The idea that Diana did not want children… that the two of them would live the rest of their lives entirely alone… well, it wasn’t as horrid as he might have thought.
The two of them, spending the rest of their lives together, alone.
It was a pleasant image. But then he had always assumed that he would have children someday.
He switched back and forth between the two thoughts in a way that made his head hurt.
By the time he sat down at the table with John, he wondered just what he would do. The Duke must have an heir, right? Even though there was still a line of succession, if he did not have an heir… He knew his father would be furious if someone outside of their family inherited the duchy. And the idea of angering his father still filled him with dread.
“Have you had a good sleep?” John asked.
Matthew stared at his cousin in confusion. He had expected more of the same questioning he had received the night before. To have his cousin make inquiries like any host was not what he had anticipated.
“I slept well enough,” he replied.
Apparently, that was all that John was waiting for.
“Good. Then you can tell me just what it is that caused your wife to send you away. Whatever it is, I’m sure we can find a solution together. What’s this nonsense about children?”
“She did not send me away. I left,” Mathew informed him, staring down at his plate
“What do you mean that you left?” John stared at him incredulously.
Matthew looked down at his food, struggling to take a bite.
“We had an argument,” he admitted, “and I left.”
“Well, that was a foolish decision. What is it that happened that made you choose to leave? You are not one to back down from a challenge. I’ve seen you face horrible odds before and stand firm. Yet, you run away from a lady?”
Matthew bristled at his cousin’s incredulous tone and shook his head. “This is not a competition, where the solution is to trample over my opponent. As you mentioned, the opponent here is my wife.”
“And what will you do, then? You do not wish to trample over her, that is a good start. But what is your plan?”
“I have no plan. There is nothing to be done.”
“There is always something to be done,” John scoffed. “What has happened that caused this rift between you?”
“She and I might never have children,” Matthew stated.
“You said something about that last night. But what brought about this decision? I did not know you were ready to have children. I had assumed it would be some years before you would be ready for such a thing.”
“We purchased a house,” Matthew began. “And the couple from whom we purchased it said that they had never been able to have children but they wished they had.”
He then explained to John what had occurred and how Diana had blurted out that she did not want children of her own. That she had never had any intention to have children.
“I am the Duke. No matter what else, I am expected to have an heir one day.”
“Perhaps. But there are noblemen who do not produce heirs, and their estate passes on to other male members of their families,” John said with an indifferent air.
Matthew wondered if his cousin was even aware that he was second in line to the duchy if Matthew did not produce an heir. It did not seem as though the thought had occurred to him.
He was certain that John knew his position in the line of succession, but it did not surprise him that John did not think of it. Or that John was uninterested in the prospect.
“It is expected. My father would have expected it of me.”
“Indeed, he likely would have,” John agreed. “And you have chosen to live all your life according to what your father would have expected, have you not?”
Matthew scowled at that, and John simply stared at him. “That is not the point.”
