The Duchess

Chapter Twenty-five: Honesty

  Seren knew what to do next. She had to speak with her husband. She had already led by example and broken off her extramarital relationship; now, he would perhaps follow suit. She had not believed a word when he had denied taking any mistresses, but now they finally would have a chance to be honest with each other.

  Blackfall was in his study, as he often was. Upon her entrance, he quickly shut a drawer of his study table which he had been examining and turned to her.

  There was no point beating around the bush. “You were right. While it was not a physical affair, there was an emotional attachment,” Seren said. “However, I’ve ended all contact with me. He asked to write to me and I rejected him.”

  “And, like I have said before: I have not slept with a prostitute or prostitues, or taken any mistresses or lovers.”

  As if she believed him. As if even if she did, that would make his words better.

  Nonetheless, she knew he was hurt by his past. He was afraid to love again, but she would be someone to trust. She truly did care for him as a friend, and she would remind him until the words entered his thick skull.

  Approaching him, Seren said, “I want our relationship to work. You must know that I did not marry you for your money or your title.”

  “And yet you prod around for information about my family’s past. Information that I would rather remain unknown.

  “Who told you,” he ordered.
  “That person has done me a great favour.”

  “How? By letting you know that my brother is a pathetic fool who had been infamously scorned?”

  She bit her lips. “No,” she said calmly. “That person had informed me that my husband is someone who needs more time to learn to trust and to love.”

  He scoffed. “Fine, you married in hopes of love. But did you expect me to feel the same?”

  She scoffed. She knew he could simply marry and have a child later in life; he was a duke. And she was certain that he was perfectly fine with having nothing to do with her and his child for the rest of their lives. “Then why did you marry me?”

  “Because I needed an heir and it was the proper thing to do.”

  Which was his way of saying that it was to ensure that he would not be embroiled in another scandal.

  Her heart fell.

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