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Chapter Seventeen
Just as Matthew hadknown Isaac since he was seven, he also knew when Isaac was in distress.He departed the ballroom as soon as the sound permeated his consciousness.Isaac was afraid to do anything and rarely traveled beyond his small room and Matthew’s quarters.Which caused Matthew grave concern.
Matthew pushed into his bedroom from the hallway door.Isaac was standing in the middle the room.The frightened cries of a boyish man, one Matthew had cared for nearly his entire life, tore at him.He was afraid of humans, having been treated abominably as a young boy.
“Isaac,” he said loudly, hurrying toward him.“Isaac!”He wrapped one arm over his shoulder.“What’s happened?
Isaac turned into Matthew’s body, holding tight.
“That beast tried to attack me!”a woman screamed.Esther, the Duchess of Welliver, was backed into the corner near his armoire, apparently afraid to scoot around a hysterical valet.
“Your Grace?What are you doing in my room?”he demanded.
“You would ask me such a question, when it is he—that man!—who would dare approach me?”
“He’s dared nothing.You are the one trespassing.I have given you the freedom of my home and yet you find your way here?”
“Stop that screaming.I’ve done nothing wrong,” she said.Her eyes were wide, and she bit at her lip.Her hands were braced behind her against the wall.
“Don’t you dare move,” he said to her.He took Isaac’s face between his hands.Isaac calmed, the high-pitched wailing had turned to crying mewls.“Don’t worry.I will take care of this.You are safe.Now, go to your room.I’ll be right along.”
He faced Esther again.Isaac still whimpered as he hurried away.Matthew’s robe and slippers were heaped on the floor.Isaac was likely preparing, in his meticulous way, for Matthew’s sleeping routine when Esther came into the room.
“Now, tell me what the hell you are doing in my room,” Matthew demanded.He suspected why, but he wanted to hear it from her.Had she intuitively recognized him as her husband’s brother or as the actual young man who’d worked for her father those years ago?
“So,youare Matthew Hardy?”
“I’ve always been Matthew Hardy.”
“Not always.Not when you were seducing me into shame,” Esther said.
“You’re a duchess.What shame is there in that?Your father was a marquess.I still see no shame.”His time at the Marquess of Tetbury’s stables had been purposeful and diabolical.
“Does your wife know what a bastard you are?”
“Nothing surprises her, if that’s what you are asking.”
