Page 34 of Married to the Icy Duke (Duke Wars #3)

T here they were. Isaac’s chest loosened when he spotted Charlotte, Sybella, and Tommy up ahead, all sitting on a picnic blanket with a pair of footmen kicking their heels in the background. He swallowed down his anger and slowed his horse to a trot.

Tommy came running towards him, beaming.

Isaac stopped the horse altogether and slid down from the saddle.

He threw a quick, furious glance at Charlotte and Sybella—he wasn’t sure which of them was to blame for taking Tommy out of the house without his say-so, but it was likely a team effort—and then glanced down at Tommy, forcing a smile. Now was not the time, he supposed.

“Do you want to see my horse?” he asked, trying to sound calm and playful. “Would you like me to lift you up so that you can stroke his mane?”

Tommy nodded eagerly, and Isaac swept him up. Lifting him up, he let Tommy gently stroke the horse’s smooth white mane.

“When you are old enough,” Isaac promised, “you’ll have a horse of your own. You can choose one, and I’ll buy it for you. How does that sound?”

Tommy beamed.

“In the meantime,” Isaac continued, “you have a fine rocking horse in the nursery. Why don’t you practice on that?”

Tommy said nothing, which Isaac took to be a no .

Before he could say a word, Charlotte appeared at his elbow.

A quick glance over the top of her head showed that Sybella was still on the picnic blanket, talking to Mary.

His arrival, it seemed, had not sent them into a flurry of guilt and panic.

Instead, they seemed to merely think that he’d come to join them.

Well, they were wrong.

“I don’t think Tommy likes the rocking horse very much,” Charlotte said.

Isaac pressed his lips tightly together. He set Tommy down on his feet, and the little boy rushed off like a wind-up toy, hurrying back to where Sybella and Mary sat.

Before Charlotte could continue, Isaac spoke, his voice clipped and hissing.

“Tell me, was it you or my sister who chose to take Tommy out of the house without my permission?”

She blinked, faltering. “I … What?”

“Don’t act the fool with me, Charlotte. You and Sybella took my own nephew out of the house and brought him here, to a public space with all manner of dangers, without so much as a by-your-leave. What have you to say for yourself?”

Charlotte stared up at him, visibly stunned.

This somehow made Isaac angrier. Why was she stunned, acting as though he were the one being unreasonable?

It was bad enough that clearly nobody—not even Perling or Mrs. Ribb—had thought to inform him that Tommy was gone.

He had been forced to come home and discover that his nephew, his bride-to-be, and his sister were all missing, only to be told, quite matter-of-factly, that they’d all gone out.

He folded his arms tightly across his chest and glared down at Charlotte.

“Well?” he snapped. “Answer me, can’t you!”

She breathed in deeply, visibly steeling herself.

“He is Sybella’s nephew, too,” she said at last, her voice clipped and angry. “I wasn’t aware that we required permission from you to stir outdoors.”

“ You don’t require permission, and nor does Sybella, but Tommy is my responsibility. Not Sybella’s. Mine.”

“He’ll be mine too, in one day’s time,” Charlotte shot back, her voice cold.

That gave Isaac something of a start. Of course, the wedding. It was scheduled for tomorrow, and then there’d be a hellish wedding breakfast to suffer through. Then, as a Duke with his new Duchess, Society would expect him to host parties and other nonsensical things.

Ridiculous. I throw the infamous Devil’s Party every year, and I made sure it was the event of the Season for the express purpose of avoiding more socializing. That’ll all change, now.

“All the more reason to keep him indoors,” Isaac responded tightly. “If you haven’t noticed, we are the object of a great deal of interest at the moment.”

Charlotte did not look around her at the gawpers.

There were clusters of ladies and gentlemen, most of them pretending to walk, but they were all staring their way.

Whenever Isaac met their gazes, they turned away at once, faces burning.

Still, the moment he dropped his gaze, they’d be staring again.

Wretched creatures , he thought sullenly. Can’t they all wait to read about our wedding in the gossip columns?

“Well,” Charlotte ventured at last, “we thought that Tommy might want a little fresh air. A little excursion before the guests begin to arrive.”

Isaac blinked. “Guests? What guests?”

She stared up at him, a frown appearing between her brows. “You truly don’t remember?”

“Refresh my memory, won’t you?”

“ Our guests. For our wedding . Some guests are staying with us tonight to be ready for the wedding tomorrow. Madeline, my dearest friend, is coming. Gabriel and Thalia are not, but then they live so close. I believe that your friend Tristan will be here, and …”

“I knew none of this.”

She threw out her arms in frustration. “Well, the servants know it. The rooms are prepared, and meals have been planned. Our guests are coming , Isaac. Perhaps if you’d seen fit to join us at breakfast, you’d have heard about this.”

He stared down at her, frowning. Was she actually upset?

Was she angry that he had not come to breakfast?

That wasn’t possible. She had been so cool and collected at dinner last night.

She had barely looked at him. He had sat there, tortured with desire, longing to speak to her, to gather her into his arms, to do …

Well, he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do with her, not exactly, but he was fully aware that his desires were not respectable. And she had been so composed .

“You’re angry,” Isaac said at last. “And I know why.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Oh? Do tell.”

“You’re angry because I broke your rule the other night. Your no-touching rule.”

Color rushed into her face. Was she remembering it?

Was she thinking of his fingers on her skin?

She could have no understanding, of course, of how desperately he’d craved her touch.

He would never request such a thing, naturally, not from a woman as respectable and inexperienced as Charlotte. It was out of the question.

It did not stop him from thinking of it, though, of running the possibilities over and over in his mind.

That sort of thing could drive a man mad.

Thankfully for Isaac’s sanity, Sybella appeared. Leaving Tommy with Mary, she came striding over the grass and offered a faint smile.

“What’s the matter? You two are glowering at each other as if you are about to fistfight,” Sybella said, in a cheerful tone that didn’t match her words. “May I remind you that we are being watched?”

“I’m just a little taken aback that neither of you thought it appropriate to inform me that you were taking Tommy out of the house,” Isaac responded, his voice clipped.

Sybella snorted. “You cannot be serious.”

“I am quite serious.”

Charlotte shot Sybella a pointed look. “He is .”

Sybella folded her arms. “Do you intend to lock Tommy up forever? Will you keep him a prisoner, forcing us all to ask your permission to do the smallest thing for him? I cannot agree with that, Isaac. You are Tommy’s uncle, to be sure, but I am his aunt, and soon Charlotte will be his aunt, too.

I do not regret taking him on this picnic. ”

“Nor do I,” Charlotte chimed in. “I won’t beg your pardon, and nor will I promise not to do it again. You must trust us, Isaac, to do the right thing for the boy.”

Isaac uttered a short laugh. His heart was pounding, and he could hear blood rushing in his ears.

“Trust? Let me tell you, if I had trusted more often on the battlefield, I would not have returned at all.”

Charlotte pressed her lips together. He could almost feel her gaze boring into him, cool and steady. He could not quite meet her eyes, and that felt like weakness.

“This is not a battlefield, Isaac,” she said quietly. “This is not a war.”

He rounded on her. “Isn’t it?”

“No,” she shot back, holding her ground. “I intend for us to raise Tommy together . This is not a war. We are not fighting against each other. For heaven’s sake, we have the same goal!”

Isaac took a moment to respond, tightening his jaw.

Glancing briefly around, he saw that Sybella was staring at him with a faint frown between her brows.

Mary had clearly noticed, although she was trying her best to keep Tommy distracted.

Even the two footmen, lounging in the shade of a tree, had at some point straightened up, clearly uncomfortable.

Breathing in deeply, he returned his gaze to Charlotte. She was still looking at him, her eyes focused and sharp. There was an expression in them that he could not read, and it made his chest tighten. Clearing his throat, he looked away.

“Nevertheless, I am responsible to my brother for raising his child, not you,” he responded crisply. “I am the duke. What I say, goes.”

“Oh, pshaw ,” Sybella snapped. He ignored her.

“Pack everything up and return to the carriage,” Isaac continued, holding Charlotte’s stare. “We are going back to the house immediately. The picnic is over.”

“Now, wait just a minute,” Sybella began, but Charlotte held up a hand to silence her. To Isaac’s intense surprise, his sister did fall silent. Interesting.

“We’ll return to the house,” Charlotte said, her voice quiet. There was something in her voice that she could not place. When he understood what it was, his chest constricted.

It was disappointment. She was disappointed in him.

She didn’t wait for a response. Turning on her heel, Charlotte strode back to the picnic blanket. Sybella threw him one reproving stare, then followed. The two women began the process of packing up the things, leaving Isaac standing by himself with his horse.

He breathed in and out deeply, squeezing his eyes closed.