It had been three days since Julia Fairly's secrets had been exposed to Rhys and Grace, the thought of how their beloved cousin was so greatly wronged still pulled at Wendy's heart. She thought back to the moment after they had all dined that night, adjourning to their main sitting room she sat with a book laying open in her lap, Grace and Ian sat next to each other at the table looking over a newspaper and Rhys had stood by the fireplace staring deeply into the flickering flames that seemed to licked out at him.
Grace sat back with a sigh "No matter how I try to get it out of my mind I cannot help but to think of Robert right now." She turned to Rhys who stared back at her "I may have been little but even I remember how happy he was when he married her, how he boasted of their true love. I'm almost thankful that he never learned of her deception, at least he got to die thinking she loved him too."
Grace's words hung in the air for a moment until Wendy's thoughts bubbled out of her before she could stop them "I fear he knew." All eyes turned to her and her face instantly flared with embarrassment at the lack of guarding her words. What was wrong with her? did she truly feel so comfortable with these people that she spoke her thoughts more freely than she ever had in her life before. "I beg you to forgive me, I should not have spoken so freely now." Wendy wished that the ground would swallow her, they probably thought she was a foolish, simple-minded girl.
"What is it that makes you say that?' Rhys asked and she snapped her head up to stare at him, she thought he might be angry at her for disagreeing with his sister's comforting thought but she saw in his eyes that he might have been thinking the same thing and wanted to know genuinely why she thought that too.
"Love is..." Wendy paused to swallow hard, the words suddenly choking her. She looked away, she could not speak of love and look into his eyes as well, she would not torture herself like that "Real love that is, once it is felt, you know when it's not the real thing. It matters little what capacity you felt it in, the love of a parent, of a sibling, of a child, of a friend, but especially the love between a man and a woman. It is...all consuming, the desire to give that person all of yourself, to do whatever you can to prove your love, to care for them, to protect them, to fight their battles when they cannot or to simply stand by their side when they can. Once you have felt real and honest love, anything else will ring false inside of you. I imagine that your cousin knew she did not truly love him, though perhaps he thought he could love her enough to make up for it."
Gathering courage she did not know she possessed, Wendy turned and met her husband's eyes again, she almost gasped aloud at the fire that was burning inside of them, the same kind of fire she saw the night they had been together. His jaw was clenched, his black hair was ruffled from running his fingers through it, his normally pristine clothes gave off a relaxed look with an open collar and rolled up sleeves, proof enough that he was comfortable with everyone in his presence at the moment. Her chest felt like it was on fire, how could he stare at her with so much heat, how could such a powerful and handsome man be interested in someone like her.
"I had no idea you were so poetic, Wendy!" Grace said and smiled sweetly at her "I wish we had, had the chance to speak more often before your marriage to my brother, I have a thought that you have many interesting ideas and conversations built up inside of you!" Grace was practically glowing at the idea of how well suited Wendy was for her brother, she should have forced an introduction between the two of them much sooner, maybe she would have a cute little nephew or niece by now if she had. She pouted at the idea but shrugged her shoulders, it all worked out in the end and she hadn't even had to go through the trouble of convincing her brother.
Wendy shot to her feet, she shouldn't get too comfortable, she had been working hard to ensure that Rhys would never see that she was not what a Duchess should be, she had hoped all of her hard work would make up for her lack of beauty and elegance. If she continued to open her mouth though, eventually something stupid that would embarrass Rhys would come tumbling out. "I think I'm going to retire for the evening, if you would all excuse me." Wendy tucked the book she had been reading close to her chest and after a curtsy to Grace and her husband she made a quick exit.
As Wendy left the room everyone was quiet for a moment, Rhys stared where his beautiful wife had just been sitting, the longing he had heard in her voice as she spoke of real love, the pain he had heard when she explained the feeling of an untrue love, was she speaking of her family? had Wendy been in love before? The thought instantly sent pangs of jealousy through him, he loathed the idea that she was ever anyone else's love. She was his, she should have only ever been his, is his now, and will always be his. His blood heated again at the thought that she might love him, he remembered calling Robert a fool for falling in love, though his own parents had set a good example to healthy love, Rhys had taken one look around his first ball, seen the scheming mamas and the desperate ladies and decided then and there that love wasn't for him. He was sure now that if he had seen Wendy his opinion on the matter would have been easily swayed.
"I hope you're not messing this up, Rhys." Grace said as she watched her brother's face shield anyone from the thoughts that he was playing out in his mind, only his steel grey eyes were hinting at his emotions "She's everything I could have ever wanted for you, but I'm not seeing much of an interaction between you two. Why didn't you offer to walk her to bed?" Grace wiggled her eyebrows and Ian choked on a laugh that was cut short with a glare from Rhys. Grace was the only being on this earth that could pull such reactions from Ian Baxter.
"I am trying, Gracie." Rhys sighed as he sat down in the chair Wendy had vacated "But she seems rather listless lately and I am unsure as to what I am doing wrong." He ran a hand down his face and Grace suddenly felt sorry for teasing her brother.
"Why don't you invite her family here?" She suggested and laughed at the disgusted face he made "I know her parents are rather...hard to get along with" she said after a moment of struggling to find the words to describe them "But I know she has always been close with her sisters, she practically raised them as you did with me, I can only imagine how she must be missing them, longing to see them. Letters will only suffice for a familial connection for so long a time."
Rhys thought about it, he had already had the idea before to invite her family here but he admitted to himself he had been putting it off for how much he detested her parents, he wished he could only invite her sisters but knew that her parents would likely show up with them anyway, they were greedy and would not be likely to pass on the opportunity to leech off of his Dukedom. "I suppose you are right," he sighed in resignation "I shall pen a letter to her father first thing in the morning."