Free Never Desire a Duke (One Scandalous Season) by Lily Dalton

idiom by my way of thinking. Perhaps I was naïve when we married, but I’m not anymore.” Her voice softened. “Besides, none of that really matters. The rumors, those women—”
    “They don’t?” he inquired hoarsely.
    “No.” Perhaps it ought to make her feel good and satisfied to see him so discomposed by her words, but it didn’t. She examined his face, feeling too old and too wise for her years. “What matters most is that when I needed you to be my husband, to tell me everything would be all right—”
    “Yes, I know—” His blue eyes, in that moment, became black and empty. “The baby. It’s just that—”
    “You left me and went on to live your life without me. As if the baby and I meant nothing at all to you.”
    Claxton opened his mouth as if to speak.
    Sophia stood from the settee. Leaving her cap there, with its shining ribbons trailing onto the floor, she walked the edge of the carpet. “I don’t think I can ever forgive you for that. What a strange and terrible thing to say, being that it’s almost Christmas, but it’s the truth. It’s wedged here, like a piece of broken glass in my heart, and I don’t think the hurt will ever go away.”
    He moved toward her. “Sophia—”
    “Please.” She stepped back, shaking her head. “I’m not finished.”
    Now that she’d gone this far, she felt strong enough to say the rest. He’d left her no choice.
    “While you were away, I passed a lot of my time alone, thinking.” She straightened her shoulders to signify her resolve. “It is why I came here tonight. After seeing you, I knew I needed to make a decision, and everyone would have such different opinions, you see. My mother. My sisters. Grandfather. I needed to ruminate, to be alone and make my own decision, without being pulled in different directions.”
    His face hardened into stone, but at least, thankfully, he remained silent and allowed her to speak.
    “And then I found you here with Lady Meltenbourne, who had already quite humiliated me tonight in front of all my family and friends, asking everyone your whereabouts. At my grandfather’s party, no less.” She shrugged. “Even if she is not your lover, I don’t believe I’ll ever get the image out of my head. I’m not that sort of wife.”
    Claxton did not say anything. He only stood there, his eyes burning like cinders.
    “It would only be a matter of time until there was a similar misunderstanding or difficulty to drive us apart. As things stand, I don’t see that there is any way to return to the way things were before. I know what I am about to say may shock you, but I can think of no other solution.”
    His gaze lost its heat to be replaced with an icy gleam.
    Her heart pounded so that she could barely catch her breath. He only stared at her, making each word a challenge to speak.
    “If you care about me at all, Claxton, one little bit, I want…well, I want a separation.”
    *  *  *
    At hearing the words from Sophia’s lips, the earth opened up and he fell through into a burning crevice of hell, a place he remembered well. Somehow, amid the flames, he heard it—his own quick inhalation of breath sharply audible in the silence.
    “No.”
    It was all he could think. No. Goddamn it, no.
    “I thought you might say that,” she replied quietly, looking down at her hands. “But you see, I have something to offer in exchange for your agreement.”
    “Don’t, Sophia—” He knew with a dark and sudden certainty what she would say. What she would offer to gain his compliance.
    “A child.”
    He closed his eyes. “Damn you.”
    She cleared her throat. “In exchange for—a child—you will grant me a separation.”
    For a long moment, he seethed in silence.
    “A boy?” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “An heir?”
    Her lashes lowered against her cheeks, something he’d always found painfully alluring. “A child,” she said firmly. “Whatever its sex may be.”
    He’d never felt an obligation to