Page 101 of His Stolen Duchess

“Then where is she?”

“I am sure I will be able to find out for you, Your Grace, if you allow me just a moment.”

“What is the meaning of… Your Grace?” Ambrose asked as he appeared in the entryway.

He was followed in short order by Emily.

“I need to speak with my wife,” Lysander demanded. “Where is she? I know she’s here.”

“She’s staying here, but she went out,” Emily said.

Lysander pushed his temper down, knowing that he was only angry at himself and not the people before him. “Where did she go?”

“I don’t know,” Emily said. “She mentioned that she needed to be alone—she wanted to get some air. I think she went for a walk, and she wouldn’t let me go with her. I’m sure she’ll be back soon.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Lysander growled. “I need to see her now.”

I need to see her before it’s too late.

Ambrose held up one hand to the Duke. “All right, let’s all just calm down.”

“No, she did mention something else,” Emily admitted. “She said something about going back to the start. About how she must live her life, and something about making different decisions. I don’t know. It didn’t seem all that important at the time, but maybe it was.”

“She spoke about going back to the start?” Lysander asked.

“Yes. What does that mean?” Emily asked.

“I think I know,” Lysander said. “If she returns here, don’t let her leave again. I’m taking my wife back home where she belongs.”

He turned, left the residence, and strode to Thomas’s waiting horse. He swung himself up and over its back in one fluid motion. Then, he was on his way again.

It was time to find his wife.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Georgina sat alone in Hyde Park. She was not strictly alone—many people were walking in the park that evening—but she sat away from everyone else, looking out at the lake where she had almost died.

Georgina smiled.

What an interesting web Fate weaves for us.

She’d only gone down to the kitchens in the early hours of the morning before her wedding because she couldn’t sleep. That was the only reason she bumped into Dottie. If she hadn’t pushed, she would never have found out that Abbington had slept with the maid and cast her aside. And if she hadn’t been so brave, she would never have gone to confront Abbington that morning and found out exactly the type of man he was.

“And if I wasn’t so scared of spending my life with him, I wouldn’t have been able to run away.”

She looked over at the bushes where she had broken through and stumbled into the lake. There were other places where she could have come through and been fine, and if she had been looking where she was going, she wouldn’t have fallen in.

“If I had learned to swim as a child, I might not have met the Duke at all. And if he were not walking through the park, he would not have been there to save me. And if it were not for his brother’s passing, he might not have been so motivated to pull me from the lake.”

Georgina sighed.

“The past is what still haunts him and keeps him from loving me. I know I must go back to the manor and be with him, but I’m so afraid. I know I love him, and I will fall more in love with him, and he won’t ever return that to me.”

Georgina sighed again, shaking her head. “And now? I’m sitting sad and alone in a public park, having a conversation with myself.”

The sun was starting to dip down behind the trees, casting an orange glow across the sky, mirrored in the lake below. It was beautiful. The orange streaks in the crystal water made it more inviting, hinting that it might be warm when she knew it wasn’t.

It didn’t frighten her. It was her first time back at the lake after almost drowning at the bottom of it. Yet, she felt no fear. If she had her bathing suit, she would gladly go in for a swim.