Page 14 of The One With the Scoundrel of a Duke (Wicked Widows’ League #31)

I T WAS A HOUSE party, not a prison, so Lucas really should have left after that. But he was not a coward. He would brave showing his face despite the refusal.

The afternoon was spent on a walk through the park. Again, he should have left, or at the very least, not accompanied the very face of rejection.

Maybe it hadn’t sunk in fully. Maybe no didn’t really feel like a no.

Maybe he was in denial. Or perhaps he was just too damn proud to admit defeat and curb his normal behavior.

If he hadn’t fallen for her beautiful heart and her magic pussy, if he hadn’t proposed marriage, if she hadn’t said no…

he would have gone on this walk. So that’s what guided him and his decisions now.

Besides, he couldn’t think of other alternatives at the moment. It was indescribably painful to be around her, but he could only imagine the devastation he would feel in her absence.

There was word that Tobias and Freya were returning later today as well. Together.

Which was odd.

So perhaps in the back of his mind, he wanted to be among the first to greet his friend upon arrival, and of course hear the gossip firsthand. Surely that would take his mind off his own woes.

As the guests walked in the park, they could hear the sound of a river rushing along.

Normally water had a quiet, peaceful effect on people, but he noticed that Audra had tensed as the group neared the sound.

And if it was because of her increasing tension or his own sense of foreboding, something wasn’t sitting right with him.

He did his best to observe and stay close in case she needed it—

“Help!” A woman’s voice shouted to him and the other guests that had just arrived on the bank.

Lucas’s eyes darted to the water and saw a woman clinging to a baby. “Help!” her gargled cry rang out. Lucas started taking off his boots before he noticed that Audra was already in the water.

Her tension couldn’t have been a fear of the water because she appeared to be an extraordinary swimmer. The current was strong, but her form was excellent. Lucas was following her in the water. There was no way he was letting her take this risk on her own.

How had she discarded her top layer of clothing so quickly?

She must have heard something or noticed the woman before anyone else.

She was a few strokes away from the mother and very young child.

It was clear the mother was not a strong swimmer, as her one arm flapped about.

Yet she had gone in the water assumedly after her toddler.

Lucas’s heart was being crushed, squeezed, wrung dry. Never had he witnessed such love before. A mother saving her child, despite not knowing how to swim. Then Audra risking her life for a stranger.

“Audra,” he called out, not really sure why. But she kept moving toward the mother and child. Finally she reached the pair and had them under her arm, she was turning to swim back, but panic stormed in her eyes. She seemed to be caught in something.

“Audra!” he called again, this time in hopes of reassuring her. “I’m here, darling. Hold on!”

“I’m caught, Lucas!” her voice was strangling against a fear so sharp that it threatened to cut a piece off of his heart.

“Just keep swimming, Audra.” She nodded and held his stare.

Once he reached her, he dove down into the cold water to release the tangle that had ensnared her skirts.

“You’re free, darling.” Then he turned to the mother and said to her through her tears, “We’re getting you out of here. Just hold your boy.” The mother looked fatigued.

And even that short struggle had drained Audra of some of her strength, but he knew she was a fighter. She said he didn’t know her, but he did. Somehow. In his spirit. He knew her.

“Can you swim back, Audra? I’ll take the mother and her boy.”

She nodded weakly.

Then he latched his arm around the pair and started to swim back, following Audra at her pace. He wasn’t leaving her side.

By the time they were closer to the bank, Broderick and Henry had already waded into the water up to their waists to pull the swimmers to shore.

Even Ryker was there in the water while Juliet had gone off with some of the sisters to find help and warm blankets.

Wallace, who had shown up to the house party just before the walk began, was standing nearest the shore in his smallclothes.

Not sure what he was doing exactly, but the man was there to help.

Presumably he had undressed with the intention to dive into the water.

That would make the most sense, but with Wallace, he could never be sure.

Once everyone was out of the water, blankets were wrapped around them as they all lay on the grassy shore breathing heavily. Lucas rolled to his side to check on the mother and child, but they were already being tended to by what appeared to be a physician.

Then he rolled to his other side to find Audra, laying flat on her back, still as could be. If he hadn’t seen the small tears pouring out of her eyes, he would have been concerned for her life. Instead, he was left only with concern for her heart.

“Darling, are you all right?”

She nodded slowly without opening her eyes.

“You epitomize courage,” he said in a low tone that he trusted only she could hear.

“I couldn’t save him,” she blubbered.

“You just did. The boy will be fine. You risked your life—”

“Not the boy, though I’m glad he’s all right. His mother—” she choked up— “now that is a brave woman.”

“That she is,” Lucas agreed. He knew that more was coming forthwith, so he remained silent after that short statement.

“I couldn’t save my husband.” That’s when she turned on her side and looked in his eyes. “He died in a river. And I tried to save him—” she squeezed her eyes shut.

And Lucas didn’t care who was around or what they would think, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

“I tried so hard,” she said, her voice was muffled against his chest. “But I just couldn’t. I wasn’t strong enough.”

Pressing a kiss to her temple, Lucas’s hand brushed her hair and he held her while she confessed what was on her heart.

“I loved him so much, and I hurt so badly when he was gone. I shut myself away. If it wasn’t for the Widows’ League and my sisters, I don’t know what I would have done.

Every day was a bad day. And then slowly, I had less bad days, but still…

I sometimes felt like I was drowning in my pain.

And then…the bad days grew further and further apart.

I thought I might be ready to reclaim myself and relinquish the guilt.

That’s what I’ve been doing. Trying to find myself again.

” She sniffled. “But I don’t know who I am or what I’m doing.

How can I ever even think of marrying again when I’ve lost myself? ”

“Maybe you never lost yourself, Audra. Maybe you just let your strength find rest for a while.” He pulled her gaze to his.

“This strength and courage I have seen you, it’s always been part of you.

But maybe it needed a rest. You’re still the same person you’ve always been.

The essence of who a person is doesn’t change, it just shows up more brightly or more dimly at times.

But I see your light, Audra. I know you.

Not all of you. But your spirit. All the important parts of you, I see them. And…I know it’s crazy, but I love you.”