After ensuring the horse was settled, he made his way back to the manor. As he entered, he found Lucien waiting for him in the foyer, arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
"We need to talk," Lucien said, his tone clipped.
Alex raised an eyebrow but didn't respond, waiting for Lucien to continue.
"What's your angle here?" Lucien demanded. "You show up out of nowhere, attach yourself to my sister, and now you're acting like her personal knight. Why?"
Alex stood his ground, his expression a mixture of exasperation and amusement as he stared down Lucien.
Alex raised an eyebrow, his lips curling into a faint smirk. "Well, someone has to," he replied, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
Lucien's eyes narrowed, his pride stung by the younger man's flippant attitude. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Alex let out a long, tired sigh, running a hand through his dishevelled hair. "It means," he began, his voice steady but laced with irritation, "I don't know why you hate her so much, but she's done nothing recently to deserve your constant antagonism. So maybe, just maybe, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
Lucien's mouth opened, ready to retort, but Alex had already turned on his heel and walked away, leaving him standing there in stunned silence.
As Alex made his way down the hall, his thoughts churned. He hadn't intended to start a confrontation with Lucien, but the man's treatment of Selena was impossible to ignore. Alex had seen enough noble families to know that power dynamics within them could be fraught, but Lucien's disdain for his sister felt personal.
Reaching the front door, Alex stepped outside and inhaled deeply. The crisp evening air cooled the heat of his frustration, and he allowed himself a moment to regain his composure. He wandered toward the garden, the crunch of gravel underfoot a soothing rhythm as he reflected on the situation.
Selena.
Her resilience impressed him, though he could see the cracks beneath her composed exterior. It wasn't hard to imagine why a noblewoman would seek the aid of an outsider like him.
From what he had observed, her family's support was half-hearted at best. Her mother seemed kind enough, but her influence within the household was clearly limited.
The Duchess's attempts to help her daughter were subtle. She would never try to take away from her son, the Duke's authority.
And then there was Lucien.
Alex couldn't understand the man's animosity toward Selena. She was his sister, yet he treated her with an almost cold detachment as if her very existence was an inconvenience to him.
Alex had seen the way Lucien's eyes darkened when he looked at her, the way his words were laced with a biting edge whenever they spoke.
Shaking his head, Alex leaned against the garden wall, his gaze drifting toward the horizon. He wasn't sure why he cared so much. He had taken on this role to serve his own purposes, but somewhere along the line, he had started to genuinely care about Selena.
"Damn it," he muttered to himself, rubbing the back of his neck.
Inside the manor, Lucien remained rooted in place, Alex's words echoing in his mind.
"I don't know why you hate her so much..."
The accusation stung more than he wanted to admit. Did he hate Selena? No, that wasn't the right word. Frustration, perhaps. Resentment, even. But hate?
Was he capable of hating her... He didn't think so. She was his sister after all... But she changed... After that incident, she changed. She hated him, she hated everyone. The only person she clung to was Nicholas. She practically begged for the engagement.
He too clung to the memories of her before the incident. But now... It was true, she hadn't caused him too much trouble.
Lucien frowned, his jaw tightening as he turned and made his way to his study. Once inside, he closed the door behind him and sat down heavily at his desk.
The familiar surroundings—the bookshelves lined with tomes, the neatly stacked papers, the faint scent of ink and wax—offered a semblance of comfort.
He leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling as his thoughts drifted.
Selena had always been a source of trouble, her impulsive behaviour and sharp tongue drawing the ire of both her family and society at large.
She had embarrassed them on more than one occasion, her scandals threatening to tarnish the Whitlock name. Lucien had taken it upon himself to rein her in, to maintain order and uphold their family's reputation.
Lucien sighed, rubbing his temples. He didn't know why this realisation unsettled him so much. Perhaps it was because it forced him to confront his own behaviour, to question whether he had been too harsh on her over the years.
And then there was Alex.
The man's sudden appearance in Selena's life had thrown Lucien off balance. He didn't trust him, not entirely. Alex was a stranger, his motives were unclear, his background murky. Yet there was no denying the way he had defended Selena, the way he seemed genuinely invested in her well-being.
Lucien leaned front putting his hands on his desk, exhaling deeply as his thoughts wandered to Selena's engagement—or rather, the end of it. To him, the match with Nicholas Hawthorne had always been a source of trouble, the cause of his sister's sudden change in behaviour.
The way Selena had once idolized Nicholas, going to absurd lengths to please him. She had schemed and plotted, throwing grand parties and designing intricate plans to win his favour.
Each attempt, however, had ended in disaster, leaving her humiliated and heartbroken. Lucien had watched from the sidelines. She made it clear from the moment he opposed their engagement that she hated him.
He couldn't interfere, at first, he was scared that she would push him away more. But eventually, he stopped caring about her, whatever humiliation she went through, it was her own doing...
But now...