Page 50 of The Duchess He Couldn’t Resist

For a few moments, they stared at each other. Her hands were shaking, and her eyes were bright. She was angry, yes. She was livid. But underneath there was also something else. Fear. She was afraid. And Brandon realized that for the first time in his life, someone was afraid for him, not of him.

“Marigold…”

“Do not.”

She turned away and was ready to get up, but Brandon caught her wrist gently. She froze and sat back down, looking at him. He waited until she settled, until she managed to control her breath even a little.

“It was important for the mission to have this information firsthand,” he said quietly.

“That is not an excuse,” Marigold said. “You deliberately walked into a trap for information.”

“It was not a trap if I knew what was going to happen.”

“If you knew what was going to happen and still did it, then you are cruel and inconsiderate.”

Brandon froze. Until that moment, he hadn’t realized how Marigold must be feeling. He thought it was just what one felt when dealing with a mischievous child. But as he was looking at her, he recognized the real dread.

For one moment, he put himself in her shoes. What would he feel if he saw Marigold brought back bloodied? And the first thing that rose inside him was crippling dread.

“I am not used to thinking that there was someone back home waiting for me.”

Marigold looked up, realizing how his life was before her. Lonely in the very true sense of the word. Pointless.

“I never had to be careful, Marigold,” he scoffed. “I have been reckless for so long that I forgot how to be anything else.”

Marigold raised her chin, looking away from him, and then looked down, biting her lip.

“You promised me you would be back for dinner,” she said with a trembling voice.

“I did, yes.”

“Did you forget I was back here waiting for you?”

When Marigold looked up with the question in her eyes, Brandon felt a pain sharper than anything all of Johnny’s men could have inflicted on him. He had managed to make his wife feel insignificant, powerless, scared, angry, and sad.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said.

Her eyes widened. She had not expected an apology, and truth be told, neither had he. He never apologized, but he could not just forgive himself for what he had done.

“I should have been more careful,” he said, sitting up a little. “I should have thought of you.”

The exhale that left her was the one thing that alleviated his pain. She took the salve and started applying it to his bruises.

“Just be more mindful next time,” she said. “I understand that this is important to you. You even married me for information to see this through. But…”

Brandon felt as if he had been punched repeatedly. This brave girl. He had managed to reduce her to a housekeeper and make her feel as if she were worthy only of her information and nothing more.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have tied her down to marriage with him. After all that had happened in her life, she deserved something good, and he was certainly not it.

“I will. I promise.”

She kept taking care of him in silence for a few minutes. He could see there was something else on her mind besides his state.

“Is everything in order?”

The question seemed to startle her. She looked up with those amber eyes pinned on his. It was as if he bathed in liquid gold.

“My mother came to visit today,” she said in one breath.