Awakening Love: Reborn to Be His Duchess novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: The Seal

Linnet's POV

The duke rode out to the magistrate's at noon, and I went into his study.

I told myself I wanted a pen.

I wanted proof.

I had slept three hours, and every one of them I had dreamed of his mouth, and then of the east wing, and then of his mouth again, and I woke with my own two lives pulling in opposite directions.

I had kissed the man who would hang my father.

I could not do it twice.

The study was plain and tidy, with a wolf's head carved over the fireplace.

His desk was oak, and the top drawer was not locked.

I stood and looked at that for a while.

Then I pulled it open.

On top lay a small block of grey plaster, split in two and tied with twine.

I untied it.

Inside, in one hollow, was the wolf in a circle that I had hated for twenty-one months and two lives.

I pressed my thumb to it.

It was a mould.

Somebody had taken a copy of the duke's seal.

I stood there with the plaster in my hand and my heart going very hard.

Under it lay a letter, folded and sealed in dark red wax.

On the outside, in a round, wide hand that I knew as well as my own, was one line.

"For Linnet."

I sat down in the duke's chair.

I did not trust my legs.

The seal was my father's, a plain ring with an oak leaf, and the wax was cracked at the edge where a thumb had pressed it again and again.

It was the letter from the ball.

It had been meant for me the whole time.

I broke it open.

"Linnet, my dear.

If you are reading this, then Alaric Stannard did not give it to you, and that is as I asked, so do not be angry with him.

← Chapter 9 · All chapters · Chapter 11 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend