Page 44 of An Orphan for the Broken Duke

“No,” he dismissed. “You did it to save your sister. The debts were irrelevant.”

She sighed. “I think you have far too high an opinion of me.”

“That is because you deserve it,” he said honestly. “You, Violet. You are…” He was sure to look right at her, speaking in a whisper, so soft that even he barely heard it. “You are such a good person, and Lucy is lucky to have you.”

“As she is lucky to have you.”

“No.” Another shake of his head. “She is lucky that I convinced you to marry me. I am… I am little more than a roof over her head.”

“Safety, you mean,” she pointed out. “As all children need.”

“I thought they needed love?”

“Why not both?” she responded with a coy smile. “It is funny, in some ways. You and I have such different opinions on what love is, but neither of us is correct. Really, we are both wrong, and we are both right. I think a child needs love, you think they need safety, but the reality is that they need both.”

He chuckled at that. “Which is why this marriage works. As strange as it is.”

“Is it strange?”

“It is certainly not normal.”

“Oh, who wants normal?” she said with soft laughter.

It had been an easier week than Rhys could believe. Barring that single silly argument about the nursery, he and Violet managed to find a mode of comfort that worked perfectly. While Violet gave Lucy love, he gave her security, and together they gave her a home.

And it was because of that ease of doing things that Rhys no longer saw Violet as the stubborn, argumentative woman who he had only married because she served a purpose. He no longer saw her as an imposition, someone who he was certain he would hardly think about once they married. And he certainly no longer saw her as someone to compete with for Lucy’s affection. What he saw instead was…

She is everything else, that which I avoided for so long, and exactly what I have needed…

“Violet, I…” Rhys choked on his words.

He did not know what he wanted to say, or how to say it. All he knew was how he felt. It was not what he expected, he still did not fully understand it, and there was much of him that would have preferred it if it was not the case.

However, considering the way he felt at that moment, not to mention how Violet was looking at him, he dared to wonder… to dream… could he have more?

“Yes?” Violet perked up a little, hope in her eyes. “What is it?”

Rhys’ pulse quickened as he looked at Violet through the dark. His body tingled from his fingers through to his legs. Some of it was excitement, much of it was fear, and he fought back the urge to step into her as he knew he wanted to do.

His eyes flicked to her lips. His mouth salivated as he imagined kissing her. He wanted to! He wanted to ignore the warning in his head, believing that he not only deserved this but that he needed it… as she did too.

But he froze. His mind cast back to his past, what he had done and his reasons. He had avoided anything close to marriage and what that might lead to for so long, not because he wanted to be alone, but because it was what he felt he deserved. And should he risk bringing someone else into his world, someone to trust and care for, he was sure he would only hurt them.

Eleanor is proof of that…

“Nothing,” he said quickly and sharply, looking away. “I… I need to sleep. It is late and I… it has been a long day.” He felt her watching him, as if she knew what had been on his mind. And as she did, he hoped that she would finish what he had started.

“Yes,” she said, taking a step back. “That is for the best. And we would not want to wake up Lucy.”

He grimaced, almost upset that she accepted his dismissal so quickly.

“Good night, Violet.” He looked at her a final time, and he saw once again exactly what she felt for him… that sense of hope, belief that he was more than he said of himself, and that he could be a better man.

“Goodnight, Rhys,” she said softly.

He forced an awkward smile, put his head down, and rushed from the room. And it was only when he was alone, able to parcel his thoughts and make sense of them, that he realized how close he had come to making a terrible mistake.

Worse than that, he doubted that he had the self-control to resist such a mistake again, if it presented itself. And from how Violet had looked at him, he doubted that she was the same.