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“Hm, I see.” She caressed his sleek dark hair and he revelled in it. “When will you be gone?
“Tomorrow morning.” He kissed her forehead.
“So soon?” She snuggled into him.
“Yes. I’ll be back in the end of the week.” He nuzzled her cheek. “Will you be alright?”
“No doubt.” In moments, she fell asleep. She’d been doing a lot of that lately.
Next morning, he disentangled pitifully from her, kissed her on the forehead and left before he changed his mind.
Chapter 20
Without Philip around, the house felt cold and empty, even though fireplaces got lit every evening and the servants circulated the house all the time. Barely two days had passed and she already missed him. She kept busy with her books, her knitting and embroidery. The latter, she endured, as she thought she had not enough skills for it. Running the manor also took a great deal of time.
She sat in the cosily furnished drawing room that morning, alternating between books and needlework. The butler knocked and handed her a letter. After he’d left, she opened it. Her father’s doctor communicated that her father lay ill with a fever, nobody knew if it’d break. Her father obtained medical cares in the Drawbridge house in London. With Charles nowhere to be found, the doctor worried about the old man’s loneliness and suggested her to visit.
Selene would have to go, even if she still held some grudges towards him. Philip would be none too happy with that either. She’d write him. They’d meet in Crompton house anyway. She left directions and instructions with the butler, telling him where she’d go and why. She summoned Nell and prepared for the trip.
Next dawn, brought an agreeable weather, which contributed for them to reach London in minimal time. Selene headed straight to her father’s. She’d go home to Crompton house later. Upon arriving at her father’s, though, she encountered the house in a mess and her father very badly treated. The few staff left wasn’t enough to run the house. She had to use her lady-of-the-manor skill to put an order in all that. Nell helped but it took all day. Exhausted, she decided to overnight in Drawbridge house.
During the night, her father entered in a delirious state, which kept her by his side, trying to cool down the fever. Eventually, she’d have to go to the apothecary’s for more of the doctor’s prescriptions.
Philip sat in Parliament in a state of utter impatience. Already this morning, he wanted to go back to the manor and stay with Selene. Speech after speech, he only wanted to be with her, lie with her, snuggle with her. Whatever it was, he wanted her company for it. It threw him in a torrid state of frustration never felt in his life. Not minding the sideways looks, he stood and left, before he started screaming his impatience in the middle of the deadly quiet room.
In the club, the evening before, Darius had told him the gossip had been merciless where Selene was concerned. That infuriated Philip to uncontrollable point. How dare these people talk against the duchess! It made him even more feverish to go to her and give her his support in whichever way he could.
Already past eleven in the morning, Selene managed to leave Drawbridge house to go to the apothecary. She walked fast and worried, mindless whether someone saw her or not. She walked so distractedly, she didn’t see the man who stopped in front of her and almost collided with him. She lifted her bonneted head annoyed. Cunningham. Oh, dear! This was the least convenient time, place and person.
“Oh, Lord Cunningham.” She tried to be polite.
“Lady Crompton!” She didn’t miss his jocose tone. “What a surprise.”
“It certainly is. My father is unwell, so I’m helping with his treatment.” She said without preamble. The quickest she disengaged from him, the better.
“Is that so?” He took her hand and bowed over it. “Congratulations on your nuptials.” He smiled knowingly. “It’s not every day that we see a woman twice a duchess.” He mocked and paused for some seconds. “Of the same house.”
“Thank you, my lord.” She pretended to miss the contempt in him. “Now, if you excuse me.” But he held her hand firmly. She faced him with a stony expression in her vivid green eyes, which made him release her.
She walked past him hurriedly. Trying to forget the unpleasantness he made her feel, raced to the apothecary, bought what she needed and rushed to her father’s house. She spent the next hours by his side.
From afar, Philip watched the exchange between bewildered and enraged. Selene and Cunningham? What was she doing in town? She never told him she planned to come. Was she having some secret…thing with the pauper? The Earl had held her hand quite…familiarly in Philip’s opinion. He went home, knowing that she’d stay there if in town. He sat and waited for a long time, but she never showed up. Confused and frustrated, he went to the club.
During that night, the fever subsided, causing Robert to wake up feebly. His eyes surprised on her. She kept cooling his skin, silently. She had nothing to say to him after all.
Weakly, he took her hand in his sweaty, feverish one, giving it a faint squeeze. “If I had known that clearing Charles’ debts would make no difference, I wouldn’t have forced you to marry.” He said simply.
She made herself nod, accepting this apology of sorts. He fell in a deep sleep after that. When the doctor declared him out of danger, she hired a nurse to take care of him and left to the manor.
She arrived in the manor weary and sad. She’d spent the trip ruminating what her father had said and tried to put up with the feelings it evoked. Her dream of a love match. She loved her husband, even if she didn’t know it to be reciprocated. She’d decided to marry Philip so she could at least love and cherish him, however unilaterally. She felt happy. He was the husband she’d dreamed during her debutante years. Not being her place to force him to love her, she would remain at his side as much as she could. Her father had wronged her, for sure. Nevertheless, in her new life, she’d met the infuriatingly attractive new duke. Either the Ton found it right or wrong, she had encountered a certain degree of happiness. She wasn’t about to complain. Even less now that she carried the fruit of their…story.
After soaking in a long bath and managing to eat something, she chose an early night, tucking herself in the master bed. Philip had told her they’d be using only one bed, his. The adjoining lady’s chamber would serve for her clothes and dressing. Her tired mind raced thinking about her trip to London, her father and the brief unpleasant encounter with the Earl.
She must have dozed away, for she woke up startled with a door suddenly opening. “Philip!” She welcomed him in a sleepy voice.
He looked…angry? The sole light came from the fire in the fireplace, throwing light on him in angles. She sat up to better see him.
He closed the door with a dry thud. He
