Loved by a Duke (The Heart of a Duke #4)(88)

Auric shot his hands out and steadied her shoulders. He released her suddenly, taking in her wan complexion. Her freckles stood out in stark contrast to her pale white cheeks. She opened and closed her mouth several times.

He swallowed hard and without another word, stepped around her and fled—from the truths, his wife’s agonized eyes, and a guilt he’d never be free of.



Daisy stared after her husband’s swiftly retreating figure as he disappeared down the corridor. Her heart thundered, pounding painfully on the walls of her chest. She leaned against the doorframe, borrowing support from the wood, as everything she’d heard played out in her mind.

All these years Auric had taken on the guilt as his own. He’d dwelt in a hell crafted in his mind, where, of some misguided guilt at surviving, he’d taken ownership of his, Lionel’s, and Marcus’ actions that night. It had been Lionel’s decision and but for some slight and significant twist of fate, Auric had went abovestairs with a different woman, and in doing so now lived. It could have been him.

It should have been me.

She pressed her fingers to her mouth, as pain rolled through her in slow waves. That is what he believed? That a world in which he was not in it was the preferable one? Loving Lionel as she did, and always would, God forgive her, she would never have sacrificed Auric, so that her brother could live. She needed him. In every way and any way she might have him. Now. She made to leave.

“Daisy,” Marcus’ low, baritone froze her. She whirled around to face him. He stared back at her with concern and something indefinable in his blue eyes. “You heard.” A dull flush stained his cheeks.

His was no statement and yet incapable of words or any sufficient response, she nodded. She cast another glance over her shoulder, wanting to set out after her husband. Daisy closed the door behind her and leaned against the hard, solid wood panel.

“You were angry,” he said without preamble.

Those words would have been insolent had they come from anyone else. For his annoyance with her when she’d been a child however, Marcus had still been more brother than anything else to her. “I was shocked,” she said, a trace of defensiveness in her tone.

He steeled his jaw. “It was not his fault.” He stooped down and retrieved a now blackened journal. The same article that not even one day ago had upended her world. “For your presence and mine, and his visible role in polite Society, he has been alone these years now.”

Her heart tightened at the truth of that. With the jealousy and regret she’d carried over his courtship of Lady Anne, Daisy would have traded her own happiness, her very own heart, if it could mean Auric had that which he deserved—the peace he craved, love with Lady Anne.

“Here, take this.” Marcus held the book aloft.

She shook her head jerkily, thinking of the reconciliation she’d made with his, theirs, and Lionel’s past. “I do not need to read his words.” She’d read enough, heard enough to know that they were his words and belonged to him. They’d all managed through their grief, in their own ways, or in her parents’ case, not at all. She would not rob him of his privacy to bring herself empty solace. Daisy folded her arms about her chest. She only needed him.

“He loves you, Daisy.” It took a moment to register those words belonged to Marcus and were not merely the yearnings she’d carried so long in her heart.

She picked her head up, her heart racing. “Did he say as much?” The question emerged hesitantly.

A pained laugh escaped Marcus and he swiped a hand over his face. “Oh, Daisy, this is rich.”

She cocked her head.

He slashed the air with his hand, motioning in her direction, noisily rustling the pages of Auric’s book. “He’s always loved you. Just as you’ve always loved him. You two have both been blind to the truth seen by everyone who has ever known you.”

Daisy fisted the daisy pendant in her hand so tightly, the metal bit into her palm. “I was an obligation,” she whispered to herself.

“If you believe you were an obligation, then you are as big of a fool as he was with his damned insistence on finding you a husband, other than himself,” he said.

She started unaware she’d spoken aloud. “Where has he gone, Marcus?” There was a faintly pleading note to those words. “I need to see him.” Needed to tell him she loved him, and there was no blame, so that perhaps he could begin to heal.

Marcus lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “I don’t know.” A pensive expression settled over his face.

She rushed over in a whirl of skirts and took his hands. “Find him, Marcus. Bring him home.” To her. Where he’d always belonged.

He searched her face a moment and then gave a brusque nod. With a short bow, he turned over Auric’s journal and took his leave.

Daisy turned her attention to the badly burned leather volume, heavy in her hands. She fanned the pages and bits of black ash flaked off. Where would he go…where would he go…? Daisy’s fingers froze mid-movement. The steady tick-tock-tick-tock of the long-case clock grated in the stillness of the empty room. Guiltily, she dropped her gaze to the book in her hands. She’d vowed to not read Auric’s words.

She wet her lips and guilt snaked through her. Except, this was no longer about the past. This was about the future. Daisy opened the book and turned the pages, skimming dates, and turning pages.