Her Favorite Duke (The 1797 Club #2)(59)

Simon leapt up. “Left? Where did she go?”

“Back to Falcon’s Landing,” James said with a sigh. “I tried to talk her out of it, said that I would mediate between you. Emma tried to convince her too, she even invoked our unborn child in an attempt to guilt her into remaining. But Meg just kept saying that you hated yourself more than you loved her and she wouldn’t be a part of it anymore.”

Simon stared at his friend, the words that James was saying settling into his skin, his soul, his mind and his heart. They mixed with Meg’s accusation that he was a coward, with Graham’s harsh words about Simon never fighting for what he wanted. It stewed together and, without thinking, Simon tilted his head back and let out a roar that all but shook the room.

James rose slowly as Simon panted through the intense emotions that ripped him apart.

“I have to go after her,” Simon gasped out at last when he could speak. “I have to follow her.”

For weeks James had only looked at him with a combination of concern and contempt, but now his friend’s lips turned up slightly. “It took you long enough to figure that out. What will you do?”

“What I should have done from the start,” he said. “What I was afraid to do for all these years. I’m going to be honest. I’m going to be open. And I’m going to…to fight for what she is and what I want. And I won’t take no for an answer, even if she gives it to me for ten years. I won’t back away until she knows that I am just as invested in her as she is in me.”

“She loves you,” James said softly.

He bent his head. “I haven’t deserved it before. I was so convinced that I couldn’t sacrifice anyone else’s needs to get what I wanted. But I’m going to fight to deserve it from now on.”

“Good. That will be a start,” James said, clapping him on the arm. “So when do you go?”

“I have a few things to prepare,” he said, wishing he could rush headlong toward Meg right that instant and throw himself on her mercy. But he had hurt her for too long and too deeply to think that was enough atonement. He needed to prove himself to her. That would take planning.

And perhaps a few days to herself would make her more open to what he wanted to give.

“I’m going to fix this, James,” Simon said, locking eyes with his friend. “First with Meg, and then with Graham.”

“Worry about Meg now,” James suggested. “Now what can I do to help?”

Simon thought on it a moment, then nodded as a plan began to take shape in his mind. “Well, first I need the very powerful Duke of Abernathe to send word to his servants…”





Chapter Nineteen





Meg strolled through the garden behind her brother’s country estate and let out a long sigh. Falcon’s Landing had always been an escape for her, a pleasure. But she’d been home for five days and she felt none of those things. Instead, when she looked around her, all she saw were reminders of Simon.

There in the corner of the garden, just beside the fountain, was where she had first met him. Up on the terrace was where he had once spun her in a dance the night she came out to Society and had been so nervous she almost couldn’t move. How many times had they whispered private little jokes and stories to each other at suppers at the table in the dining room?

And then there was her room. Once a sanctuary, all she could think of now when she laid her head on her pillows was that this was the place where Simon had come and claimed her innocence after they’d been forced to announce their engagement.

Every place she looked was him. Was them.

And it was so desperately unfair since she knew that “them” was a lie she’d told herself. Simon would never allow a “them” to exist. Not really.

In the end, she supposed she’d have to just sequester herself away. Perhaps James and Emma would allow her to build some kind of little cottage on the edge of the property, a place that would hold no memories of Simon. A place where he had never touched her.

God knew he’d probably be just as happy to be estranged. Then she wouldn’t be a constant reminder of all he had betrayed and lost.

“Your Grace?”

She turned to find Grimble coming down the path toward her. She wrinkled her brow, for the very proper butler was hardly ever seen outside the confines of the house.

“Is there something I can do for you, Grimble?” she asked, clearing her mind of all her maudlin thoughts as best she could.

“There is a bit of a problem that I fear requires addressing,” the butler said, stopping before her and shifting with discomfort. “A household issue.”

Meg nodded slowly. “I see. Well, what is it?”

“You know that caretaker cottage a few miles down the road on the property?”

Meg froze at the mention of the caretaker cottage. That was probably why Grimble was shifting so furiously now. Everyone knew what had transpired there between her and Simon. Well, they thought they knew, anyway.

“Yes, I think you know I know the spot,” Meg managed to croak out and Grimble blushed slightly. “What is it?”

“Well, Toby was going out to market earlier today and happened to take the long path through the estate. He noticed that some damage had been done to the cottage, and he feared some items inside might be missing.”