The Wicked Duke Read Online Free

that most of the time Nora’s vision turned inward, at thoughts and ideas she never shared. Perhaps that was not true either, though. Maybe her cousin’s mind remained blank most of the time, just the way her expression did.
    She had not always been thus. Once vibrant and bright, she had emerged from a bad illness when she was fifteen in this altered state. The fever had done it to her, the physician explained. Or perhaps on that day that she took ill after being out in a storm, she had been hit by lightning. Or fallen from the horse. Whatever the cause, her brain had been affected. Nothing else could explain the change in her.
    Marianne walked around the little chamber. PuttingNora here was an insult. It was as if Uncle Horace sought to punish his daughter for that which she could not affect. Forcing them all to come back here had been selfish and cruel too. He had not cared at all when Marianne explained she did not think it wise for Nora to move from the cottage in Wiltshire.
    She stood beside Nora and stroked her fair hair. “I will tell your father that this chamber will not do. I am sure an error was made.”
    â€œI like it here. It is a comforting size. I do not want my old chamber. I will not be happy there.”
    Thus could Nora speak most clearly and express logical thoughts. If, when she did so, her eyes did not remain opaque, one might never know she was damaged. One might also never guess that sometimes Nora could inexplicably become very emotional. Dangerously so.
    Those fits had ceased while she lived in the cottage. However, as they rolled toward this house through the neighboring countryside yesterday, one had emerged. It had taken Marianne a half hour to calm her cousin, and she had ordered the coachman to delay their arrival until she could.
    â€œI will move up here with you, then,” she said. “It will be like it was in the cottage. The two of us sharing a chamber.”
    Nora shook her head, her blank gaze still fixed on the grounds below. “I do not want you here. I do not want anyone here. There is one window and one door, and it is small and simple. I like it. I feel safe here.”
    I can hide here. I can be forgotten here. I shall never leave and can go quietly mad without interference here
.
    â€œMama and I are going to tour the garden so she can make a list of chores for the gardeners. Come with us,” Marianne urged.
    Nora shook her head.
    â€œI will see you at dinner, then.” She pressed a kiss to Nora’s crown.
    Again Nora shook her head.
    Marianne began walking to the door.
    â€œHe thinks to marry me off. That is why he wants me to have a new wardrobe,” Nora said.
    Marianne halted and faced her. “I am sure you are wrong.”
    â€œHe said things just now about making myself look pretty. I know what he is planning and thinking.” She turned her head and gazed into Marianne’s eyes. “I won’t do it. I will kill myself first.”
    Marianne wished she could treat that threat lightly. Instead it caused a bolt of terror to pierce her heart. “Do not say such things. Think of how I would mourn.”
    Nora’s gaze returned to the window. “I do. But for that, I would have done it already.”
    *   *   *
    M arianne closed the door to the library after she entered. Her uncle paced near the fireplace, pretending to read the titles on the books’ spines.
    They were actually her father’s books, carefully chosenand bound over a lifetime. Horace had inherited them along with everything else her father had owned. Because the inheritance was entailed, the premature death of her brother during the war had ensured it would all go to her father’s brother instead of her father’s son.
    Horace pivoted when he heard her step. Nora had calmed better than he had. His color still high, he gestured her to a settee. Before he sat on the chair nearby, he walked over to a decanter and poured