The Lord and his Lady (Forbidden #2)

Chapter Thirty Three

"Your plan of inviting Miss Cavendish has worked out in her favour after all!" 

"Well, I am glad that it ended the way it did. Now there could be a possibility for their own fairytale."

Lord Caldwell shook his head with a sigh. "Fairytales are not real, Miss Price."

"They could be if one wishes it to be."

"How so?"

"Had you anticipated these events to transpire a week ago?" At his reigning silence, she continued. "We cannot predict how life is to go though we hope and wish for it to travel a certain way. If we are able to, we must hold control and lead it down that path. That is the fairytale of it."

That was what she was doing; taking control of her own life for once without being an animal to the masters that she was trained so civilly to obey. She had managed to will the determination and tasted freedom that Luciana had sparked within her, the escape that her Mama had planned with her since she was a child but never happened—this was her fairytale. One she had never dreamt of being a part of, one that may not last for very long, but one that she would ever be grateful for.

"Well," said Lord Caldwell finally, the tenor a little rougher than she had ever heard it, "I suppose I owe Miss Cavendish a hearty congratulations. Her determination may very well lead her to her...fairytale, as you put it."

"I think Miss Cavendish and Lord Weston, if he gives her a chance, would be a great match."

"A great match indeed; he was not quick to throw her out this time. Perhaps she might be the one to tame the beast."

The day had taken longer than most, but she knew she had duties to tend to upon heading back.

But sliding the drawing room open, the scene before her had not been one she anticipated. Nor, from the groan of disgust that left the man beside her, did Lord Caldwell.

The Duchess and the Duke sprang apart, their lips unlocking from the other. The former didn't meet their eyes, smoothing back her hair that had come slightly undone.

Belinha opened and closed her mouth like a fish as her gaze flitted from the now-shy Duchess to the twitching Duke. They looked almost like two school kids caught when they should not have been. It was endearing, to say the least, but the expression on Lord Caldwell's face expressed the opposite.

"We did not expect you back so early," stated the Duke, not able to look at his son directly. He rolled his shoulders back to give an air of superiority that came so naturally to him, but now, it was done to get them to leave.

"We have been gone for half the day, father," deadpanned Lord Caldwell. "Could you not have retired to your chambers to impart in such a deed rather than risk imprinting an image in our minds that we would rather not have?"

"Richard," hissed the Duchess, reddening by the moment. "It just happened." The embarrassment hung in the air. It was now apparent to Belinha that Lord Caldwell was only teasing; he cleared his throat, tempering his smile.

"Why have you stopped? Continue, please, do not stop on our account. Shall we retire and let this elderly couple do what their heart desires, Miss Price?"

"Richard!"

Belinha rolled in her lips, curtseying and hurrying away before she nearly laughed out loud. Before they could fully leave, however, the light pattering of footsteps that belonged to the Duchess raced to them and blocked their path.

"Seriously, though, where have you two been?" demanded the Duchess, hands on her hips. She is more of a stern mother than an employer, thought Belinha with a suppressed giggle. "Do you know how worried we were?"