Page 12 of The Forgotten Duchess (The Dukes of Sin #4)

CHAPTER TWELVE

“ A n invitation to a garden party arrived for you, Your Grace.”

Eleanor winced at Mr. Bradley’s announcement, unwilling to face the implications of what the invitation meant.

Knowing her husband and his desire to act as though all was well, she believed he would have only one reaction to the invitation that had been sent to their residence.

Given how things were between them currently, she was not sure she had the strength to endure moving around in public with them. It had been three days since they had given into the throes of passion following her brunch with her friends.

And much like the first time in the library, neither of them had brought it up after that, but this time, Eleanor was not sure she could do without addressing it forever.

She had no complaints about air – far from it. But she did not understand why he seemed so interested in her like that. She had not imagined that she could appeal to him in any way as his wife. However, the things he had said claimed otherwise.

And as much as she wanted to entertain the thought of there being more between them after he had managed to solve the mystery of his attack, she was not sure if there was anything there to expect.

Not when his memories were slowly returning and he was on the path to recovering his true self – a man she could not stand.

“I shall bring it up to the duke at dinner,” Eleanor sighed tiredly.

The butler nodded as he deposited the envelope onto her desk, but instead of leaving right away, he hesitated and asked softly,

“Is everything all right, Your Grace? You seem rather tired as of late.”

Eleanor smiled kindly at the older man, nodding her head.

“I have just had a lot of thoughts on my mind lately, so I have not been sleeping well these days. But I will be just fine soon. Do not worry.”

“I do not think I can do that, Your Grace. You carry the weight of this household on your shoulders, constantly worrying about everyone, but yourself. You need to be looked after as well. The least I could do is worry about you.” Mr. Bradley said earnestly.

Eleanor was touched by the butler’s concern and she smiled up at him.

“I really do appreciate your concern, Mr. Bradley. Thank you. All will be well soon; I will make sure of it.”

The man nodded, bowed, and then took his leave.

Eleanor exhaled deeply, picking up the envelope thoughtfully.

“Here we go again,” she muttered to herself.

A few hours later, she presented it to Frederick, he spared it a singular glance and stated firmly.

“We will attend.”

“I had assumed you would say that.”

“Do you have a problem with it?” he asked in a low tone.

Eleanor lifted her gaze off her plate, her heart rate increasing rapidly as it settled on him. As her cheeks filled with heat, she took her eyes off him.

“No. I don’t. I just wished we had more of a lead concerning your attacker. So that we might know what to look for while we are in public. I already know that you would not like to avoid public sightings altogether.” She replied.

“No, I would not. Hiding away has never suited me, anyway. Christopher is conducting some research on an angle I wish to investigate, anyway. So it is not as though we are completely idle in our efforts to find whoever is responsible for this. You do not need to fear.”

Eleanor blinked at him in surprise. “I am not –”

“You have my word,” Frederick declared. “Once he is found, whoever he is, he shall not be spared from my wrath.”

For a moment, Eleanor was struck by a sense that something had changed between them. The feeling was fleeting, and soon, Frederick returned his attention back to his food, leaving her reeling from the conversation.

“I do not doubt it,” she muttered to herself as she shifted her attention back to her dinner.

Eleanor had hoped that by the time the afternoon of the garden party arrived, some of her nervousness would have eased away.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be a hidden wall of tension standing between herself and Frederick.

He was cordial and well-mannered with her, along with the guests who had come to greet him upon their arrival at the party.

This time, he seemed to be perfectly self-sufficient, addressing people correctly while retaining impeccable manners. However, that did not necessarily keep those who attempted to bother him from his cold and blunt remarks.

"We absolutely must go hunting sometime, Your Grace. My villa by the countryside is perfect during the summer, surrounded by acres of forests filled with just about enough game to –"

"I highly doubt there would be anything stimulating about hunting with you, Lord Roberts," Frederick had said to an Earl who had tried to charm him into accepting an invitation to go hunting. "You are so incredibly dull; I suspect that a hunting trip with you might feel like an endless weekend from hell. Do not try to appeal to me using your property. Flaunting your wealth in my face is a foolish decision, seeing as you are drowning in so much debt, it is only a matter of time before your livelihood comes to an end.”

The man had quickly retired from the party like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs.

Frederick had not hesitated for even a moment, steering Eleanor to a different area of the party.

Besides, when people addressed them both, Frederick hardly looked at her, and being ignored by him filled her with discomfort. She had no idea what she could have done to upset him, and she became worried that perhaps she had not been enough to satisfy him during their heated moments together.

Or maybe she had been too eager, whereas he had merely been doing her a favor to sate the hunger inside her.

Whatever it was, she wished he would just come clean to her so that she could stop worrying about it so much.

People were beginning to whisper about them again, their accusing and curious gazes demanding answers that they were not owed but were determined to collect, regardless of what they needed to do to collect it. Eleanor tried her best to not convey how exhausted she felt already.

The ton was never satisfied. When she did not have Frederick next to her, they demanded answers to his disappearance. Now that he had returned, the questions had changed to seek confirmation that he had left because he could not stand to be with her for whatever reason.

“Your Grace, what a delight it is to finally see you after so long.”

Eleanor turned as three women approached them, their gazes fixed on Frederick.

Unease settled within her stomach but she ignored it, clinging closer to Frederick’s arm that she had been holding onto all afternoon. Her husband sent her a look of mild confusion before he nodded at the woman.

“We had hoped to congratulate you shortly after your wedding, but you had chosen to remain absent from public events,” one of them who Eleanor recognized to be a Viscountess, Lady Silver, beamed at him.

"I had other pressing matters to attend to. My wife did well enough, representing us both on such occasions." Frederick responded, his tone bland as though he could care less for the topic being discussed.

“Perhaps a little too well, don’t you agree? She seemed far too comfortable, showing up at balls and soirees without you, Your Grace. We were worried how that would look for such a young duchess.” The second, a Miss Granger pointed out, shooting Eleanor a sly look.

"People make mistakes. Our imperfections are what make us human. However, understanding does not equate to tolerance. If someone has decided to come into your home and take your peace, to the extent that you believe it would be best to live elsewhere for the time being, then perhaps such an audacious person is not worthy of your mercy." The third one who Eleanor recognized but could not put a name to because she had never particularly cared for the woman before, stated, tilting her head and nose pointed out with a sultry tone.

Embarrassment and shame burned in Eleanor’s chest and her mind began to race, worried that others might decide to be so forward about their dislike of her. She was already so drained; she did not think she could put on a brave face for the next few hours –

“Your ignorance is not something you should parade around so proudly,” Frederick stated, seething.

The women paled as Frederick put himself between them and Eleanor.

“My wife is my concern to deal with if she has somehow fallen from my good graces – which she has not. Your bold presumptions are nothing but mindless chatter born from a mind far too foolish to use its time for anything else. And all that is without the blatant disrespect you have shown to the duchess – whose title is far more superior than yours.” The duke stated coldly, his gaze darting between the women.

“You misunderstand, Your Grace,” Lady Silver rushed forward with a panicked expression. “We were only worried about your standing and reputation –”

Frederick snorted. “My reputation? Come now, woman. If you will lie, at least do so in a way that does not make you look pathetic. No one would ever care for my reputation, it has not been relevant for years. Your so called ‘worries’ stemmed from a side that envied my wife and her position and found it difficult to gain access to me. She has done nothing wrong and you, along with your coven of mundane cronies, have no right to persecute her as though she has.”

Miss Granger seemed to summon a last burst of courage to raise her voice slightly as she accused,

“You were gone for so long, Your Grace! Even if she might have not done anything to make you leave, who is to say that she did not take advantage of your absence and –”

"Hold your tongue before I arrange for it to be removed and sent to your families as a much-needed lesson that should be learned. I am amazed by how you have somehow convinced yourself that my duchess is the cause of a problem that seems to only bother you lot for some strange reason. And rather than fix your clearly flawed lives, you are fixated on this instead. It is apparent that you do not know how businesses run, leaving you hopelessly believing that you can walk up to us and accuse my wife senselessly. But all you have proven is that your husbands must not be successful. Feel free to wear your failure before someone who cares." He said with a dark glare.

The women began to walk away, but Frederick stopped them.

"This is the last time you would approach my wife in order to make such foolishness known to her. Moving forward, you are not to come to her, or to even talk about her for any reason whatsoever. If I found out that you so much as breathed in her direction, there would be hell to pay."

With pale faces, they scurried away and Eleanor felt a real smile climb upon her face for the first time since the evening began. She turned to her husband, still smiling, feeling glad for the first time that he was there with her, basking in the warmth of his attention.

“Is this what you have put up with in the last year at the events you attended? All of this questioning, people believing that you were in the wrong concerning the affairs of our marriage?” he queried, still seething.

“It is all in the past, it does not matter now –”

"It does to me. I will personally drag anyone else who attempts such to ruin. Pay them no mind, they have nothing better to do than to embarrass themselves publicly." Frederick stated, seething.

Eleanor nodded, easily agreeing with him to help ease some of the tension in his shoulders.

“All right husband I shall do just that. Thank you.”

Frederick nodded curtly with a sniff. “As long as you understand.”

Eleanor smiled softly. “I do.”

The sight of her smile caused something to flutter in Frederick’s chest and he cleared his throat and shifted his gaze away from his wife to rid himself of the feeling.

He had heard a handful of whispers himself as they had walked around the garden, each one seemingly worse than the last.

“I thought for sure he would divorce her as soon as he returned.”

“It seems as though she might be giving all that she can to appease him. Working tirelessly on her hands and knees perhaps.”

“She is hardly the beauty many have made her out to be – former diamond or no. Certainly not worth whatever the duke aims to preserve with her on his arms. I bet he is merely trying to present a perfect front, but has likely already met her roster of lovers.”

“There is gracious, and there is tolerant. I have never know the duke of Ironvale to be either and I am sure it won’t take too long before he casts her aside, publicly and cruelly.”

Frederick had nearly wished he could march up to them and end the ceaseless wagging of their tongues with his bare hands. He had at least wanted to caution them not to repeat the mistake of taking about his wife so brazenly, but Eleanor looked disheartened enough without his involvement.

Her eyes had looked haunted since they stepped into the garden party and he nearly regretted insisting on their attendance. But after he had put those women in their place, the smile of relief that had surfaced on her face struck a chord within him.

It brewed discomfort within him and Frederick was in no mood to nurse such a notion, so he was thankful when he spotted a familiar face in the crowd on the opposite side of the garden. Deciding that it was best to put some distance between himself and his wife, he turned to Eleanor.

“I must speak with a friend for a bit. Do not engage with anyone who displeases you.”

She nodded, far too agreeably and he sighed, hoping she would be fine by herself.

He glanced around before he walked away, making to glare at any unsavory types before he made his way to the man he had seen.

His friend seemed surprised to see him, but no less pleased.

“Montague,” Sampson grinned, holding a hand out. “It has been far too long.”

“Richards,” Frederick called, with the same friendly expression. “I could not agree more.”