Chapter 16
“Do you think the Duke has a lot of work to do today?”
The question was posed by Matilda in an innocent manner over breakfast. Charity paused for a moment, setting down her fork.
“I’m not sure. Why do you ask?” one of her eyebrows shot up.
“Um, well, you know…” Matilda tried to backtrack, suddenly focusing on the food on her plate. “I was just wondering…”
Augusta snorted out laughing from the other end of the table.
“Oh, Matilda, you’re so terrible at this,” she laughed and then turned to Charity, who was looking between her sisters with a look of mild confusion and amusement. “She wants to know if His Grace can spare the time out of his day to spend with her. As you know, she’s rather taken by him.”
“No, I’m not!” Matilda shouted, reddening at her cheeks.
“It’s okay,” Augusta was smirking now. “I have to say, I feel somewhat the same way. He has… Well…”
“Grown on you?” Charity suggested, a smile forming on her face.
“I suppose that you can frame in that way,” Augusta nodded. She was trying to seem very nonchalant about the entire thing. “I have to say that your choice of a husband is not as bad as I thought, earlier.”
“You had judged him very quickly,” Charity nodded. “Has this experience taught you a lesson not to do that anymore?”
Augusta rolled her eyes. Typical of her, as she was just a young girl who did not like to be given lectures by her older sister.
“Oh, please. Let us not turn this into a sermon,” she said. “I’ve only said that he is not so bad.”
“He is lovely,” Matilda said. “I think he will take care of you very well.”
Charity could not help but smile. It pleased her greatly that her siblings had taken so well to Duncan, and she wanted their bond to grow even more.
And there was no better way to do that than to get them to spend more time together.
“Well, if you really must know, then I can ask him if he can spend some time with us today,” Charity said, much to the delight of Matilda.
“Can you please?” she said, eagerly. “If it’s not too much trouble…”
“Well, she is about to be his wife,” Augusta said to Matilda, shooting a pointed look in Charity’s direction. “If she cannot get him to do something, no one can. I suppose the duke will not be saying no to his future duchess.”
Charity tried to dismiss the comment with a little wave of her hand, but it made her feel something in the base of her stomach.
“Eat your breakfast now,” she said. “I will sort this out.”
Staying true to her promise, she showed up outside of Duncan’s study once again. He was in the middle of going through what looked like some important papers when she walked into the room.
“Something wrong?” Duncan looked up at her, surprised by her sudden appearance.
“Does something need to go wrong for me to come see you?” she said, stepping closer to him but stopping at a reasonable distance. There was a hint of amusement in her voice, and she realized that it was nice seeing him.
No matter what the reason was.
“Ah, well, no,” Duncan replied. “But it is rather unusual for you to make an appearance at this hour, so naturally I wonder what must have prompted it.”
“So you are anticipating something going wrong?” she decided to tease him just a little bit more.
“Charity,” he warned, shooting her a look. “What do you want? I really do not wish to be playing these guessing games.”
“Fine then,” she laughed. “I wanted to ask you if you have some free time this afternoon. The girls wanted to spend some time with you.”
Duncan raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised.
“They asked you to come relay this message to me?”
“Well, no. Matilda, in particular, is rather shy, but I can tell that she would like for you both to spend some more time together.”
“Huh,” Duncan said, leaning back in his chair.
“Unless you would rather not prefer to do that,” Charity said, hesitance creeping in her tone. “Which is fine as well—”
“Must you assume?” Duncan cut in half way. “I wouldn’t mind this, don’t worry about it.”
Charity couldn’t stop smiling. “Thank you. This means a great deal to me.”
For a moment, it looked like Duncan was going to say something in response, but then held back.
Charity collected the girls and met Duncan in the garden an hour later. He had shown up already speaking to one of the staff members, but dismissing him immediately when he saw that Charity was there.
“I was told that there were some activities planned for the evening,” he said in greeting.
Matilda smiled ear to ear, and even Augusta seemed like she didn’t want to immediately exit.
“Yes, well. It’s very nice weather out, and so I thought that we could do something,” Charity nodded. “Matilda, what do you think we should be doing?”
It was small moments like this that Charity thought were important. She wanted Matilda to have the sense that she could make decisions.
“Umm...” Matilda said, looking confused and scratching the side of her head. “Well, we could all play a game. Do you like hide and seek?” she turned to Duncan, making it clear that it was only his opinion that mattered most to her out of them all.
“I am afraid that it’s been many years since I’ve had the chance to play,” Duncan chuckled, “but yes, it used to be a game that I enjoyed.”
Matilda clapped her hands together in delight.
“Lovely. It is a favorite of mine as well,” she squealed. “So it is decided then. We all play it.”
“It seems that our preferences are alike,” he said to Matilda.
Seeing them interact like this just made Charity melt on the inside.
She thought to herself that this is what was missing in the girls’ lives. An older brother-like figure who could entertain their silly demands, but protect them all the same.
In that moment, she felt grateful to have him.
“I shall go first,” Matilda announced, “the rest of you, go hide. I shall count to twenty.”
Matilda took her spot and began to loudly count.
“Oh, heavens,” Augusta said, scrambling away to the distance to hide behind one of the trees.
Charity took the opposite direction, finding refuge under one of the bushes. It wasn’t until a moment later that Duncan appeared behind her.
“Oh,” she yelped in surprise. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“It seems that we’ve picked the same spot,” he said to her, Matilda’s voice in the distant background reaching to the number eighteen. “And it’s too late to change now. So, move over and make some space.”
Charity was blushing crimson as she did exactly as told. She was not sure if Duncan had picked the same spot as her on purpose, but they were stuck together now until they were found.
“She’s rather adorable, you know,” Duncan said to her in a low voice. “Matilda. And sweet, too. One would not assume that the two of you are related.”
“I can be sweet as well, if I please,” Charity replied immediately.
“No, you take more after Augusta,” Duncan chuckled. His tone suggested that he was clearly trying to ruffle her feathers, and unfortunately, it was working. “Both of you are plenty stubborn.”
“Well, maybe you just haven’t seen my sweet side yet,” she countered.
“And what would it take for me to see that?” he turned to her. She realized that he was closer to her now than before. When had he scooted closer?
“I am not sure,” she said, stuttering suddenly, and rushed to change the topic. “I am happy that you agreed to spend some time with the girls. I can tell that this means a great deal to them, even Augusta, though she may not show it.”
“They’re nice girls, and they’ve been through a lot,” Duncan said softly. “I don’t mind if I can make their days a little bit easier.”
His words held so much consideration behind them that she was struck for a moment.
“You know, you’ve really handled this situation very well,” she said. “Most people would have taken offense to their behaviors in the beginning, as they really did not like you immediately. But you were so patient, and you never once took it to heart.”
Duncan was silent for a few seconds. Maybe he had not expected her to praise him like this. Frankly, she hadn’t either. It was something that had just slipped out very naturally.
“I suppose I understand them,” he said finally. “I’ve had my fair share of difficulty in trusting strangers, and so I try not to take it personally when it is done to me.”
“Huh.”
Charity thought over his words for a moment, and then couldn’t resist saying out loud, “But you know what the strangest thing out of this all is? I didn’t have trouble trusting you at all. From the very beginning, it was…”
“We met under extraordinary circumstances,” he told her. She wasn’t sure if he was trying to dismiss the event as something that ‘just happened by chance’ or something that had a deeper meaning.
Her own conclusion aligned with the latter, though she would not admit it openly.
“I suppose yes,” she said. She could hear Matilda shouting in the distance, looking for them. “Do you… Would you say that these sort of extraordinary circumstances occur often for you?”
He laughed at her question, and she herself realized how silly it sounded once it had left her mouth.
I just want to know if this feels special for you.
“Well, extraordinary circumstances by their nature are just that… extraordinary,” he said, sounding amused. “Dissecting them runs the risk of rendering of ordinary.”
“Oh, I don’t agree,” she said quickly. “If anything, it makes things clearer.”
Duncan laughed again.
“What is so funny to you about this?” she said, a bit sourly. She didn’t understand why he seemed to be amused by absolutely everything that was coming out of her mouth right now.
“It’s just I can tell that you’ve done your fair share of overthinking about the circumstances through which we met,” he said, as though it was a fact.
It annoyed her a lot that he was right.
“And you haven’t?” she questioned.
“What’s the use?” he replied.
“Well, did you ever think that you would end up deciding to marry someone like this?” she said, getting genuinely curious now.
It was like both of them were opposites in some ways. When she sometimes pondered over things again and again, he seemed to just accept it as it came to him.
“I didn’t,” he shrugged.
She let out a sound that was something of a sigh.
“We truly are different then.”
“And I’m hoping you pick up this habit from me,” he said, “and try not to overthink things more.”
“I’m afraid that might not be possible,” she said, shaking her head. “But maybe it’s the right balance of thinking things as they are and overthinking between you and me.”
She didn’t even realize how it sounded before the words had already left her mouth. It occurred to her then that her words were rather… romantic, even.
She just blushed deeper, but Duncan only chuckled in response.
“Foundyoufoundyoufoundyou,” Matilda’s voice called out. She had spotted Duncan first and then saw Charity as well. Augusta, who had already been found a while ago, lingered behind them.
“Both of you were hiding away together?” Augusta teased, though Matilda just seemed overjoyed at having caught both in one sitting.
“It’s not…” Charity blushed, trying to get up. Duncan offered her a hand, and suddenly she felt too shy to take it in front of her sisters. She ended up taking it anyway, but her blush only deepened. “We both seemed to end up in the same hiding spot.”
“I see,” Augusta said, grinning now. “Already thinking alike? Your Grace, you seem to have had more of an impact on my sister than I originally thought.”
“Or her on me,” he shrugged his shoulders.
“Oh, stop both of you,” Charity said, “let’s continue the game, please?”
The game continued. It was Augusta’s turn to seek next, and then Duncan, then Matilda again.
By the time they had finished, Matilda was buzzing, and Augusta looked exhausted.
“I'm going in,” she announced, brushing grass from her skirt. “My feet hurt.”
“Mine too,” Matilda agreed, though she looked considerably less certain about leaving. She glanced between Charity and Duncan once, and then she followed her sister inside without another word.
Charity told herself that she would go in as well. There was absolutely no reason to linger. The afternoon had been lovely, and it had served its purpose, and now it was simply time to go inside and dress for supper like a reasonable person.
She kept walking, though. Slowly.
“Don’t you wish to join them?” Duncan said, catching up to her. “Or are you waiting for me?”
Her cheeks burned red again.
“Aren’t you tired?” she asked him, deliberately ignoring what he had just said. “You were running around with Matilda all evening.”
“I enjoyed it,” he laughed. “I realize after spending time with her that it wouldn’t be too bad to have younger siblings.”
“I suppose the time for that has passed now, but you can always share mine,” Charity replied.
“Or in time, we can make little children of our own,” he said out of the blue. “And they’ll run around the garden all the same.”
“I….” Charity was stunned speechless. She had not expected him to say something of the sort.
Yes, they had discussed heirs. But never before had the topic been broached so casually, as though it were only a matter of time. It made butterflies explode in her stomach, and there was no hiding the blush on her face.
Duncan smirked, looking at her reaction. Perhaps he knew that she would react like this and only wanted to get a rise out of her.
Once again, she had fallen for his bait.
“Get some rest,” he told her, walking past her as though he hadn’t just turned her insides into mush just by a few words. “And try not to overthink it.”