Page 36 of Project Duke

Nathaniel saw the man’s eyes rolling back as he shook his head, swaying, struggling to stay on his feet. But Nathaniel needed the money. He needed this victory. Something to give him hope.

Stretching his other arm all the way back, he hit the Scot in the cheekbone, the impact reverberating in his bone marrow. The man crashed like a felled tree, sending tremors through the floor.

* * *

Nathaniel woke up the next morning in his own bed. He hadn’t removed his clothes last night, nor had he wanted to bother Joshua to prepare his bath, so he stank quite badly after the sweaty match.

He was already quite late, he knew, glancing at his pocket watch as he stood next to his bed in the bright daylight pouring from the bare windows. The bed he should have awoken in with Calliope. The bed where he should have brought her her first breakfast as his duchess.

The duchess of the poorest duke in England.

He needed to take that bath now, actually. He’d just go down to find Joshua. Then, once he was clean and properly dressed, he’d go to the Admiralty and speak to Bartholomew. He walked out of his room, brushing his tangled hair over his aching head.

As he approached the dining room, he could hear the chatter of his sisters and the clanking of cutlery against plates. “…here you go,” he heard Calliope’s voice. “You work so hard, I think it’s fair to give you a raise.”

He turned the corner and saw Calliope giving banknotes to Mrs. Nicholson and Joshua, both of whom eyed her with such adoration Calliope may as well be a goddess.

Rage hit Nathaniel through his whole body like churning butter. “What are you doing?”

They all glanced at him, and silence fell over the room.

Calliope, however, turned to him with her gorgeous face calm and her chin up, her long neck perfectly straight. Her eyes slowly glanced over him, and one eyebrow cocked as her mouth curved downwards.

“Good morning, husband,” she said. “I see you just came home from…wherever you’ve been.”

He could just see himself from her eyes. He’d walked out of their wedding night and spent it somewhere else. His hair was disheveled, his clothes untidy and crumpled, his face unshaven…and that reek of sweat and vanilla and brandy. He could smell it on himself, and he was disgusted.

“You did not answer my question,” he said. “Mrs. Nicholson, Joshua, what is that?”

“Forgive me, Your Grace,” said Mrs. Nicholson with no trace of regret in her voice. “These are our wages that were owed to us for the past three months.”

Damnation! The guilt and rage mixing within him were as dangerous as gunpowder. “I am sorry for that, Mrs. Nicholson and Joshua.” He went into the pocket of his coat and retrieved the crumpled pounds. “Here. I am perfectly capable of paying my own staff, Calliope. Please, return my wife the wages and take these.”

He shoved the money into Mrs. Nicholson’s and Joshua’s hands.

“This is too much, Your Grace,” said Joshua.

Calliope’s face was hard on him. His sisters gaped at him. Heavens, he must be quite a sight.

“Nonsense. Joshua, please prepare a bath for me right away.”

“Very good, Your Grace.”

But a bath would take at least an hour to prepare. Could he wait that long?

“Actually, no,” he said. “No. Go and saddle Hermes. I’m riding right out.”

Joshua carefully looked him over. “Perhaps you would prefer a sponge bath, Your Grace? It won’t take long—the water is already hot for the tea.”

“Hermes, please.” He stared into Calliope’s gorgeous eyes that blazed at him with anger. “A bath can wait. My wife has assigned me an urgent task that cannot.”

The young lad retrieved Calliope’s money and gently placed the notes on the dining table. Mrs. Nicholson did the same. Then they both left the room with their thanks.

Calliope’s blue gaze turned as dark as the ocean during a storm. “That is right, it cannot wait. Especially given that my husband gave me an oath of fidelity.”

Her voice trembled and staggered on the last word.

Nathaniel cursed under his breath and glanced at his sisters, who watched them both, disappointment in him apparent in their eyes.