The Return of the Duke - Grace Callaway Page 0,109
family knew, of course, why she’d come back. The afternoon she’d shown up, Da had taken one look at her…and opened his arms. She’d run into them, that safe haven that had protected her all her life, and wept.
Afterward, she had told her father the essential details about why she’d left Knight. He had not questioned her, just let her talk and sob and talk some more. When she was done, he’d patted her hand and told her to take her old bunk, and he hadn’t mentioned Knight again.
Until now.
“I’m not hiding from him, Da.” She attacked the dough with her rolling pin.
“You didn’t tell ’im where you’d gone.” Her father raised his brows. “’Ow’s ’e supposed to find you in the wilds o’ Derbyshire?”
“He is not supposed to find me.” She grimly pushed the pin into the dough. “And you’re assuming he’ll bother to look.”
“’E’ll be looking for you.”
“How do you know?”
“Was at your wedding, wasn’t I?” Da snorted. “Saw the way the fellow was with you. Wasn’t the manner o’ a man who planned to let go o’ ’is bride anytime soon.”
Fancy’s chest knotted as she thought of her wedding. How things had changed. Back then, she’d been full of hope for their future, even though he’d told her about Imogen. She couldn’t even blame him, she thought with angry despair. He had never lied to her; she’d simply been a stupid fool for believing she could win his love.
“Careful, me Fancy, or you’ll o’erwork the pastry.”
Annoyed, she realized her father was right. She was overworking the dough.
Blooming hell, I should’ve made bread instead.
Blowing out a breath, she finished rolling out the pastry and fitted it over the pan of pheasant and vegetables.
“I don’t know why you’re taking Knight’s side,” she muttered. “I thought you didn’t like him.”
“I like the cove well enough. I just wasn’t sure ’e was the ’usband for you.” Da’s bespectacled gaze was wry. “But you went and married the toff, and now you be a duchess with a ’ousehold depending on you.”
Her heart ached as she thought of Toby, Eleanor, Jonas, and Cecily. She’d told her family about Knight’s siblings and even his aunt. How far they’d come…how much she’d grown to care for them.
She stabbed holes in the crust. “They’ll forget me in time.”
“Ain’t like you to sulk, me Fancy.”
She frowned at her father. “I’m not sulking.”
“You are, and I be understanding why. You ’ad your ’eart broken, and you need to lick your wounds. Which is why I’ve left it until now. But you can’t ’ide forever.”
Her throat thickened. “Are you saying…I can’t stay?”
“I want you to be ’appy. If staying would make you so, then I’d be telling you to stay for as long as you like.” Her father’s smile was sad. “But it’s plain to see that you ain’t ’appy, me girl.”
To her horror, she felt heat push behind her eyes. Her father was right: she wasn’t happy. She was angry at Knight and pining for him at the same time. When she left him, she had taken only two mementoes, her wedding band and his button, both of which she wore on a string around her neck. Beneath her bodice, she felt their comforting weight.
“What am I supposed to do, Da?” She slumped into the chair beside him. “Knight loves another woman. A beautiful woman I can’t hope to compete with. I’ll never be the lady she is.”
“Well, o’ course you can’t be ’er, and, more importantly, why would you want to be? You’re yourself, Fancy, and if that ain’t good enough for your duke, then ’e’s got bacon for brains. But I don’t take your fellow for a fool.” Da gave her a keen look. “From what you’ve told me, the two o’ you were rubbing along fine until you saw ’im with the other lady at that ball.”
She nodded morosely.
“But you didn’t actually talk to ’im about it, did you?”
“What was there to say, Da?” She clenched her hands together on the table. “I saw them…embracing.”
“I’ve lived long enough not to always trust me own eyes,” her father said sagely. “Even if it were a lover’s tryst, running from it does no good.”
His words stirred the memory of what Princess Adelaide had said about being a hardy bloom. After everything Fancy had endured in life, why had she balked at confronting Knight? Why had she fled instead of talking to him?
“You remind me o’ your ma. Sweet as ’oney, me Annie, a dreamer and the most