The Duke's Bed Warmer-Chapter 30: The Scar and Future

The next day, when Alina entered the library, she saw Lord Ashby already there, completely engrossed in a book. He looked up when she entered and smiled.

"Alina. Come, come... I’ve found something you’ll want to see."

She walked to his chair and looked at the book he was holding. It was an old book on the history of the northern territories.

"Page one hundred and twelve," he said, tapping the margin. "The author argues that the eastern pass was actually the primary route for wool exports before the unification, which contradicts everything we knew about..."

She sat across from him and let him talk. He spoke about trade routes, the wool merchants, and maps that had been drawn and redrawn over centuries. She listened, nodded and asked questions that made him smile, as though he had finally found someone who understood the joy of such things.

They had been talking for nearly an hour when he suddenly clicked his tongue and looked outside the window.

"There used to be a garden there," he said.

She followed his gaze. The garden was still there.

"There is a garden there."

He shook his head.

"No. Another one. More beautiful."

Alina didn’t know about that.

"What happened to it?"

"The fire."

She did not ask about it immediately. She waited. Lord Ashby was the kind of person who only spoke when he wanted to, pushing him would only make him retreat further into his books.

"Five years ago," he said. "In the east wing... in the middle of the night, there was a fire. Everyone was asleep. The fire started in the old chapel. No one ever figured out how. By the time anyone smelled the smoke, it was too late."

Alina remembered how Austin’s steward had told her on her first day in the castle that the east wing was off limits.

"His Grace’s sister, Cecily," Lord Ashby continued. "She was seventeen and he was just twenty-one. He ran into the fire to find her and found her trapped in her room, the ceiling already collapsing. He carried her out himself through the flames." He exhaled..

"But she didn’t survive. She was gone before they even reached the courtyard." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Alina’s mind drifted to the scar on Austin’s shoulder.

"Was he also injured?"

Lord Ashby nodded.

"He was in the infirmary for two months. The physicians thought he might lose the arm because of the severe burns. But fortunately, it was healed." He leaned back in his chair.

"He never spoke of her again and sealed the east wing afterwards. Boarded it up, posted guards, and told everyone it was unsafe. But it wasn’t the building he sealed.... he sealed himself."

He took a deep breath.

"Before the fire, he was... different. He laughed. He played chess with his sister every Thursday and let her win, even though he was better. He might have been a different kind of duke... if not for that accident."

Alina sat there long after he stopped speaking, the book forgotten. She thought about the boy who had lost his parents too early, when he needed them the most, had to carry the title of the duke before he was ready and then failing to save his only family.

No wonder he built walls no one could cross.

By the time she left the library, the light was already fading. Lord Ashby had dozed off in his chair. She covered him with a blanket that a servant always left on his chair before stepping outside.

On her way back towards her room, she passed Audrey’s drawing room. The door was cracked open, just enough for light to spill into the corridor and for voices to carry. She would have walked past but then she heard her name.

"...for a suitable match for Alina." It was Audrey’s voice. "Since the wedding will be soon, we don’t have much time. I don’t want to burden Austin with more responsibilities than he already has."

Alina stopped. Lady Pemberton laughed while others murmured in agreement.

"Are you sure His Grace wants to marry her off?" Lady Talbot asked.

The silence that followed was immediate.

"Want to marry her off?" Lady Pemberton chuckled. "Why wouldn’t he? She is a bed warmer. That’s what happens to them. They get married off or..." She let the sentence hang.

"Her Highness is doing her a favour," Lady Hargrove added. "By finding a suitable match for her herself when no respectable man would willingly take such a woman as a wife."

Everyone agreed. Alina stood in the corridor, her hand pressed on the wall, and listened to the women discussing her future like a problem to be solved and quietly put away.

"Still...it’s for the duke to decide," Lady Talbot said again.

"I understand you care for her," Audrey replied. "We all do. But the reality doesn’t change. Once Austin and I are married, she will have to marry someone else. That is how it has always been. There’s no reason for it to be otherwise."

"But she is not like the others," Lady Talbot said sharply. "We have all seen it. The way he treats her..."

"What are you implying?" Audrey’s voice had lost its warmth now.

Lady Talbot did not back down.

"There are usually two possibilities for women in her position. They marry or they stay." She paused. "What if he doesn’t let her go? Even after you marry?"

The silence this time was different. It was heavy and dangerous. Audrey laughed.

"You’re saying he’ll keep her as his mistress?" She made it sound like a joke. "Is that supposed to be an upgrade from a bed warmer? Or is it a degradation?"

Everyone laughed at the idea of a bed warmer becoming a mistress, at the absurdity of a duke choosing a woman he had bought over a princess he had known his whole life.

"That isn’t for us to decide." Lady Talbot said. "It’s the duke who will decide what happens to his bed warmer." She paused. "And if you’re so sure of his intentions, Her Highness, why rush to find Alina a husband before he announces his decision?"

The silence stretched. Alina could not see their faces, but she could imagine them.

Thank you, Lady Talbot.

"I think you have said enough," Audrey said.

"Have I?" Lady Talbot smiled. "I’m only asking what everyone here is already thinking."

Everyone looked at Lady Talbot as if she had committed a grave sin but she remained unbothered, calmly sipping her tea.

She knew that even Audrey couldn’t do anything to her. This was Ravenmoor. And what would she say to Austin?? That Lady Talbot had defended his bed warmer when she had encouraged the others to make fun of her in her absence.

"We’re all very tired," Audrey said. Perhaps...it’s time to end this."

Alina pushed herself away from the wall and walked as quickly as she could down the corridor, not stopping until she reached her room. She closed the door and leaned against it.

Does Austin know that his fiancée is looking for a husband for her? Or maybe...he does and this is what he wants too.