Page 81

“I locked her up. I kept her here against her own free will. And…” He swallowed and took a deep breath. “And if you do not leave me right now, I will do the same to you.”

This couldn’t be happening. A bad dream, was what it felt like. Worse than that, a nightmare. The things Anthony was saying were indeed her greatest fears realized; that she would fall for a man, that she would give herself to him fully, and that once he had what he wanted, he would forget her.

How could she have been so foolish? How could she have let this happen? The only way Caroline was able to keep herself from breaking was to hang onto that dim belief that, for some reason—although she could not guess why, Anthony was lying to her.

“You don’t mean it,” she said, the defiance in her voice well and truly gone.

“I do, Caroline. I mean every word…” His shoulders slumped and the anger began to fade. His eyes became filled with regret, but his words stayed the same. “I used you, that is what this marriage was for. I used you and now that I am done, I do not need you anymore.”

“I—”

“Go,” he spoke over her, turning away as he did. “Please, just go.” And with that, Anthony started up the staircase.

She watched him go, begging that he would turn around and change his words. That good sense would reach him before he reached the top, because—whatever this was, whoever it was, it was not her husband. It was not the man she had fallen in love with.

Yet he walked up the staircase. He reached the top floor. And then he turned the corner, not so much as pausing or glancing back to look at her.

Caroline felt her heart break in that moment. She felt her entire world shatter like a dropped vase. How had she been so foolish? How had she been so blind? How had she let Anthony trick her into falling in love with him, just to be used and discarded as she had feared she would be from the beginning?

She did not know what to do. She did not know what to say. She did not know how to feel—she could not feel, for her entire body had turned numb. So, with nothing else for it, Caroline dd the only thing that made sense in that moment. She fell to the ground in a heap, held her knees close, and she wept. She wept for love lost. She wept for her broken marriage. And she wept for Anthony, a man she thought she had known but never really had.

The Cruel Duke indeed.

ChapterTwenty-Eight

“Iguess this proves the point now, doesn’t it?” Daniel said, looking and sounding a little bit too pleased with himself.

“Wh—what?” Caroline pulled back from hugging her mother and looked at Daniel, seeing right away how smug and proud of himself he appeared.

“About His Grace,” Daniel confirmed. “That he is exactly who we said he was—who I said he was, at that.”

“Daniel,” her mother hissed. “Now is not the time.”

“I am sorry, Mother, but now is the time exactly. You will remember that when His Grace first suggested this marriage, I was against it. I knew who he was and could not countenance my sister marrying such a monster.”

That was not true. Daniel’s concern for Caroline was on account of his own perception of himself, and how her actions might affect his reputation. But Daniel, sensing victory in the air, chose to ignore that fact. “We should just be grateful that she managed to escape when she did. And in one piece, at that.”

Caroline winced at her brother’s harsh words. And not just what was said, but that he was using this moment to say them. Not five minutes she had been home, throwing herself at her mother for comfort and care in ways she had not needed to do since she was a little girl, only for her brother to use what should have been a moment of tragedy for his own gain.

It was the same night that she had fought with Anthony. The same evening she’d had her family over for supper. By the looks of things, they had only just arrived home before she came stumbling through the front door, desperate and helpless and bereft of any sense of what she might do.

She and Anthony had fought. He had asked her to leave—a command that in this instance she knew better than to deny. And where she might have liked to have believed that he would change his mind and come for her, somehow, she was very quickly giving up on that notion.All this time, he was lying to me. And I was a fool to believe him.

“We can talk about this later.” Her mother held her still, as if to shield her from Anthony. “For now, Caroline, let us get you upstairs.”

“He is not like that...” Caroline spoke the words in a whisper.

“Excuse me?” Daniel said.

“Anthony...” Caroline tried to pull herself free from her mother, but her mother refused to let go. “He is not like that. He is not a bad man.”

“You are not serious?” Daniel scoffed. “After how he has treated you? You still try and defend him.”

“He—”

“Caroline!” Aurelia appeared at the top of the steps. “What are you doing here?” She hurried toward Caroline.

“His Grace kicked her out,” Daniel said. “And she is lucky that he did. The man is a monster. The Cruel Duke indeed.”