there.”
He nodded to a door beside the large four-post bed, again almost identical to the one she’d slept in that first night.
“If you cannot find something, ring for your maid and I am sure she will help you find it. In fact, ring her for anything, and she will be happy to assist. Draw a bath. Bring you something to eat. Whatever you wish.”
Then he winked, a smirk on his full lips, and as if that were his way of finishing the conversation, he started walking toward the door.
“That is it?” She asked.
After his protests downstairs, she had expected more of a fight.
He paused and turned, his smirk growing into a mischievous yet handsome grin.
“Not unless there’s anything you would like my help with personally,” he remarked, raking his eyes down her body. “Which of course, I would be happy to lend you my hand. Or hands. Or mouth. Whatever you might need.”
Her annoyance firmly renewed, and her awe officially dissolved, she snatched the nearest item at hand- a small statue of a cherub, and threw it at him. To her surprise, he caught it easily and chuckled as he placed it gently upon the nearby vanity.
“Not the right time. Understood,” he cheekily replied. He gave her another wink, and before she could think of a retort, Cedric reached the door and closed it between them.
“Never the right time!” She called, and she heard Cedric’s booming laugh through the wall, only serving to turn her annoyance into a blistering anger.
She whirled around, muttering to herself about his awful behavior, and went to the writing desk.
Not wanting to think about him or anything else, she sat down in the sun, searched through the drawers until she found blank paper, a pen, and an inkwell, and began to write down everything about her plan for Sylvester that had gone wrong.
She wanted to see it all laid out. She wanted it burned into her mind.
That way, she would not make the same mistake twice.