AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wouldn’t I? I’m sure you don’t want to test me to find out.” Galliston pushed both women towards the house. “Get inside, right now. I’ll find someone to escort Sidney off the property.”
“But …”
“Do you want me to break the engagement right now, Miss Moore?”
Isabel didn’t respond, and Galliston grunted.
“I think you need to remember where your priorities lie. Now get inside.”
As she was pushed towards the back door, Isabel tried to look back at Richard. But she couldn’t see him with Galliston’s frame in the way as she was taken inside. Then the door slammed shut, and Richard was gone.
#
Richard hovered in the trees and watched as Galliston’s carriage left the driveway. He had seen Isabel and Lady Dunley get inside, their luggage tied to the back of the carriage before the duke himself jumped in. They would be going back to London, and then Isabel would be under Galliston’s strict gaze. She wouldn’t be able to have any freedom.
He wouldn’t be able to see her again.
Richard had never thought of himself as so melodramatic with his thinking, but the thought of not seeing Isabel again was leaving him empty. He had planned to step away before, just to protect Isabel’s reputation and her betrothal, but then he had spent more time with her. And Richard knew he couldn’t just walk away. Not from Isabel Moore.
He loved her. And he couldn’t have her.
Galliston would make sure that he never set eyes on Isabel again. If he did, it would have repercussions. The duke had already threatened to pull funding from the expedition, and he was funding the majority of it. If Professor Ainsley found out the reason why their biggest benefactor made all of his money disappear, he was going to be furious. Richard would lose his job, and then he would be back at his father’s house in disgrace.
Richard kept in the line of the trees, out of sight, as the carriage disappeared up the road. He had caught sight of Isabel’s face in the window, leaning out to look up at her former home. She looked very pale, and Richard was sure she had been crying. That made him want to go to her, hold her and say it was going to be all right.
As the carriage left his view, Richard started wandering through the woods. He shouldn’t have kissed Isabel. He shouldn’t have confessed that he loved her. The emotions were high, and it all just came out. Now Richard regretted telling her. Isabel did not need to hear that another man loved her when she was engaged. That was never a good idea and could only end in tears. But to hear Isabel say that she couldn’t stop thinking about him, that she wasn’t able to keep away, that made something inside him falter. His own self-control had gone, allowing him to reveal his own feelings towards her.
The aftermath of it was bittersweet. Richard was both glad he had said it, but he also regretted it. The mixture of emotions regarding that moment was strange, and he didn’t know what to think about it.
There was the sound of trickling water, and Richard realized that he had reached the stream. The one where he first saw Isabel after so many years, almost falling face-first into the water while trying to rescue a tiny animal. The rain had been on and off over the last two days, so the stream was more of a river. It was higher and deeper than Richard remembered, flowing quite fast. It was almost up to his boots on the path.
It felt like a lifetime since he came upon Isabel here, and he had taken a swim himself. Richard could still remember that day clearly, along with the feeling of being soaking wet and cold. Isabel had looked really lovely. Nothing had changed about her apart from she was grown up. Richard had found all of that beautiful. The new Isabel, who took the lessons and made herself into a proper lady, was still beautiful, but Richard missed the person he remembered. She was too refined, too proper.
The old Isabel had never been refined and proper, which was what made her so endearing. She was just herself.
And now she was due to marry a duke. She would be a duchess, and she would be able to keep that facade with a man who was overly possessive of her. A man who threatened anyone to get his own way. If he were in Galliston’s shoes, Richard would have felt the same way.
But he knew that Galliston didn’t love Isabel. He had seen the look in the man’s eyes whenever he looked at her. He was proud that he had a beautiful woman on his arm, but that was nothing that said he loved her. He wanted to possess her, but there was no true emotion.
That shouldn’t have been a surprise. Most marriages nowadays were not made out of love, and Galliston’s proposal would not be any different. Even so, Richard felt sick at the knowledge that Isabel would be stuck with a man who would practically keep her under lock and key.
He wouldn’t allow her to be her own person. A duchess had to be perfect, and while Isabel was perfect in Richard’s eyes, she wouldn’t be a perfect duchess. Her true self would come out, and then Galliston wouldn’t be impressed. That would just make their marriage miserable.
You’re such a coward.
“I thought I might find you out here.”
Richard turned. Thomas was coming down the path, wearing his brand-new walking boots and a coat with the collar turned up, huddled against the sudden chill in the air. Richard blinked.
“What are you doing out here? And why are you looking for me?”
“Cohen was concerned about you when you vanished from the house. He’s going out of his mind wondering what’s happened.” Thomas stopped beside his brother. “He thinks you’ve done something stupid.”
“You mean …” Richard glanced at the stream. “That’s not on my mind, I promise you.”
“I figured as much.”
“Then why are you out here? And how did you know where to find me?”
