Free The Rusticated Duchess by Elle Q. Sabine Page B

obligation, as it were. She had no desire to seek out more. Nevertheless, she was still pondering that conversation when she went to leave the house and found herself followed by two very determined ex-soldiers, both grim-faced. Her gaze went from a belligerent Colman to Brody, who was as stubborn as Gloria herself. She shrugged and pointed out, “One of you must stay with Eynon. It is not a choice. Those are your orders from Lennox.”
    “We should keep you inside,” Brody said, crossing his arms over his chest.
    Gloria raised her fine brows and lifted her chin, but was hardly going to back down. “You are not my keeper, Brody Jenson,” she stated clearly and frowned down Colman as well. “Nor are you. The pair of you were ordered to defend me if necessary—not to confine me.”
    The two men looked at each other and Colman sighed. “I will be staying with his lordship then, my lady,” he announced. “This time.”
    “And you will stay back. Out of hearing range.”
    Brody frowned but kept to her side as they left the front door and stepped out of the gate. He waited as the gate closed and grunted when she turned towards Killard Castle. “You can’t,” Gloria told him peevishly. “Keep to my side. Stay at least ten paces behind me.”
    “And what would I tell wee Lord Eynon, then, when he asks about his mother in a few years? ‘Aye, my lad, I knew your ma. I was watchin’ her when she was snatched up by a deceitful blackguard of a man’.” Brody’s voice was tired, but reached her clearly as he subsided to a mutter. “We just want to keep you safe.”
    Gloria knew his intentions were honest, as well as in line with Lennox’s orders regarding her, but she was almost ready to believe Clare was not the enemy. In fact, she was very much tempted to tell Brody to head home as soon as Clare stepped from the shadows of the castle walls, though she knew Brody would never agree. With the admission between them that they shared a sire, even though he refused to name the man for some reason, and Clare’s unexpected entrance into their existence, Brody appeared on the verge of an explosion in temper.
    Gloria did not have to like his actions or words, and in another situation Gloria would have found a way around his stubbornness with no more than a blink of the eye. But she was not in another situation. Her current life did not permit for dismissing or contravening her own staff or that of her father-in-law’s, however justified by their insubordination.
    She heaved a great breath, straightened her already stiff back, and marched on.
     
    Clare hung against the wall and watched the woman who had been Lady Gloria de Rothesay pace around the curve in the road. The servant with her was not the bulky overgrown soldier who had accompanied her the previous two days. Instead, she was closely followed by the one who’d been in the parlour with Clare as he’d waited—the one whose eyes matched Gloria’s orbs in hue and shape. Clare paused and watched. Neither spoke, but Gloria did not seem disturbed by the close company of her companion, who trailed her much more closely than the usual guard.
    Clare would have wagered money in that moment that her companion was not a mere footman either.
    Indeed, he saw Clare before Gloria did, and openly glowered.
    Gloria’s beaming smile—quickly subdued under the glare of her guard—more than compensated for the lack of encouragement by her attendant. Confident now of his welcome, Clare presented his arm, delighted when she took it and smiled up at him. “So courteous of you to walk with me again today, my lord,” she murmured, so low he could barely hear her words.
    “The companionship is entirely my pleasure.” He gestured along the road. “Perhaps if you’d like to continue, we could stroll in the Castle gardens, hibernating as they are, before heading back to your cosy, warm parlour.”
    Gloria’s eyes lit with pleasure. “A proper garden?” she clarified, not even