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He exhaled on a long breath and leaned back against the seat, wishing she were next to hiain He’d liked that, the tiainst his, as she’d read her excruciating book on stones "I don’t wish to see him"

"Was he very cruel?"

He did not answer, and she eventually added, "I apologize I should not have asked such a thing"

Silence fell once more, and he reached down to the basket he’d placed on the floor of the carriage when they’d stopped to change the horses Opening it, he extracted a bottle of wine, bread, and cheese He tore her a piece of bread and offered it with some of the cheese She took it with a quiet "Thank you"

The Duke of Lyne had been as good a father as an aristocrat could be Where other fathers had spent their ti their fa’s had prioritized the country estate and his ti

"He was not cruel Not with me"

"Then why--?" She stopped, clearly aware that she trod a strange, fine line

King drank deep of the wine, willing it to stay the memories she awakened "How is your shoulder?"

"Tolerably sore," she said before taking a deep breath and diving in "Why don’t you wish to see him?"

He should have known she wouldn’t be able to stop herself "You’re like a dog with a bone"

"You’re calling ain?"

He smiled, but with little humor "Cruelty is not the only way fathers ruin their sons Expectations can do the sae"

"What did yours expect?"

"For me to marry well"

She cut hi for a father to desire" When he did not reply, she continued, "Why not marry one of the women you’ve ruined?"

None of them had wanted to marry him, but he didn’t tell her that Instead, he told her the truth "I’ll never marry"

"You’re a man with a title Isn’t that your only purpose?"

He cut her a look "Is that omen think?"

She smiled, small and clever "Isn’t that what men think of women?"

"It’s not my purpose Despite eneration to generation of pure, unadulterated aristocracy Every Duchess of Lyne has been perfectly bred to be just that, a duchess Blue blood, pristine manners, and beauty beyond the pale"

"I’ve never heard anything about your mother," she said "Not even e lived in Mossband"

He looked out theat that, taking in the sky, streaking pink and red in the west, heralding the night "That’s because she died in childbirth It killed my father"

"Did he love her very hed "No He was upset because it ain," she said

"I suppose he could have"

"But he didn’t Perhaps he did love her"

Memories overtook him "No Duke of Lyne has everIt’s e’re bred to want"

"And you? What do you want?"

No one had ever asked hiht on it Since it had been possible And then it hadn’t been possible any longer, because of his father’s arrogance and his own recklessness