The Unexpected Duchess (Playful Brides #1)(64)

“Yes, my father was a solider. He fought in the revolution.”

She glanced up at him, eyes wide. “Was he a general?”

He pushed his hands into his pockets and shook his head. “No, actually. He never advanced far.”

“But you did. Quite far.”

He leaned his head back, looking up into the branches of the tree. “I was trained for the military from the time I was a babe. I began military drills when I was three years old.”

Lucy stopped and let her skirts drop. She turned to face him. “Surely you’re jesting.”

“No. I’m afraid I’m not.” He smiled at her, and her heart skipped a beat.

“Why so young?” She began walking, much safer than looking directly at him.

He stared off across the meadow again with a faraway look in his eye. “My father intended me to be a great military leader since the day I was born. He ensured that I was prepared for it.”

“Is it what you wanted?”

He kicked at a tuft of grass with his boot. “It’s all I know, Lucy.”

The tenderness with which he said her name made her breath catch in her throat. “You had no choice?”

He shrugged. “We were not of the privileged class. I had few options open to me. The army seemed as good a choice as any.”

She bit her lip. “Well, you’re obviously quite good at it.”

Another shrug. “When you train for something your entire life, it’s easy to be good at it.”

“I can’t believe that. Surely you also have a natural talent for it.”

“I suppose I do.”

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“Two brothers,” he said.

“Are they also in the military?”

“You could say that.”

Lucy wrinkled her nose at that answer but let it pass.

“It must have been difficult for your mother to see all of her children go to war.”

“It has been.” Derek held back the long branches of the willow tree, and Lucy preceded him into the meadow where they resumed their stroll.

Lucy twined her fingers together and watched her feet. “Your father must be exceedingly proud of you.”

A wan smile passed his lips. “My father is dead.”

Lucy pressed a hand to her throat. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right. It’s been several years. He knew I’d been promoted. But he never knew I was a lieutenant general, or a duke,” Derek finished with a humorless laugh.

Lucy stopped and faced him. “He’d be proud of you, Derek. I’m certain of it.”

A look passed between them. One that was intense and real.

Derek glanced away. “No, he’d say he expected no less.”

Lucy swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. “He sounds as if he was quite demanding.”

He expelled his breath. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“More than demanding?” she ventured.

“My father’s favorite word was decisive. He ensured I was decisive.”

The Duke of Decisive. The memory of the moniker shot through her mind. She furrowed her brow. “What do you mean?”

He pulled on his lapels, looked down his nose at her, and affected a deeper voice. “A man is decisive, always.”

Lucy watched him carefully, suddenly fascinated by the idea that a father would demand that his son be decisive. If Ralph had lived, would her father have demanded that of him? “What did he do? To ensure you were decisive?”

Derek shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. Suffice it to say, it worked.”

She stopped, put her hand on his sleeve, and looked him in the eye. “I’d truly like to know.”

He blew a deep breath through his nostrils and, taking off his hat, ran his hand through his hair. “Very well. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She nodded and swallowed again.

Derek leaned his shoulder against another tree and took a long, deep breath. “When I was six years old, my father taught me how to swim. After I got the right of it, he brought out two of my favorite things.”

Lucy eyed him carefully. “What things?”

“One was my favorite toy. A tin soldier. I’d had it as long as I could remember. I took it everywhere with me.”

Lucy put her hand to her throat. A chill suddenly came over her. “What was the other thing?”

“My eight-week-old puppy.”

Lucy gasped. “What did he do?”

Derek shook his head. Looking down at his boots, he scuffed the tip of one of them in the dirt. “Before I knew what he intended, he tossed both of them in the creek several yards apart.”

Lucy grasped her throat. “No.”

“He threw them in opposite directions at the same time. Choose,” he shouted. “Decide! Now!”

“What did you do?” Lucy bit the back of her knuckles.

“I did the only thing I could. I picked the puppy. I dove in the creek and saved him from drowning.”

Lucy’s throat clogged with tears. “And your toy soldier?”

“It sank. I never saw it again. Though I used to dive in that spot looking for it. I never found it.”