The Duke's Hound Hated Every Woman He Courted — Until a Young Lady Walked Through the Gate
Chapter 6
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They had fallen in love slowly across two years of conversations at the garden wall. Edmund had wished to tell his brother at once, but he knew the Duke's pride, and he knew he had nothing of his own to offer a baron's penniless daughter. He had one fear he could not conquer: that Julian would look at her, then at him, and say nothing at all in that terrible way he had. So, Edmund chose to marry first and explain after; he would hand his brother a happy fact so large and warm that no coldness could survive it."It was foolish," Isolde admitted. "He knew it. We were married in September. He wanted to tell you at once, and then he found the accounts."The Duke closed his eyes."That winter, he discovered a wrongness in the estate books: timber sold that was never felled; tenant farms mortgaged against your name; notes of credit that carried my father's signature as guarantor, though my father had never put his hand to them." She drew a breath. "He decided to bring you the proof and the news of our marriage on the same night, so that the news might soften the proof. That was in April. He came to our cottage in the afternoon to say he would be back before dawn. He left me this muffler because the evening was cold, and he left me a letter in case you were angry and he was late.""I remember that night," said the Duke in a voice she barely recognized. "We dined together. He kept trying to speak. I was tired. I told him whatever it was could wait until morning."The words fell into the room like stones into a well."It did not wait," said Isolde gently. "He was found at the foot of the Heron's Leap Quarry. They said he had been thrown from his horse in the dark.""I found him." The Duke's hand had closed over the ring. "Sovereign would not let anyone near. He stood over my brother for two days, and when they finally got a rope on him, his muzzle was laid open. I told myself it was the rocks." He looked at the hound. "I told myself a great many things.""The ledger he carried was never found. A week later, my father's name was struck from every list. The forged notes came due. His creditors descended all at once, as though someone had given them a signal. He lost the house, his seat, everything in it—even the papers that might have cleared him. I wrote to you, Your Grace, three times." She took a breath. "I received one answer."She drew out a second sheet creased with much handling and held it across the desk. The Duke read it standing: