There was a knitted blanket draped over a chair in the corner of the room. She picked it up, went to stand behind him, and carefully draped it over his shoulders. Then she rested her hands there for just a moment. It was more than she would have dared if he was awake, and the most affectionate touch she had ever initiated with him. Her heart seemed to skip a beat.
How could she have been angry with him for missing dinner? She couldn’t. He was going through too much at the moment, and right now, all she wanted was for him to get some rest.
Sleep well, Leonard.
She extinguished his candle so that the flickering light wouldn’t stir him from his sleep and crept back toward the door. Pulling it open, she stepped out into the hall.
Mrs. Mills was just approaching. Her eyes widened at the sight of Prudence. “Your Grace?—!”
Prudence pressed a finger to her lips, took Mrs. Mills gently by the arm, and led her away.
When they had reached a great enough distance that Prudence felt confident they wouldn’t be overheard, she turned to the housekeeper. “Mrs. Mills,” she said, “His Grace is currently asleep in the study. I wish the staff to know that he isn’t to be disturbed by anyone but his personal valet.”
“Of course,” Mrs. Mills said. “I’ll let the others know not to go into the study.”
“Thank you.” Prudence sighed. “It feels like the least I can do at the moment, protecting his solitude to the extent I can. He’s had a difficult few weeks, and I want him to get as much rest as he can while he is able to.”
Mrs. Mills eyed her thoughtfully. “That’s caring of you, Your Grace.”
The expression on her face prickled. “I know what you’re thinking, Mrs. Mills, and you’re wrong.”
“I’m not thinking anything.” Her tone was far too innocent. “I only thought that it was lucky for His Grace that he has such a caring lady as his wife. Not all gentlemen are blessed with someone who worries for them that much.”
“That is truly what you were thinking?”
“Yes, it is,” Mrs. Mills assured her. She hesitated. “Might I speak frankly, Your Grace?”
“I’ve always considered you a friend, Mrs. Mills. Please, say what’s on your mind.”
“I’ve known His Grace for a long time,” she said. “He has never been the sort of man to prioritize himself over others. He does not even think of himself when the option to think of someone else is available to him. I know that you might not see him that way of course. I know that things are complex between the two of you, but the man I know has been eternally selfless and self-sacrificing.”
“I do see those qualities in him,” Prudence confessed. “I haven’t known him that long, but it seems he is perpetually motivated by what would benefit those he considers to be in his care. His brother Peter for instance.”
“I don’t know if he’ll ever recover from the way Lord Hall abandoned this family,” Mrs. Mills sighed.“I hope I don’t overstep, Your Grace, when I tell you that the staff is all fairly disappointed in Lord Hall and would be angry to see him return. His Grace has done so much for his brother, and to see him be repaid so poorly… well, we don’t care for it.”
“I don’t care for it myself,” Prudence said softly, but she felt a dreadful guilt rise up within her. Her role in that matter was simply impossible to ignore, and it followed her around, haunting her. She knew that she had to take some responsibility for the suffering with which her husband had been left when his brother had run away.
Mrs. Mills cleared her throat. “At any rate,” she said, “when the two of you married, hopes were high that you would bring him some peace. That your presence in this house would be an uplifting one. And I daresay, it has been, Your Grace. But the truth is that your contributions to the well-being of your husband have been much greater than any of us had imagined or hoped for. With you here, Your Grace, he is a new man. He has energy and joy that I haven’t seen from him in years, and I’m grateful to be able to bear witness to it. I’m grateful for your presence in his life. We all are.”
Prudence swallowed hard around the lump in her throat. “Thank you, Mrs. Mills,” she managed. “I can’t tell you what that means to me. You have all known him much longer than I have, and I believe you are the best judges of whether or not he is happy. I can’t tell you what it means to me to think that my presence here has been beneficial. Ours may not be a conventional marriage—it may have arisen from a complicated circumstance—but it still matters to me. I still want to believe that I am a force for good in the Duke’s life.”
“I don’t think there can be any arguing otherwise,” Mrs. Mills assured her. “But, Your Grace, if I may venture just a little more boldness… I don’t believe that you should write your marriage off as simply an unconventional matter of convenience. I think there is more to it than that, and I hate to see you deprive yourself of that.” She met Prudence eyes. “I hope you can remain open to the possibility that the two of you do have potential. That maybe, one day, you might even find you have love for him.”
CHAPTER 20
Leonard awoke feeling comfortable—more comfortable than he had in a very long time.
It took him a moment to understand the reason.
It wasn’t a physical sort of comfort. He had the same crick in his neck that always came from falling asleep sitting up at his desk, something he did far too often even though he tried his best not to let it happen. He was too old for this sort of thing, he knew it, and he always paid a price for it.
And yet, this morning, he felt as rested as if he had spent the night in his bed. How could that have happened?
There was a blanket draped around his shoulders, he realized, removing it. It was one his mother had knitted before her death, and he never used it. Seeing it always made him think of her which was a painful memory that he tried to avoid when he could.
He wouldn’t have chosen this blanket for himself. Someone had chosen it for him and had wrapped him in it when they had found him asleep at his desk last night.
It couldn’t have been any of the staff, of course. Not one of them would have been so forward as to do something like this. There was only one possible person it could have been.
