The Wedding Affair (Rebel Hearts 1)

“Penny for your thoughts, Captain,” the duke asked suddenly. “You look like you have bitten into a lemon.”

He looked up and forced a smile to his face. “Nothing worth mentioning, Your Grace.”

Admiral Templeton and Lord Ellicott departed for the drawing room and the ladies without a backward glance. When they were gone, the duke shook his head.

“Come now, surely your stroll outside did you some good.” The duke raised one brow, daring him to deny it. He did not feel better, but he was not suffering anymore.

The duke had nothing to fear. He had accepted tonight that Sally was lost to him and all the reasons he would never win her back. He could not change her mind, nor did he truly want to turn her against her father. She loved the man, but she could not see the shades of gray he cloaked his world in. “It did indeed. Blew the cobwebs from my mind, in fact.”

The duke hauled himself upright. “How do you like your room?”

“It has a pleasant aspect facing the sea,” he said. “Quite an improvement from the captain’s quarters aboard the Selfridge, as you can imagine. A man can have too much splintered wood hanging over his head at times.”

“Indeed he can.” Rutherford turned toward the fire and tossed his unfinished cigar into the flames.

Felix’s attention was drawn to the wide mantel the duke leaned against. A single ivory elephant, no larger than his fist, marched toward the nearest window, trunk upraised. Felix remembered trading for it on the streets of India on his first voyage after he had lost Sally. The merchant had bartered hard and been paid fairly well for the trinket. But it was only one of a pair. He had sent this one home to Newberry to fulfill the duke’s bargain and the other he had kept in his quarters on board, wrapped in a shawl he had kept of Sally’s.

He almost laughed now at his foolish sentimentality. Had he really imagined the piece would one day find its way into Sally’s hands after leaving his own?

“Would it surprise you to learn that the best views are from a currently neglected dower house half a mile away?”

He frowned. He had caught a glimpse of a house distant from the estate, beyond the well-trimmed gardens, but had not realized it was abandoned. “Was it the original manor house for the estate?”

The duke nodded and headed for the doorway. “My great-grandfather built Torre Cottage before my grandfather made his fortune. Later generations have lived there at different times, but because of the cottage’s smaller size, Newberry was built to accommodate the growing family.”

“Newberry is impressive.”

“Torre Cottage is a favorite of mine. I lived there when my wife and I were first married for a time. Mary found the family a touch overwhelming at first.” He grinned impishly. “And there are benefits to privacy when you are madly in love.”

He was surprised the duke had married for love and made mention of it. Most lords did not speak kindly of their wives, or so he had noticed. “I feel I should already know the answer to this, but were you ever in the service?”

“No, an older brother of mine was a lieutenant, but he died at twenty when the ship ran afoul of a reef, and I became the heir. I had already been married a few years by then, and if not for Mary’s steadfast love, I would have been miserable as head of the family when I inherited from my father a few years later.”

He was surprised by the duke’s candor yet again. Felix had always imagined Rutherford had been born a duke. That made him a little less intimidating in Felix’s eyes.

“Love is the one thing that can make a long and demanding life worthwhile,” the duke continued. “Do not plan to live without it, Captain, or you will suffer the consequences.”

Rutherford took a step and wobbled. Felix grabbed his elbow quickly to steady the man before he fell.

“Damn hands,” the duke grumbled. “Next thing you know, I will have to endure the indignity of being pushed around in those rolling contraptions.”

“I am sure it will never happen,” Felix murmured to reassure the older man, but he too could see that day coming. Everyone got old eventually. Everyone died in the end.

Rutherford thumped his canes on the floor, loosening Felix’s grip, and his lips pursed tightly together a moment. He turned slightly toward Felix. “You know, I miss my Mary on days like this. I always thought we would grow old together. She would have let me fall and then joined me on the floor, laughing about my not keeping my own feet beneath me.”

Felix shook his head. He could imagine Sally doing exactly the same thing when they reached their dotage, but such a moment was not in his future now. “She must have been a wonderful woman.”

“She was my world. It would have been her birthday today,” the duke mused and then shuffled off toward the drawing room.

Felix hurried to catch up in case the duke teetered again.

~ * ~

The dark terrace was perfect for some serious contemplation. Unfortunately, Lady Duckworth had forced Sally’s face around so she could not be alone with her thoughts.

“You never told me he was so devilishly handsome.”

She had never wanted to mention Felix again after their engagement had ended, but the description still fit him. “He appears the same as he ever was.”