Page 63 of An Orphan for the Broken Duke

“His Grace is a mercurial creature, Your Grace,” Mr. Marrow said gently and with a hint of strain in his voice. “I know that sometimes he appears a little cold, but I assure you that it is all an act.”

“I am sure it is,” she said.

“Your Grace, if you will allow me…” He took a hesitant step forward, suddenly unsure and even worried.

“What is it, Mr. Marrow?” She turned further in her chair so that she could better look at him.

“I do not wish to speak out of turn, but I fear that I must,” he began, still appearing unsure. “I have known His Grace since he was a boy, and so I have seen him grow into the man we all know. I want you to know that how he acts right now, that is not the true him. He believes it is, but deep down, he is not what he pretends.”

She laughed gently. “Oh, I know that, Mr. Marrow. And thank you for saying. You care about him, I see.”

“I always have,” he said. “And might I say that these past few weeks, I cannot remember a time I have seen him so happy. Not since Miss Eleanor and…” He took a deep breath and winced. “Those few years were hard, and I feared that he would never recover from them. For once, I am glad to be proven wrong.”

“What was she like?” Violet found herself asking. “If you do not mind me asking?”

“She was sweet,” he said with a warm smile. “As kind a woman as you have ever known. But she was young, a little idealistic at times, the type who might lose her head in the clouds for hours and think nothing of it. But oh, she loved His Grace, as he loved her.”

Violet smiled without meaning to. “I wish I had gotten to meet her.”

“I see some of her in you,” he said with that same warm smile. “And Miss Lucy, of course. When His Grace spent those years searching, I feared we might lose him forever. But he pulled himself back, thanks to you and Miss Lucy, of course.”

Violet considered Mr. Marrow for a moment. More than that, she considered what he was saying and what it really meant.

While Violet knew the reason that Rhys was this way, she had never really thought about those years after Eleanor had died. How hard they must have been on him, and the pain he surely suffered as he tried to find a purpose… a means to ease his guilt.

Lucy was supposed to be that purpose, but even she was not able to save him completely. For that, Rhys would have needed a miracle. And when Violet considered what that miracle might be, she felt a fire suddenly light inside of her.

“Were you with him?” she asked Mr. Marrow. “When he searched for his nephew?”

“I was,” he said with obvious pain. “A most trying time. Sadly, His Grace now believes that he is dead. I think he needs to believe it; better that than admitting that he failed.”

“What of you?” she asked. “Do you believe it?”

Mr. Marrow considered the question. “I… in truth, no, I do not. We found Miss Eleanor several weeks after she had passed away. Her husband had fled, and we later learned he had left the country. We traced the vessel he took, and they assured us that he travelled alone. So, his child could only have been left behind. At an orphanage, we were told.”

“And you searched them all?”

“As many as we could,” he said. “But His Grace was suffering, desperate, and each day that nothing was found, it broke him that little bit further. I sometimes wonder…” His smile grew again as if at a memory. “I sometimes wonder what it might have been like if we had found his nephew. What might His Grace be like now… had such a thing occurred.”

Violet found herself nodding along.

As she did, that initial idea she’d had continued to niggle at the back of her mind—one that was as hopeless as it was hopeful. It was one that was insane and might only make things worse. But it was also one that she seized upon, a sudden determination flaring through her the likes of which she had not felt in weeks.

Violet was the type who liked to have a task to set her mind to, as she was the type to see that task through no matter the cost.

She would not beg Rhys to change his mind. She would not wait for him to realize his mistakes. But if she could somehow prove to him that it was not wrong to care for someone, that love was a strength worth fighting for, maybe that would make the difference?

And as far as she could tell, there was only one way to do that.

“Mr. Marrow, I have changed my mind. There is something that I need.” She turned fully in her seat and fixed a look on him that gave no room for argument.

“Oh?”

“Am I correct in thinking that you have a record of all the orphanages that you and His Grace visited? Not to mention receipts of everything you learned when searching for his nephew?”

“I do, Your Grace.”

“Good,” she said with a nod. “Bring them to me at once. Oh…” She made sure to be looking right at him. “And I must insist that you not tell His Grace about this.”