Smiling, Nathan added a fourth line: today’s date, followed by,Nathan & Rosalie, When Rosalie became the heroine of her own life.
Chapter Sixteen
“You must be wanting to leave soon,” Rosalie said, several days later as she and the Duke sat at the breakfast table together. It was a beautiful day. Sunlight was streaming in through the windows, and she felt rested and happy. Ever since the night of Redfield’s visit, when her husband had played with a lock of her hair as she’d fallen asleep, she had been sleeping better than she had in her life.
Not, of course, that she had told him this. She was afraid that if she acknowledged the way he played with her hair at night that he would stop.
The Duke looked up from where he was reading a paper at the other side of the table.
“Leaving soon?” he asked, one of his eyebrows raising. “Why would you say that?”
“Well… you got what you came here for,” she said, shrugging. “We only came here to find out what Redfield was up to, and now that we’ve done that, I thought you would want to return to London.”
The Duke hesitated then glanced around the breakfast room. It was one of the few rooms that Rosalie had managed to clean up thoroughly during the week they had been at the castle. She was proud of it, too. The curtains had been washed and were no longer musty, the windows and floors had been scrubbed, and even a new layer of paint had been added to the walls which she’d had local decorators do while the Duke had been out riding a few days previously. The smell had been strong for a day, but after airing it out, it was perfectly fine now.
“You’ve done such a beautiful job already with the castle,” her husband said now. “I do feel that it would be a shame to leave while we are still in the midst of getting it back in livable condition.”
“But you don’t like being here,” she replied uncertainly. “At least, that’s what you said when we first arrived.”
“Yes, well, things change,” the Duke said, and he smiled mysteriously. “It so happens that some of my memories and associations with this place have been replaced by more recent and more pleasant ones.”
Rosalie’s heart beat a little faster in his chest.What is he saying? That being here with me is erasing the terrible memories of his childhood?
“Particularly the memory of us ensnaring Lord Redfield,” the Duke continued, and he winked. “That will always be a very good one for me. In all my days of working with Scotland Yard, I never had an operation go so well. And of course, it is thanks to your brilliance.”
“I don’t know about that,” she demurred, but inside, she felt her heart glowing. “But I am also happy to stay for a little bit longer,” she added. “It is nice to be away from the city. The air here is so clean and pure, and I feel healthier than I have in a long time.”
“You haven’t spent much time in the country, have you?” he enquired, and she shook her head.
“We rarely visited my father’s country house,” she said. “I think that’s where most of his illegal operations were based, so he didn’t want us there where we might interfere. We stayed mostly in town.”
“I see.” The Duke steepled his fingers. “So, I assume that you are not very familiar with the pursuits that the countryside has to offer?”
“Not at all.” She hesitated. “I have also never actively sought them out. I have always been an indoors kind of person, preferring reading quietly to anything involving exercise, dirt, and mud.”
The Duke laughed. “Yes, I can see that. Still, it can be good for the mind and the body to get outside more.”
“I think you might be right.” Rosalie looked out the window to where the sun was filtering through the leaves of a nearby oak tree. She looked back at the Duke. “I feel inspired to do more things that involve taking charge of my own life and living it fully instead of just reading about other people living their lives fully.”
“That’s good,” he said approvingly, “and I’m glad to hear it because I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise? For me?” Rosalie felt herself blush at the same moment that her heart pounded in her throat. No one had ever gotten her a surprise before. Even Lord Cain, when he’d courted her, had only brought her flowers—which weren’t exactly a surprise.
“Yes,” the Duke said, smiling slightly. “It’s not a physical object, though. I thought perhaps you wouldn’t want a thing so much as a new experience. Watching you fool Redfield the other day made me realize that you have so many untapped talents. Not only that, but I am sure your father held you back from doing any of the things that might have made you feel independent and free, anything that might make you feel like anything other than a trapped woman confined to the house. Plus, after you completed your first mission as the heroine of your own life, I think it’s time for you to have another.”
“And what might that be?” she asked, unable to hide the smile of amusement on her lips.
“It’s time for you to learn to ride a horse. And I’m going to teach you.”
Rosalie blinked at him in shock. “But… how did you know that I’m not able to ride?” It wasn’t usually something she told people as it was a little shameful. Most ladies learned how to ride from a young age.
“Your sister Violet mentioned it once,” the Duke explained. “She said that your father never impressed upon any of you the importance of learning to ride, and because you never visited the country, the opportunity never presented itself.”
“Violet is correct, but that isn’t the only reason I never learned to ride.” She hesitated. It was embarrassing to admit, but after everything she had shared with the Duke, she knew that she should just say it. “You see, I’m afraid of heights.”
The Duke raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Yes,” she said, blushing an even deeper shade of red. “I’ve been like that all my life. The moment I’m even a little ways above the ground, I start to feel dizzy and sick, and terror sets in.”
