AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“On a?” I level her with a pointed look. This conversation is souring faster and faster with every second she takes to reply. She would’ve done better by putting her list under my nose again.
“She’s a Hush girl, Henry. A…a…”
“Come on, Mother, spit it out.” The hiss of my words lingers in the air with an acerbic bite.
With a shake of her head, she sits back in her chair, staring out at the emptying auditorium. My ears are burning with all the things she isn’t saying. There’s a particular name she has for the girls at Hush, and if she so much as refers to Eve in that way, things will get ugly.
“Do you know what makes a duchess, Henry?” Her face collapses into an imperial glower. “Do you?”
“Marriage in most cases.”
“That girl is not duchess material,” she bites out.
“That girl is whatever I say she is.”
An irate growl vibrates from her before she snipes back, “She’s not a duchess, Henry.”
Pushing to my feet, I spin to face her, gripping the armrests of her chair as I lean over her. For once, there’s a crack in her perfect veneer. Fear blinkers in her blue eyes.
“Eve is my duchess.” This is the only fact she needs to take from this conversation. It’s the only truth that matters.
Mother sits up straight and as tall as she can with me leaning over her. Her face meets mine. “She’s a child.”
“And still more of a woman than most of the names on your list.” Pushing away from her, I start for the door to the box.
“Henry! Do not walk away from me!”
“Do not presume to tell me what to do or who to love because I will cut you out of my life so completely that you will be left with no children to care for you when your title means nothing.”
“Will she love you when she knows who you are?”
The question jars me. Eve knows who I am. Maybe not all the ins and outs, but she knows what matters. Doesn’t she?
“Will she be woman enough to love the killer too? The monster that would dispose of a life without pause or remorse.”
“I’m doing it for you because it’s what you want.”
“I want justice, but you—” A scoff vibrates her body. “—you want blood and the violence.”
This is where she has been sheltered from reality. This is what sets us apart and maybe what makes me the monster she accused me of being.
“Do you know, I think Eve may know more of the world than you ever will. You can’t have justice without blood or violence.”
Her face falls blank. “That girl will ruin you. She will ruin us…our good name.”
“It’s my name now, Your Highness.” I am the Duke of Gloucester now. The Sloane name is mine to share with whom I choose.
“Henry…”
“I’m not Simon. You won’t dictate my life the way you—”
“Don’t you dare bring that up now.” She pushes out of her seat with her fists clenched at her sides, standing up to me as though she has the strength to make me submit to her wiles.
“Does it haunt you?”
With a shrug, she sighs. “You can’t change the past. Once it’s done, it’s done.”
“Good for you.” It seems I’m not the only one without remorse.
