Page 73

What did it all mean?

She was reasonably confident that it was a coincidence. The man had not been looking at her because he knew who she was but for an unrelated reason.

That was one problem solved. With that out of the way, she could move on to the next one. She could not lie in bed all day, and the quicker she faced her problems, the better. She got out of bed and donned one of her nicer dresses. She might have dressed even more elegantly to face the Duke, but her best dresses were hard to put on by herself.

Beatrice checked her hair in the looking glass to ensure it was neat, and then she went down to the breakfast room in search of her husband.

She was glad to find him in there, midway through his breakfast. That gave her time to spend with him before he left.

She entered the room and took a seat close to him. She looked at him, but he did not look back at her. She wondered if she could lean over the table and kiss him—maybe that would make things better. But she did not think it would work. She was not in the mood for that, and he did not look as if he were in the mood either.

“I did not sleep,” she murmured.

Edwin grunted in response.

Beatrice asked the maid to pour her some tea, and then she took a slice of toast and spread butter over it. She did not feel like adding jam.

The Duke seemed to be eating his breakfast rather quickly that morning, and she was sure it was to get out of the breakfast room as fast as possible. She felt like a child who had just been scolded by her father.

Beatrice sighed. “You must let me explain.”

“Explain?” the Duke said loudly.

“Yes, explain. I know I should not have snuck out, but I did, and you must understand why. You can’t shout at me in the middle of the night without knowing everything first, and if you had given me the opportunity to explain last night, then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

The Duke looked her in the eye. “Fine. Explain.”

Beatrice felt a little better, now that she would get to tell her side of the story, though she was not sure what that side was or if explaining would help her case in any way. She took a sip of her tea before she spoke.

“I know you have been trying to find out who is behind the article, and we both know it is Miss Jennings, even if we can’t prove it. You have so many resources, but you have turned up with nothing so far. That is not to say you will not, but she has obviously planned this well, and there might be a chance you will never be able to prove she is behind it. With things like these, time is of the essence.”

“Is it?” The Duke arched an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Beatrice snapped. “And yes, I knew you would not allow me to go out, and that is why I didn’t ask you—not that I need your permission to do everything in life. I can eat breakfast without your permission, can’t I?”

“Go on,” the Duke urged.

Beatrice looked at him curiously.

“Your explanation, not the breakfast,” he clarified.

“And it was all my fault in the first place. I don’t need someone else running around, fixing all of my mistakes. You should not have to do that for me, despite us being married. I made mistakes, and it has hurt both of us. You have done so much for me, and I wanted to do something for you. You shouldn’t be the one to fix this. I should.”

“So, you did something you knew you shouldn’t do to fix a problem that I was already fixing, and you put us all in danger, and you still think this is all fine?” the Duke asked.

“No, I don’t think it is all fine,” Beatrice said, almost knocking over her teacup. “I’m trying to apologize for what I did, but I would never intentionally put myself in danger.”

“Not only yourself,” the Duke pointed out. “If you had been caught or seen, and youmighthave been seen, it is not only you who would be in trouble. I have spent years restoring my family’s reputation after my father passed. He was too generous, and I had to be too ruthless, and both contributed to the mess we got into. You and I are married now, and what you do affects all of us—you, me, Mother, and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is supposed to debut this Season, and so is your sister. What are people going to think if there is another rumor about you circling about town?”

“I only wanted to fix this,” Beatrice insisted.

“And you might have made it worse,” the Duke accused.

Beatrice just wanted him to know that she did it for him, but she was struggling to make him understand. If she could go back and choose a different course of action, she would, but it was too late now. She didn’t care at all about her reputation as long as they had a future together.

She had thought they were truly coming round to each other, but what did they really have if they could not work together on this?

“I only wanted to help,” Beatrice said softly.