I Became the Bride of a Grand Duke Who's Obsessed with His First Love novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: What the Page Saw

Bertram was at his desk in the steward's room, with one candle and the ledger.

He looked at my robe, my bare hair and my bandage, and said nothing about any of them.

"Sit, Your Grace."

I sat.

"Mr. Quill, I need to ask you something, and I need you not to ask me why."

"I have never asked why, Your Grace. It is the only reason I am still employed."

I took out the right-hand glove from the pocket of my robe.

I laid it on the desk, next to the candle.

He looked at the barley ears in the cuff for a long time.

Then he took off his spectacles and folded them and put them in his waistcoat.

"I wondered when someone would ask," said Bertram.

"Ask what?"

"What I saw at the Summer Lodge."

"You were at the Summer Lodge?"

"I was the under-steward that season. The Duke's household lent me to the palace for the house party, to count the silver."

"You've never said so."

"Nobody has asked me, Your Grace, in six years."

I put my good hand over my mouth.

He was perfectly serious. That was the worst of it.

"Tell me," I said.

"The west wing took fire after midnight. I was in the yard with a lamp, trying to count the guests."

"Go on."

"They carried the Duke out of the east door, with his coat burning. He was shouting. Two grooms had him."

"I know that part."

"The kitchen men came out of the servants' door a moment after. They had a girl between them."

His voice did not change.

"She was dark-haired. She was in a grey dress, and the front of it was black. Her left hand was wrapped in a piece of curtain, and the curtain was smoking."

I looked at my palm.

"She was not crying," said Bertram. "I remember that. She was saying one thing over and over."

"What?"

"Is he out. Is he out. Is he out."

The candle moved.

"Where was the Empress?"

"She was not yet the Empress. She was Miss Brauer, a guest's daughter, and she arrived at the yard a little after, in a clean blue gown, on the arm of a footman."

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