Page 22 of A Bride for the Forbidden Duke (Forbidden Lords #2)

Chapter Twenty-Two

“ Y ou are my wife.” Henry’s voice startled her from her reverie. “You may enter my room, do you not know?”

After she showed her brother to his guest room, she immediately sought out Henry. He was in the bathroom of his chambers, and Veronica lingered in the doorway, unsure if she could enter.

“I am merely enjoying my view from back here.”

And she was, for her husband had stripped off his shirt, exposing an expanse of powerful muscles. Strong shoulders, a trim waist that led into his breeches, and thick biceps that easily let him take her weight whenever he scooped her up.

Henry paused, catching her eye in the mirror.

“Is that a hint of a smile?” she teased. “Does the Duke of Westley dare to smile so easily?”

At that, his face fell again, and she only giggled but already missed the look on his face. As if he had been happy that she admired him in such a way.

Her eyes traveled the length of his back, appreciatively taking him in. It had been a week since he had taken her into his bed, allowing her pleasure beyond her imagination, and they had rarely been able to keep their hands off one another since.

His backside was toned, leading down the thighs she wished were fully bared to her now. She loved spreading her own legs around them and taking whatever pleasure he deemed to give her. Most of all, Veronica loved it when he took that control when one moment before, she would be astride him, thinking herself as having the upper hand.

And the next she would find herself pinned with his body over hers, rendering her helpless.

“How is your lip?” she asked.

He snorted. “I have suffered far worse than an angry, entitled earl, but I must admit his punches were harder than I expected.”

Some bruising mottled his cheek but the rugged look about the injury only had Veronica wanting to go to his side, to tend to him, yet to see her husband in all his power and ruthlessness.

“Well, such an angry, entitled earl is now freshening up in his guest room. I am arranging dinner tonight for the four of us to get reacquainted. My brother is back, and I have much I want to know about his year away.”

Henry nodded. “Very well. You may tell the cook whatever you please for dinner, then.”

“You do not wish to choose?”

His smile was oddly affectionate. “I would like the Duchess to decide.”

A bloom of pride grounded her, and she bit her lip, daring to move closer to him. She reached out, flattening her palm to one broad shoulder. Henry stiffened, as he sometimes did when she initiated a touch, but he soon relaxed beneath her soothing palm. She pressed herself against his back, wrapping her fingers around his left arm.

His back was a wall of pure muscle, and she could not help pressing a kiss between his shoulder blades.

Henry stifled a noise, but she still heard the soft sigh through his nose.

Her hands dared to slide around to the front of his body, skimming over every hard line of muscle. His chest, his torso, his stomach, and she dared to explore over the waistband of his breeches, but he caught her hand, bringing it up to his mouth to kiss the back of it.

“Do you not have duties to attend to?” he asked her, cocking his head.

His brow lifted as though in feigning mockery that she was shirking.

“I do,” she agreed. “But I would much rather be here with you.”

“And I would much rather not be interrupted if your brother comes looking for you.”

At the reminder of her brother only a few doors away, Veronica sighed, slumping against Henry. “You are right.”

Henry turned to her, pulling her flush against him.

“Let me take you tonight,” he told her, pressing a hot, lingering kiss to her mouth. “When we shall not be heard. I would hate to have to keep you quiet when you sing so heavenly for me.”

He kissed the corner of her mouth and then the other corner, trailing kisses to the base of her throat before giving his attention to her lips again.

When she parted, she brushed over one of the bruises on his cheek. He closed his eyes, leaning into her touch but only for a moment. As though he could not let himself enjoy the sensation for much longer.

Henry pulled back. “After dinner, come to my chambers. Do not go anywhere else.”

He dipped his head, looking at her seriously to ensure she understood.

She swallowed, already excited. “Yes, Your Grace.”

He tugged her closer, teeth catching on her lobe. “Wear a robe,” he whispered, “and nothing else beneath.”

With his final order, he turned back to continue washing the blood from his face with the damp towel slung around his neck. Veronica moved back, blushing even as she bit away her smile.

Cooling herself down for a moment in the airy hallway, Veronica walked towards the kitchens, on her way to the cook to request the most exquisite dinner for her brother.

The clink of cutlery broke the tension in the room. Robert could not stop looking between Veronica and Henry, clearly trying to figure out what had happened between them. Distrust narrowed his eyes.

Thomas watched the three of them, cocking his head as he regarded Robert.

“Lord Grantham has the most riveting tale of his adventures,” Thomas spoke up, cutting up pieces of meat. “Why not share them, My Lord?”

“I would very much like to hear the tale,” Veronica said enthusiastically.

“As would I.” Henry’s voice was flat, his mouth tight. “I would like the explanation as to where my business partner disappeared to for a year with a good portion of my investments.”

Robert visibly cringed. “Of course, of course.”

He cleared his throat and busied himself with spooning more potatoes into his mouth for a moment before Veronica coughed, gently encouraging him. This was not the angry man from earlier, nor was it the brother she had grown up with, confident and leading.

No, this was a more nervous version of Robert, an earl desperate for approval from a business partner, the very trait that had driven him to disappear for a year.

“Before the social Season starts would be good,” Henry said, monotone.

Veronica, despite herself, had to bite back a snort at his dry humor betraying his impatience.

“Well, I suppose my tale starts at Turner Hall,” Robert said. “We agreed to meet with the potential client in Nanterre, and I was headed right for there. Our client kept up correspondence with me, as expected. I wrote to him to inform him of my boarding the ship across the Channel. However, I soon found out that my letter was intercepted.”

“What did this letter say?” Henry’s voice dropped to a dangerous low, and Veronica fought not to shiver at it.

Robert’s face went red. “I told him that I was equipped with our proposal and would meet him on the agreed day.”

“ And ?” Henry pressed, seeing something Veronica herself could not.

Robert slumped. “And I mentioned that I was carrying the investment sum.”

“Lord Grantham,” Henry groaned. He pinched his brow.

“Who were you intercepted by?” Veronica pushed, not understanding everyone’s distress.

“Pirates,” Robert whispered. Veronica blinked.

“Pirates?”

“Pirates,” he confirmed. “Ones who knew how much gold I carried.”

Henry set down his cutlery, shaking his head. “I do not think I can bear to hear such idiocy. It is desperation, that got you into this mess.”

“I understand,” Robert said, nodding solemnly. “And, in fact, I have already written to some partners of mine in London to secure funds to repay you.”

The Duke waved a hand. “There is no need for that. My wife is pleased to see you home, and her happiness is what matters to me.”

Veronica was watching her husband carefully, pleasantly surprised. The man she had married would have demanded back every penny. This man… Dare she believe he had changed? Despite his outward annoyance, and the way he now gripped the stem of his wine glass, she knew he truly did feel an element of guilt. Robert’s choices were not his to be responsible for, but he had planted the idea in the first place to a young earl eager to prove himself.

“Continue,” Henry said, gesturing.

“Our merchant ship ferrying only several passengers was attacked by pirates. Pirates who now knew of the wealthy travelers going to France. Except we did not head for France but for Spain. The pirates boarded our ship, took me and several other fellows hostage, and pocketed every coin we had. They took the clothes from my back, and I only just managed to scavenge a shirt and breeches back.”

Veronica gasped, her heart breaking for her brother. “What did they do to you?”

“They were Spanish pirates,” he muttered. “Darn entitled ones, too. They thought they could mock the British gentlemen, and parade about in our clothes while they left us in the sun to cook like meat. Two fellows got themselves killed.”

Veronica shuddered. The thought that her brother could have been one of those…

“It seems you had enough sense to keep your mouth closed but not entirely enough sense to know you should not have opened it verbally or on paper until you got to the meeting.”

Henry sounded bored, but she could see through the facade. He cared—he had cared so much for his lost partner that he had married her to provide for her.

“It is good you are back now,” Veronica said, brushing over Henry’s comment.

“Ah, his tale does not stop there,” Thomas said giddily. “Do tell them about France. Sorry, good friend, but now that you are back safely, the tale is quite the story.”

“Must I?” Robert cringed.

“You must,” Henry said.

“The pirates… They took great pleasure in parading as us as I mentioned. They reread my letter and discovered the name of the man I was supposed to meet on behalf of the Duke.”

“Heavens above,” Henry muttered. “This only gets worse.”

“Oh, much worse,” Thomas said.

“We were bound to the mast,” Robert continued, hurriedly forking more of his dinner into his mouth to distract himself at times. “One man was roped to the bowsprit, and yet, he did survive. Regardless, we were bound and sailed for France. Once there, we were kept on the ship while the pirates ascended on the town.” He glanced at Henry. “They… They wore my clothes and attended the meeting with our client.”

Veronica knew enough to know how much shame this could bring upon them both, and had the meeting taken place in London, neither would have heard the end of it in the gossip sheets. Her chest tightened as she listened to her brother’s awful tale.

“The client has withdrawn,” Henry guessed. “For they have not even deigned to write to me to inform me of this matter.”

“Undoubtedly, so, yes,” Robert answered. “The rest of the captured men and I took our chance. They thought that almost roasting us alive would render us weak, and it almost worked, but we prevailed. None of us knew what to do with a ship, but we knew we had to take a chance. It had been a long, long time since I had seen my homeland. No matter the cost, I knew we had to get back, so I sailed.”

“You did?” Veronica cried out. “You sailed a pirate ship?”

“I crashed it, inevitably,” he said. “Right off the coast of northern France.”

“Did you loot anything at least?” Thomas asked eagerly.

“Given his lack of luggage, I would suggest no.” Henry’s voice was thinner, his patience almost entirely run out.

Veronica dared to slide her hand beneath the table to place her hand on his thigh. It was tense beneath her palm.

“I barely made it to shore,” Robert said. “I did not see the other hostages, but I could scarcely look for them when my thoughts were only on making it home. The pirate ship was in ruins, and I found a set of clothing floating beside me in the sea. I took hold of them and swam as hard as I could for land, using only a raft to support myself.” He paused. “I found shore and walked in the only direction I could find. I slept outside inns and took shelter where I could.”

“And that is where I finally located him in Sussex,” Thomas added. “It was a terrible search. You are not an easy man to find, Lord Grantham.”

“Oh, Robert,” Veronica murmured. “The things you have been through… The ordeals. You must be exhausted.”

“In all honesty, sister, I feel as though I could sleep for a week and it would still not be enough.”

Even Henry relaxed his anger for a moment, sympathetic for the man he had let go out to that meeting.

“Henry… Your Grace—for I cannot consider myself a friend to you any longer after my actions—I shall pay you back every last coin. I shall make amends however you see fit. And I am terribly sorry for my behavior earlier. My brain is deprived from many a thing, and I misinterpreted a situation although I am still not entirely sold on this idea of you two being married.”

Veronica paused. She did not want her brother to yet know the marriage was one of convenience, for Robert would get angry all over again with Henry. He knew of her dreams of a love match.

So instead, she changed the topic. “Robert, all my life, I have watched you be desperate to earn our father’s approval. You have sought victory after victory, so he would notice you. When he passed away, your desperation became deeper. You knew you had to provide for us, and I am grateful for how much you have done, but there need to be boundaries set within yourself. You cannot be in such a situation again. Mama and I… We were left unprovided for. And you wrote to your client, important, I understand, but not once did you write to us. Not to inform us of your destination nor your intentions to return or stay. We had no clue of anything.”

“I know, sister,” Robert said, bowing his head shamefully. “And for that, I am regretful.”

“You must take proper care in the future.”

Veronica could feel her husband’s eyes on her, even as she scolded her older brother. It was not respectful, she knew, but her mother had sold herself to Lord Barwicke due to Robert’s lack of thought. He had chased financial desperation before family honor, and that had caused damage.

“I plan to return to London and resume the proper duties of my title,” Robert told her seriously. “In fact, I have already written to our mother to inform her that I shall visit her once I have rested for a day or so.”

“You may take more time than that,” Veronica told him, frowning.

Robert shook his head. “No, Veronica, I have imposed on you enough. Your hospitality so far has been everything I could have hoped for, and I will not overstay any welcome.”

His eyes flitted to the Duke for a brief moment before returning to her.

Bathed and groomed, her brother finally looked like the man who had left London all those months ago, not the rough, rugged man who had burst into the music room like a wild man on the loose.

“I am sorry I failed you.”

“It is not your fault,” she told him, offering him a kind smile. “We—Henry and I—shall help you reenter society. Will we not?”

She turned to Henry, who nodded, despite his anger and harder remarks about her brother’s tale.

“We shall,” he said. “I shall endorse you.”

“Your Grace?—”

Henry lifted his chin, his jaw tight. “You may call me Henry still.”

Robert blinked at him, as if uncertain to the Duke’s honesty. Did he truly think himself so unworthy of forgiveness? Veronica brightened the silence with a tinkle of her fork against her glass.

“Then a toast,” she suggested. “To the return of the Earl of Grantham.”

“To the Earl of Grantham,” Thomas and Henry echoed, and Robert looked at his sister gratefully as they all drank.