Page 17 of Ravished by the Beastly Duke (Regency Beasts #1)

CHAPTER 17

E veline was not quite tired when she retired to her chambers.

As she changed into her nightgown, she could not help but smile as she thought over the events of the day.

She had been walking on clouds when she returned to the castle after finally putting Lady Sarah in her place, and she could not wait to tell her husband.

However, that excitement gave way to concern when her husband told her about the day he had at Parliament.

She was beyond furious at the foolish lords who neither cared for the lives of the young men at war nor the safety of their dear country.

And yet, seeing her husband break down in her presence, she wanted nothing more than to reach out to him, to wrap him in her arms. She wanted to share in his grief, so she would better know how to console him.

However, the look on his face told her that he was not quite ready to share his grief. And yet she offered him comfort still.

Eveline knew that her husband may never be ready to share his experience at war with her, and she understood his reasons. After all, he probably had the most traumatic experience known to man.

She could not help but wonder if his friends were also as affected by the war as he was.

Physically, there was evidence that they were affected, as all but Theo sported scars. What Eveline truly wished to know was whether their minds were also scarred the same way William’s had been.

For a moment, she envied his friends, who had shared such moments with him—moments that had changed and impacted their lives.

And yet she was still happy that he felt safe with her enough to let her see his grief.

After all, he was incredibly protective of that part of his life.

Eveline picked up one of her novels from the nightstand and tried to read. Books had a way of soothing her, of transporting her into another realm so that she momentarily forgot whatever troubles she may have.

She had only just finished a page and flipped to another when she heard a scream.

“NOOOOOO!” William’s voice echoed through the estate.

Eveline sprang from the bed, terrified beyond her mind. She all but flew to the adjoining room, where William was writhing on his bed. She rushed towards him only to see his eyes closed. However, there were beads of sweat on his face and body, and he seemed to be terrified.

She was temporarily relieved to find that he had only been having a nightmare.

Therefore, she tapped him awake.

It did not take long for him to spring awake, looking confused for a moment. His eyes widened as he stared at her as though he had just seen a ghost.

“Eveline,” he whispered. He rubbed his eyes before looking around the room. “Was I… dreaming?”

“It seemed you had a nightmare,” Eveline said gently as she sat on the bed beside him.

William peered at her rather curiously as he lifted his hand and touched her face gingerly, as though he was seeing her for the first time. Eveline noticed that his hand shook just slightly.

“You are right,” he whispered, “it seems to only be a nightmare.”

“Do you want me to pour you a cup of water?” she asked.

He shook his head, and almost as though he was only now jolted awake from the nightmare, he sat up.

“I am fine. It is only but a nightmare.”

“I know,” she murmured as she touched the back of her hand to his forehead to see if he was burning up, but he was not. She learned this trick from Ava, as she would often check her temperature after she had a nightmare to be certain that she was not running a fever.

William smiled. “I promise you, I am fine. You can go back to your chambers. We shall talk in the morning.”

And yet Eveline was certain he was not fine. Granted, his temperature was not incredibly high. However, with the way his hand shook slightly as it touched her face, the way his smile did not quite reach his eyes, and the way he panted and his chest heaved, she knew he was far from fine.

Something was troubling him.

“I am not quite convinced that you are fine,” she said.

“I promise you, seeing you was all I needed to be fine.”

This time, he actually sounded sincere.

Eveline still was not totally convinced that she must leave his side.

She had never seen him this shaken by anything, and she could, therefore, tell that his nightmare was a rather intense one.

“What was the nightmare about?” she asked.

William tried to laugh it off.

“I am not so easily fooled,” she told him. “I have never seen you so shaken. The nightmare must have been horrid.”

“It is only a foolish nightmare,” he responded.

“If it is truly a foolish nightmare, then you shall tell me what it was, would you not?” she asked stubbornly.

William looked away. “I truly cannot remember the nightmare.”

Eveline wanted to believe him, but she could tell that he simply was not comfortable telling her.

While she did not quite enjoy the fact that he was keeping his nightmare a secret, she chose not to push him further.

“That is fine,” she relented as she scooted closer to him on the bed. “But I am going to stay here for a while.”

“But…” William started to protest, but he was smart enough to catch himself. “There is nothing I could say to make you leave, is there?”

Eveline shook her head. “I shall stay with you for a little while to protect you from your nightmares.”

“Am I not the one who should protect you from nightmares?” he asked.

Eveline shrugged. “Well, you have slacked on your duty, and now I have to protect you instead,” she declared.

“I suppose I deserve that,” he mumbled.

“To make my protection more bearable, do you want me to finally regal you with tales of my activities earlier today?”

William’s ears perked up immediately. “I certainly do.”

Eveline scooted further back until she was leaning against the headboard.

“You must know I went to the modiste today,” she began.

“Certainly, I remember,” William said. “And I assure you, I am eager to see the dresses on you when they are ready.”

Eveline blushed. “I hope you are not developing certain amorous ideas,” she teased.

William shook his head. “I cannot make such promises.”

“Now, Ava has been taking me to Miss Fran ever since I was a young girl.”

William nodded to signal that he was paying close attention.

“Of course, Miss Fran was happy to see me again. However, she had barely ushered me into the cabin when Lady Sarah entered the shop with her cronies.”

“Lady Sarah?” William seemed confused.

Eveline understood why he was. After all, she had never told him about Lady Sarah and how the woman had constantly said horrid things about her.

“Lady Sarah is a rather obnoxious lady,” she explained.

Her voice was filled with bitterness, and William must have noticed it because he sat up straighter immediately.

“I have never heard you speak so strongly of someone,” he noted, peering into her eyes. “She must have done unimaginable things to you.”

Eveline nodded. “Indeed, she and her cronies did.”

“Oh, I am terribly sorry,” he said, then scooted over to her and enveloped her in a hug.

“I am quite fine now, I assure you.”

It was then that he released her.

“Lady Sarah is the daughter of the Earl of Barnes, and she had been declared the belle of the ton, which was a far cry from who I was—an old spinster who had been out for two Seasons with no luck,” Eveline continued.

“Getting married quickly is not quite the measure for beauty or grace, I would say,” William commented.

“How so?”

“If it were, then I would never have met the most beautiful woman in all of England when I came back,” he said, smiling.

Eveline couldn’t help the smile spreading across her cheeks.

“Oh husband, you flatter me.” She giggled.

“I barely do. However, some less graceful ladies would have luck with marriage simply because their families are desperate to marry them off, thereby giving them to any man, even one on the brink of bankruptcy. I have heard of this before,” he continued.

“You are certainly right because Ava was overwhelmingly curious about the pedigree of all of the bachelors who approached me.”

“Now, what did this Lady Sarah do to you? I want to know if reporting her to her father would be an appropriate punishment, or if I’ll have to take it a step further.”

Eveline laughed, but when she saw the serious expression on his face, she realized he was not joking. He really would do that for her.

“You do not have to do any of that,” she said quickly. “Now, Lady Sarah made it her duty to always remind me of my status as a spinster. She and her cronies would point it out, laughing.”

“Oh, that is awful.”

“It got even worse when I danced with a bachelor she was interested in,” she continued.

“She was, most certainly, jealous of you,” William declared.

“Is that so?” Eveline had never imagined that Lady Sarah, as lovely as she was, could possibly be jealous of her. “After my dance with Lord Salsbury, she took it a step further by pointing out the… the flaws in my body.”

“Flaws?” William seemed to be genuinely confused. “What flaws could anyone possibly see in one as perfect as you?”

“You really do not see it?” Eveline asked, surprised. “I have a voluptuous figure.”

“And that is one of the most endearing and tempting things about you,” William declared. “Therefore, how could that be a flaw?”

“You really mean that?” she asked.

“How could you doubt that, when you know just how much I have to restrain myself around you,” William said, his eyes raking over her body above her flimsy nightgown, which did nothing to hide her figure.

Eveline swallowed hard as her body heated up under his scrutiny. He did not even have to touch her to have such an effect on her.

“You are the only one who has made me believe that my body is beautiful. Therefore, it was easy for me to believe Lady Sarah’s words when no one else seemed to find me attractive and my body was constantly the object of ridicule. Shall I even mention the fact that the girls who are considered pretty and the Diamonds of the Seasons look nothing like me?”

“I suppose everybody else is blind, then,” William declared. “After all, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever known. When you are in the room, other ladies pale in comparison to you.”

Eveline could not help but blush. “I know that now because you have said it in words, and you have shown me with your actions.”

“You have yet to tell me what occurred at the modiste’s,” William reminded her.

“You are right.” She had momentarily forgotten. “Now, Miss Fran had gotten me into her cabin when Lady Sarah entered the shop and began to cause a ruckus.”

“I suppose they were not there to further bully you?” William asked. “Because if that is the case, then I shall…”

Eveline was amused by how strongly he felt about the whole situation.

“I assure you,” she replied, “it had nothing to do with me. Her victim this time was Miss Fran. She wanted Miss Fran to attend to her at that very moment. She did not listen even when Miss Fran’s apprentices told her that she was busy with another client. Instead, Lady Sarah was shouting the roof down about how the other client could not possibly be more important than her.”

“She’s an arrogant one, isn’t she?”

The further Eveline relayed what happened, the more incensed William seemed to get.

“Then she took it a step further by threatening to spread a rumor that would ruin Miss Fran’s business so that no one would want to buy dresses from her.”

William’s mouth fell open. “This Lady Sarah is the foulest human who has ever walked the earth.”

“It was then that I finally stepped out of the cabin to stop her. After all, I could not let someone so cruel ruin the business that sweet Miss Fran had been running for years .”

“I certainly hope you put her in her place.”

“Oh, dear husband, I sure did. I let her know that threatening to spread lies about an innocent person was defamation, and as an esteemed member of the ton, I am expected to report crimes when I see them happen. I further reminded her that if she as much as breathed those lies about Miss Fran, she would have the Duchess of Mayfield to contend with.”

“I am certain that silenced her for good,” William said triumphantly.

“It sure did. She was far too shocked to say a word, and I must say that being able to flaunt my wedding band in her face when she had none was quite fulfilling.”

“She must have been shocked.”

“Oh, trust me, she was. She stumbled over her words and could not even meet my eyes. She was thoroughly ashamed of her actions.”

A yawn escaped Eveline’s mouth at that moment, and she realized just how tired she was.

“Come here.” William waved her over, and she scooted over to him so that she leaned against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her.

At that moment, she felt safe, protected, and loved.

William planted a kiss on the crown of his wife’s head as she lay on his chest.

He wrapped his arms around her protectively.

“You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen, Eveline,” he whispered.

She squeezed his hand in response.

At that moment, William wanted nothing more than to protect her from the cruelty of the ton.

His heart had broken for her when she recounted her experience. How he wished he had been there for her all those years ago to remind her that she was, in fact, beautiful.

“Eveline, I wish we had met earlier,” he murmured.

The only response he got was a soft snore.

He chuckled as he planted another kiss on the crown of her head.

More than anything, hearing what she had gone through made him realize that he was not the only one who had been dealt a bad hand.

Not only had Eveline grown up without her mother, but she also had to endure bullying.

William felt his heart clench as he remembered how people had treated him whenever he felt brave enough to show his face after his return from the war. And this was all because half of his face was scarred.

He had resorted to staying only in his estate. He could not, therefore, imagine how hard it was for Eveline, who had been shamed for her body.

At least, he could cover his face with a mask. What could Eveline possibly do about her body?

She must have been incredibly brave to leave her father’s house and attend social events. He knew if he had been in her shoes, he would have locked himself away forever.

“Eveline, not only are you the most beautiful woman I know, but you are also the bravest and the smartest.”

His wife surprised him every day with not just her ingenuity, but also her resilience. A lesser woman would have refused to show her face in the ton after being so ridiculed.

He glanced at her face to find the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. Even though this position was becoming rather uncomfortable for him, he did not want to let her go. He did not want the smile on her face to disappear. After all, she seemed to be so comfortable.

Grudgingly, he slowly slid his arm from underneath her head and replaced it with a pillow. He was relieved to see that she was still soundly asleep.

Afterward, he picked her up gingerly and took her back to her room. Once there, he laid her on her bed.

He stayed for a moment, watching as she turned, sighed, and then snored gently with a contented smile on her face.

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“Goodnight, beautiful,” he whispered before he left her chamber.