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Patience’s eyes watered. She squeezed his left hand and smiled. “Mrs. Batten is so good-hearted.”
He nodded. “Unfortunately, Papa discovered my pet. It wasn’t like I could hide Bramble in my room forever. I suppose our previous housekeeper got tired of having the maids clean sheep dung from the Aubusson rugs in my chamber. Papa was furious. A future duke nursing a pet lamb was completely laughable.”
“What happened?”
“He killed it. Took my very own fencing sword and—”
His throat closed around the words once again, but it was her pale face that stopped him from telling of the gruesome scene, the horror of seeing yet another thing he loved taken away by his papa.
“No…” She shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
He nodded.
“Is that why you feel this rage…?” she wondered. “I suppose you must have felt quite helpless then.”
He nodded once again. How could she see right through him? Yet again putting words to the explosion of feelings that had ruled him his whole life? Was it her basket exercise that had taught her this skill or simply her intuitive heart and incredible kindness? Lucien and Chastity had both seen what happened to Bramble, but he had never told either of them how he felt.
Strangely, naming the feelings took away their power, putting them outside of his body and allowing him to reclaim his strength.
Once again, he wondered what this was woman doing to him.
Was she healing him, when all he’d ever done was wound her…and her family?
“Yes,” he said. “You’re right, I felt helpless, and the one thing I could do was lash out. Destroy before I could be destroyed. I cut Papa’s favorite portrait to ribbons.”
He was lost in her eyes. No one had ever looked at him like she did then. He felt understood and accepted, known.
But would she understand every ugly thing he’d ever done…including what he did to John? He truly didn’t deserve her.
“Lucien and Chastity witnessed everything,” he said.
“Is that why you have such a strong bond with Lucien?” she asked.
“Yes. He stayed in Rath Hall for months while we were growing up. His parents, dare I say, have been as poisonous to him as my papa was to me and Chastity.”
“How did you become friends with the rest? You seven dukes are quite a band.”
The hint of a smile tugged at one corner of his lips at the thought of his brotherhood.
“I can’t tell you everything. Above all, we keep each other’s secrets. But what I can tell you is that Pryde became a friend after Oxford. Enveigh… Pryde was indebted to him, and Enveigh found himself in a bad situation because of another man’s wife. We helped to save him from a duel and a scandal.”
“Men and your code of honor,” she chuckled. “What about the rest? Whatever you can say without betraying your secrets.”
“Lucien knew Eccess from Elysium. Let’s just say they both like to overindulge in their celebrations. Eccess once drove a carriage while very drunk, which led to a bad accident. It would have ruined him completely if Lucien hadn’t asked us to help. Irevrence likes to make bad jokes and doesn’t care about the consequences. After having told one in the wrong company, against the wrong high-ranking official, he would have landed in prison if we hadn’t helped. And finally, Fortyne’s acute business sense sometimes does not consider the legality of certain enterprises. He almost got caught. By then, there were six of us, and each of us helped using our own strengths.”
“You have a strong bond with all of them,” she said.
“We knew we had something special. Seven men as damaged as we are in our own ways… It was forever. No one would understand the extent of the way our souls are corrupted. Inside our group, everything is allowed. There’s no judgment. But besides that, we started to help each other with investments, business, protecting each other’s interests against threats. That was how the Seven Dukes of Sin was born.”
Patience’s gaze shimmered with curiosity. “Quite a group, I daresay.”
“They’re like the brothers I never had,” he said. “Especially Lucien. I may not always see eye to eye with all of them, but I know we will never betray each other. Our loyalty runs deeper than personal conflicts or difference in interests. If anything happened to me, I know they would all protect and take care of Chastity…and, of course, you.”
The carriage stopped too soon, and Dorian withdrew his hands from hers. They were at Cohen’s house. The older man, whom Dorian had helped with a fence repair a month or so earlier, waited outside, his lined face brightening at the sight of Dorian.
After Patience presented him with the basket, he invited them inside. Over weak tea in chipped cups, the man turned to Patience, his eyes wet. “I can’t thank ye enough, Yer Grace. After my Mary passed last winter, there are more things and less hands. My daughter has her hands full with the wee one. Ye’re a right angel, ye are.”
Patience ducked her head, color blooming in her cheeks. “It’s not just me. It’s the duke, too. And it’s the least we can do, Cohen. Truly.”
