Page 31 of The Duke of Cups (The Highwaymen #3)

SHE BARELY SLEPT , and the next morning, she knew that she could not stay away, no matter what the Duke of Arthford thought of her.

She was not keen on Champeraigne knowing what she was doing, however, so she asked Seraphine to lie for her.

“Say that I have been called to Marian’s for some womanly emergency, please.

If he inquires more, say it is too delicate for Marian to wish anyone to know the particulars but she must have a close female friend close by. ”

Seraphine arched her eyebrows. “And in actuality, you will be where?”

“I shall keep that to myself, I think.”

“So, you are going to him,” said Seraphine.

“You know, the comte has spoken to me about it all, and I have assured him that he is worrying for nothing, that you are simply an infatuated nineteen-year-old girl. I said that your actions don’t make sense because girls your age are not led by their minds in these matters, but by their hearts. ”

She wished to confide in Seraphine.

He is dying, she wished to say. He is dying, and I do not even know how I feel about him or how he ever felt about me. He is dying, and still, I feel I cannot admit that I love him.

But what she said aloud was, “You swear to me that you will not tell the comte where I truly am? You swear you will protect my confidence? ”

“Oh, mon chaton , of course,” said Seraphine with a shrug.

“But you are worrying over it all for nothing. I am here, and I can guide him, you see. I have to say, I did not like it when he married you, but now it is all quite tidy, both of you together, all four of us here. The three of you are my family. I feel quite settled and at peace. Once you work this little dalliance with Dunrose out of your system, it will best for everyone, I think.”

This did not reassure her. “If you tell him, I shall take it as betrayal, Seraphine,” she said quietly. “I shall not easily forgive it.”

“Oh, such dramatics,” said Seraphine, laughing. “Everything is life or death at your age!”

But she had to go, even if she did not know that she trusted Seraphine to stay silent. She had to see him.

She went.

At Dunrose’s house, however, she attempted to go directly to his bedchamber and was prevented from entering by the Duke of Arthford, who came out of the room with the Duke of Nothshire and stood outside the door and folded their thick arms over their thick chests.

“Are you here to spy for your husband?” said Arthford.

“What?” she said. “No.”

“You shouldn’t be here,” said Nothshire.

“I have to be here,” she said.

“You’re part of a scheme of Champeraigne’s,” said Arthford.

“That man married you because of Daniel. He has some plan worked out to use against us, and you’re part of it.

The only question is whether you are in it willingly and working against us consciously, or if Champeraigne is using you as an unknowing pawn. ”

“I assure you, I am not working against Daniel,” she said. “You must let me see him.”

“Right now, it’s the four of us only,” said Nothshire. “Just us and Rutchester. You may wait, I suppose. Our wives are downstairs in the sitting room.”

“No, she should leave,” said Arthford.

“I shall wait,” she said tartly, and stalked down to the sitting room.

There, the Duchess of Nothshire and the Duchess of Arthford were sitting on opposite sides of the room, eyeing each other, both looking quite uncomfortable. The Duchess of Arthford was wearing trousers of all things!

“Miss Thomas!” said the Duchess of Nothshire, getting to her feet. “Oh, I mean, I suppose you’re the Comtesse de Champeraigne now. When we spoke, I was the Viscountess of Balley. Perhaps we could call each other by our first names? You are Hyacinth?”

“Yes,” said Hyacinth. “And you are Patience.”

“Yes,” said Patience, smiling. “I have been quite interested to see what woman would fall head over heals for Dunrose! You…” She looked her over. “Well, I’m glad he had someone, even if only for a little while, at the end.”

“Is that the way of it?” spoke up the Duchess of Arthford. “My husband says you have been scheming against him with your husband since the beginning.”

“Well, that’s nonsense,” said Hyacinth. “I told your husband myself that I would never do such a thing. I am not working against Daniel. He is well-versed in working against himself, I think. And loving him has only been an exercise in working against myself.”

“Oh,” said Patience, nodding. “Yes, I suppose I could see that. You know, when I was captured by my husband and escaping Bess’s, I had the most ridiculous conversation with Dunrose about slicing bread.

He was so very, very drunk, and he was always so hilarious, really.

So bright and alive, and I can’t…” She sat down, hand to her chest. “I can’t believe he is so badly off. ”

“I understand that’s your fault,” said the Duchess of Arthford.

Patience turned on the woman. “Attend to me, Your Grace, you and I may not have ever had much in common before this, but we are now both married to men who are closer than brothers to each other, and I think we owe it to our husbands to at least attempt to be friendly with each other. ”

“Oh, yes, Your Grace,” said the Duchess of Arthford in a sardonic voice. “We’ve never had much in common because you would never sully yourself to speak to a woman like me.”

Patience tilted her head to one side. “Oh, well, that’s nonsense.

If I behaved that way, I repent of it. I have not been some paragon of feminine virtue myself.

Why, I spent half of my courtship with my husband scheming some way to have a child out of wedlock and never get married again. I have no stones to throw in that way.”

The Duchess of Arthford looked a bit surprised at that.

“Your name is Marjorie?” said Patience.

“Yes,” said Marjorie, ducking her head down a bit. “I am sorry. I may have a bit of a chip on my shoulder about… propriety and society and all of that.”

“Why didn’t you wish to get married again?” said Hyacinth.

“Come sit down, Hyacinth,” said Patience, sitting herself and patting a space beside her on the settee.

Hyacinth hesitated and then came and sat.

“I did not, well, I suppose I still do not trust men,” said Patience.

Marjorie smirked. “Well, there we are agreed.”

“With, of course, the notable exception of my husband,” said Patience.

“Yes,” said Marjorie, her smile widening. “Yes.”

Hyacinth was a bit confused by this. “But… is it true, what they did to their fathers? And I have seen the way they are, the way they have no concern for a person’s life. They kill without remorse. They are not, none of them, trustworthy men. They are highwaymen and thieves.”

“Yes, but you know what their fathers did?” said Patience.

“Not really,” said Hyacinth. “Dunrose has never really talked about that.”

Patience and Marjorie exchanged a glance and then both turned back to her.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter if you would tell Champeraigne, for he knows it all already,” said Marjorie. “And if Dunrose is not going to make it, perhaps it would help you understand him.”

“They were badly abused,” said Patience. “My husband’s lower back, all the way down to his thighs are a thatch of raised scars from where his father used to beat him. Beat him bloody. When he was small.”

Hyacinth’s breath caught in her throat.

“My husband’s father beat his wife in front of Arthford,” said Marjorie. “He was brutal. He also forced my husband to watch him engage in perversities with men when he was just a boy.”

“They were all enamored with this idea of ancient Rome and Greece,” said Patience, “and part of that is men taking other men as lovers. You know, like Patroclus and Achilles.”

Hyacinth furrowed her brow. “Oh. Well, that makes the Illiad make a lot more sense. I did have questions for my governess when we were reading it, but she brushed it all aside and was very firm that they were only friends.”

“No,” said Marjorie with a laugh.

“And Rutchester’s father…” Patience shook her head. “He molested him in that way.”

“No, his own son?” said Hyacinth, horrified.

Both of the other women nodded and were quiet.

Hyacinth smoothed her skirt over her knees. “But what about Dunrose’s father? What did he do?”

“Dunrose’s father was the leader, as I understand it,” said Marjorie. “He came up with the entire scheme, that they should all raise their sons to be invincible warriors with no weaknesses. He brought them all together in university and came up with all the ideas.”

“Yes, he seemed to think of it all as some grand experiment,” said Patience. “He wished to know which of the boys would end up the most strong, which form of, well, torture, though they called it discipline, would eat out the boys’ weaknesses.”

“He was using the others,” said Hyacinth softly. “He was using them like they were playing cards in a game. ”

Both of the women looked at her.

Hyacinth looked away. “I’m sorry. It’s something I observed about Champeraigne, that he is aloof and detached in that way. It’s monstrous.”

“Yes,” said Marjorie. “It is. But you married this man.”

“I had only bad choices,” said Hyacinth. “And at that point, it seemed as if he would at least afford me certain advantages. I know that Dunrose wished me to kill him, but—”

“Look, I don’t mean to speak out of turn,” said Patience, “but I have been searching for some way, any way at all, to free my husband from that man and his awful control. I have been distracted as of late, because I had a baby, but as soon as I am able, I plan to turn my entire self towards that one goal. I want Champeraigne to stop having influence over my husband and my son.”

“Yes,” said Hyacinth. “Yes, of course.”