Page 80 of His Illegitimate Duchess

The fact that her husband had repeatedly refused to let her go warmed Elizabeth’s heart, but the hurt and anger in it were still stronger.

As soon as the Talbots entered the Mayfair house, they were greeted by Mary screaming as she waved a letter at them.

“Thomas promised to finally visit! This summer, after the baby’s born!”

Elizabeth joined in the screaming and hugged Mary, while Talbot observed the two of them for a while with narrowed eyes, and then asked, “Would this Thomas be your brother, the sailor?”

Mary was too happy to detect his icy tone, but Lizzie was inordinately amused by his old jealousy.

Had he been jealous all those months ago? But that would mean… No. Impossible.

She shook the thought off and continued celebrating with Mary.

***

One night mid-January, after dinner with Lady Burnham and cousin Andrew, when the Talbots had just finished saying goodbye to their guests, and Elizabeth was going to make her escape to the kitchen, her husband turned to her and asked, “Would you mind joining me in the library for a bit?”

“Have you forgiven the Duke yet?” Mrs Barlow had asked her the night before, as she did almost every night when they sat in the kitchen.

“Still avoiding him whenever I can help it,” Elizabeth had replied without any venom in her tone. “I’m actually planning on avoiding him even more.”

“Oh, yes, please tell them your grand plan,” Mary said reproachfully, and Elizabeth ran her tongue over her teeth in frustration.

“What plan?” Jane asked with narrowed eyes.

“She wants me to go to Norwich and have my child there, and she would accompany me and then… stay. She thinks the duke’s obligations in Parliament would prevent him from being there with her full time,” Mary said, her tone indicating that it was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard.

“It’s a reasonable plan,” Elizabeth protested, then pressed the fingertips of both her hands against her forehead. “I just can’t live like this anymore. Something needs to change somehow.”

The other women in the kitchen just exchanged looks and didn’t say anything.

Now, she was so taken aback by the request and the pleading tone it had been delivered in, while, at the same time, still under the influence of the good mood of a pleasant evening spent in the company of friends, that she found herself agreeing.

On the way to the library, Lizzie recalled what an important part of their days their intimate library evenings used to be, and she realised that it had been months ( How has it been almost three months?

She gasped internally.) since the last time they spent an evening together, just the two of them.

She had never spent much time in the Mayfair house library, so, after moving in, Talbot set up a sort of study for himself in it.

Since Lizzie avoided her husband, she also avoided the room, and this was her first time visiting it.

Upon entering, the first thing that caught her eye was the fact that it was almost indistinguishable from his other two studies that she’d seen.

He really likes his things a certain way, she mused as she looked around the room.

On the wall across from his desk were two paintings that she’d never seen before. Based on the placement, it seemed reasonable to conclude that he liked looking at them and spent a lot of time doing it, including right now.

One painting showed a solitary horseman somewhere in the countryside, surrounded by fields, with only a lone cottage in the distance.

The second one was a painting of a tree. A tree trunk, to be more precise. Nothing else. There was something about how the tree was painted, like one could reach into the painting and feel its bark under one’s fingertips.

Watching it evoked the memory of seeing Kitt’s oak the day she’d met Miss Judy.

Elizabeth vividly remembered the absolute safety and delight she’d felt with Colin and how much they had laughed and talked to each other.

That day and everything that happened on it used to have such a special place in her heart.

She missed all of it, but the sense of safety his deception had robbed her of, most of all.

She sighed, and Colin turned to look at her.

“What is it?”

Unwilling to tell him the truth, she instead asked, “Are these new?”

Talbot followed the direction of her chin nudge. “Yes, and they’re both by the same artist. One is called The Traveller, I’m certain you can guess which one that is.”

Lizzie didn’t smile at his joke. “What’s the other one called?”

“Study of the Trunk of an Elm Tree. How boring,” he was taking great care to appear nonchalant, but there was something odd about him tonight, a tension that she couldn’t quite decipher.

Elizabeth wanted to say something, anything, but the words were stuck in her throat. She thought about how both the man and the tree were alone .

“Shall we read?” Colin asked, holding up a book with the words Organon on the cover, and Lizzie nodded.

He handed her a book, Harrington , and they both pretended to read for a while, Elizabeth more successfully than Colin. He kept glancing at her with what could only be described as longing .

When the clock struck midnight, he politely wished her a good night, and they retired to their separate rooms. It took Elizabeth hours to fall asleep.

*

The next morning, she was still disquieted by his demeanour when she sat down to breakfast with her mother, who, in the course of the last month, had slowly, almost unnoticeably, become maman again. Talbot’s usual breakfast hour had come and gone, and he still hadn’t joined them.

How odd, Elizabeth thought.

“Where is His Grace this morning?” Miss Williams asked her.

“I don’t know and I do not wish to know,” Elizabeth said haughtily to cover up the dread she was feeling deep in her stomach.

Perhaps he finally gave up and left, and last night was his goodbye, she thought apprehensively, and it felt like someone was singeing her skin with hot curling tongs.

She’d been under the impression her husband was about to tell her something several times last night, but whenever she’d looked at him, he’d pressed his lips together as if he was trying to keep the words in.

That coward! She fumed. The anger felt better than the helpless despair, so she held onto it with all her might. Instead of speaking to me, he just… left?

“Perhaps he is unwell?” Catherine tried again, and Lizzie shrugged.

I’m glad he’s gone, she tried consoling herself. I never even wanted him here, him and his stupid philosophy books. It will be much easier for both of us to live our separate lives, finally!

She exchanged a surprised glance with her mother when they heard voices and a commotion in the hallway, and then the morning room door flew open and Doctor Cooper burst in, followed by Mr Brandon and Pratt, who were carrying her bleeding husband between them while poor Mister Ed was holding his legs.

Both Elizabeth and Miss Catherine jumped up. Lizzie’s mother held a hand over her mouth and looked unwell. Elizabeth wanted to smile.

Here he is! He didn’t leave me! She exhaled in relief.

“What happened?” Lizzie asked. “He was injured,” Doctor Cooper said, looking around the room, and Lizzie wanted to scream that the blood had told her as much, but she stopped herself.

Instead, she impatiently pulled the tablecloth (together with all the food and cutlery) from the breakfast table, threw it all to the ground, and said, “Here.”

She then approached the bell pull and rang for Susan, making a note to herself to apologise for the mess she’d made.

When they finished setting her husband down on the table, she asked, “How did he get hurt?”

All the men looked at each other sheepishly, and she lifted her eyebrows at them. Doctor Cooper was using a large pair of scissors to cut Colin’s coat from his body. Elizabeth realised that at some point her mother had left the room without a word.

She stared at the scene impassively, thanking God for all the hospital Wednesdays that had somewhat inured her to such sights. After seeing a handless child, some blood wasn’t the end of the world. Besides, she was a woman.

Susan had come in and was now cleaning up as quickly as she could.

“Is someone going to tell me what happened with my husband?” Elizabeth asked rather impatiently, and Cooper nodded at Brandon, without stopping his work.

“The duke called a man out,” Brandon said darkly.

“Apparently, last week he heard someone at his club insult you and your mother rather severely, and he wouldn’t stand for it.

I would have tried my hardest to stop him somehow, had I been informed earlier,” he said and glared at Pratt, who looked like he was going to cast up his accounts.

Elizabeth shivered, and a hazy memory tried to swim to the forefront of her mind, but she pushed it away.

“So, he… duelled?” She asked with a frown, and all the men nodded.

“This morning at sunrise,” Pratt said.

“From what I can see, it is a flesh wound,” Doctor Cooper said. “We shall know more soon. He lost a lot of blood quickly.”

Elizabeth gingerly approached the table and stood by her husband’s head. Doctor Cooper had taken everything but Talbot’s breeches off and was now searching for something in his bag.

“You stupid, reckless man,” she told Colin as she gently wiped his brow.

His eyes flew open.

“Don’t touch me! Who are you?”

“It’s me, Elizabeth,” she told him.

“Ah, that’s my wife’s name. Do you know her?” Colin asked eagerly.

Elizabeth stepped back, concerned.

“What is wrong with him?” She asked the Doctor.

“I’ve given him laudanum in the carriage. He’s most likely delirious.”

“What does the laudanum do, Doctor?”

“It relieves pain. I had a feeling he’d need it since we need to dig out the bullet.”