The Duke's Hound Hated Every Woman He Courted — Until a Young Lady Walked Through the Gate
Chapter 11
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"You left him," said Isolde. It was the first thing she had said in that hall. Her voice was very low, and it carried to every corner. "You left him there with the dog standing over him, and you went home and slept in your own bed. Then you destroyed my father, and you chose 11 women so that your cousin would never marry."Percival turned on the Duke with the desperation of a drowning man. "Julian, I am your blood! I am the last of the name! Think what a trial would mean: the scandal, the newspapers, the Ravenhurst name dragged through every court in England! Think of the family!"It was the hardest choice, and every person in that hall knew it. The Duke stood with his brother's ring in his closed hand and looked at his cousin, the last living link to a line 500 years old, who was begging him to be silent one more time."Edmund was my blood, too," replied the Duke. "I let him wait until morning once. I will not do it again."Lord Whitcomb crossed the hall. Two footmen stepped up on either side of Percival, and the Duke's cousin was led out through the great doors into the rain, still calling out the name of a family he had spent three years eating from the inside.After that, the hall was very quiet. The Duke turned to the company. He found Isolde standing beside him with her hands clasped, and he did something no one in that room had ever seen him do: he bowed to her low, in front of everyone."Lady Edmund Ravenhurst," he declared, "this house is yours for as long as you want it. My brother's name is yours by right. I ask your pardon publicly for three years of silence and for what I said to you in my study. There is no excuse for it, and I will not insult you by offering one."She looked at him for a long time. She thought of the forged letter. She thought of a landlady's cold soup and a father buried without a stone. She thought of a boy with a puppy in his coat, laughing on a mounting block, and of the line that said:You are only the worst at saying so."Thank you," she answered at last.It was not forgiveness, and they both knew it, but it was the first plank laid across the gap.The curate's register arrived before midnight with the entry in Edmund's own hand and the signatures of two witnesses still alive to swear to them.