When a Duchess Says I Do - Grace Burrowes Page 0,116

the colonel’s elbow, then he and Stephen left, keeping Parker between them.

“All those months,” Matilda said, staring at the empty doorway. “All those nights shivering in hopes I’d not freeze to death before dawn. The days without eating…I was helping to catch a traitor while being made to feel like one. Where is my father, Duncan? I still don’t entirely grasp who was spying upon whom, or for what purpose, and I want very much to hear what Papa has to say.”

While Duncan wanted only to hold his duchess and never let her go. “Thomas Wakefield returned to London yesterday. I can take you to him now, if you like.”

She kissed Duncan’s cheek. “Please, and when I’ve heard Papa out, I have a few things I’d like to say to you. I am…I am glad to see you.”

That was encouraging, though Duncan dared not return her kiss until the whole drama had played itself out. “I have some sentiments to convey to you as well, but they can keep a while longer.”

Five minutes later, he handed Matilda into the ducal carriage and took the place on the backward-facing bench, the better to behold his beloved and the better to keep his damned hands to himself.

Chapter Twenty

Duncan had never looked handsomer to Matilda, or more remote.

“You were very confident in your conclusions with Atticus,” she said as the coach lurched forward. “When did you put the pieces together?”

He took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure I have all the pieces, but I was certain that Parker would offer you marriage as a means of avoiding the duty to testify against you. Then I realized that’s a drastic remedy.

“Why not simply hold his tongue?” Duncan stared out the window as he went on. “Why not accuse Wakefield and remain silent about your role? One of the first lessons a boy learns on the path to becoming a gentleman is to remain silent rather than jeopardize a lady’s good name. Your description of Parker’s tepid courtship confounded me, and then his continued pursuit of you in the absence of any passionate display of affection…”

“You concluded the marriage would benefit him, rather than benefit me.” Why had Matilda been unable to consider that possibility?

“I examined that perspective. You are also a duchess with connections all over the Continent. Those connections would benefit an ambitious officer. They would benefit a spy even more.”

Sometimes, Duncan’s logic was a little too infallible. “You think Parker was told to court me?”

Duncan considered her, his expression unreadable. “I think the idea was planted somewhere between his ambition and his arrogance, and in that abundant and fertile soil, the concept took root. How are you, Your Grace?”

Your Grace, not my dear. “I could hardly tell you I was a duchess, Duncan. You probably would not have believed me.”

“You forget, I count a duchess among my cousins. I might well have believed you. Jane is looking forward to making your acquaintance.”

To perdition with Jane. “Duncan, are you angry?”

The carriage slowed to take a corner, and Matilda felt as if the few inches between her knees and Duncan’s might as well have been the English Channel.

“I have not the gift of dissembling,” he said. “Not even for you. I am consumed with fury, ready to lay about with my fists, to shout vile oaths, and draw blood with my bare hands. I am not angry with you, I am not even very angry at Parker, who likely would have made some attempt to be a decent husband to you. I was ready to kill that damned priest.”

“The priest?”

“He would have married you to Parker, despite your protests, despite your refusal to speak the proper vows. For money, he would have obliterated your legal personhood by signing the appropriate lines. If I ever had any doubts about my decision to leave the church, they have been laid to rest.”

Matilda switched seats, so both she and Duncan were facing backward. “Duncan, you sent him packing. You snapped your fingers and he scurried away, clutching his prayer book and hoping you wouldn’t say anything to his bishop.”

“What I want to say to his bishop isn’t fit for a lady’s ears.”

A knot of worry in Matilda’s belly began to ease. “If you feel that strongly, then you ought to speak up. A certain Continental duchess will happily join you when you call upon the bishop.”

The coach came to a stop.

Duncan donned his hat. “Good to know. Would that same