The Duke Should Divorce Me, So Why Is He Stalling My Death? novel · Chapter 14 of 32
Chapter 14: Four Seconds
They didn't speak in the carriage.
Alaric sat across from her with his hands on his knees, looking at the passing lamps, and his jaw worked once or twice.
In the study he locked the door and poured himself a brandy he didn't drink.
Lysandra stayed by the fire.
She had spent the whole afternoon being magnificent, and now she was tired and aching for him and had no idea why he looked the way he looked.
"You were wonderful today," she said at last.
"Yes."
"You don't sound pleased."
"I'm very pleased," he said.
He set the glass down on the desk, harder than he meant to.
"I keep thinking of her handwriting," he said.
"Whose?"
"Yours. The first one's." He did not turn. "She signed in that same scrawl."
"What paper?"
"The petition."
Lysandra went still.
"I told you what I'd do at the Court," Alaric said to the window. "I didn't tell you what she did."
"You said she signed."
"I said she signed."
He turned around, and his face was the plainest she had ever seen it.
"I put it in front of her in the hall. I had a pen. I thought she would scream, throw it, throw the wine. I was ready for that. I was very nearly hoping for it."
"And?" Lysandra said.
"She read my name at the top. She took the pen out of my hand."
His voice stayed level.
"She signed without looking up, Lysandra. She looked at me and she smiled, and she handed back the pen."
Lysandra's throat closed.
"Eleven months, and that was what I was worth. A signature and a smile."
"That wasn't me," Lysandra said.
"I know."
"That wasn't me, Alaric."
"I know that. I have known it for two weeks." His fist closed on the edge of the desk. "But I look at you and it's the same mouth."
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