My Disfigured Duke Husband Helps Me Plot My Revenge
Chapter 131: A Promise

Chapter 131: A Promise

The most beautiful part of telling the truth was not having to remember one’s lies. To have the truth was to have freedom.

Leonor couldn’t keep track of her lies and she certainly didn’t feel free. She began loving someone and it was the most hurt she had ever been, realizing she had to turn against one to choose the other.

She did not want to stop loving Valerio but he was becoming more of a concept than a palpable person. On the other hand, the duke was very real and he was within her grasp.

To finally acknowledge her love for him felt like following the light at the end of a tunnel. Except following that light meant she had to leave behind the dying body of someone she did love too.

How her heart chose two people was unfair, but to keep getting close to the duke and never acknowledge the possibility of feelings wasn’t fair to her heart either. It wasn’t fair to the duke’s heart if he felt the same for her as well.

When it was time to say goodbye to Stephano, Leonor decided to pull herself together for just a few moments. He was the only one who knew her heart and the only one who held onto her while she cried.

To call him a dear friend was an understatement. She had gotten too used to having him by her side for an entire month.

Desmond joined her on the steps of their expansive home as Stephano offered a hand to Desmond and then a gentle hug to Leonor.

"Please, take care," Stephano said to Leonor. "Come to the capital soon. It will be a long time before I can escape again."

There was a light "ahem" by one of his advisors and he glanced at them with narrowed eyes.

"Before I can responsibly plan a vacation and wander to Montclair with an annoying entourage of people just because I was cursed with being my father’s heir," he corrected himself snidely.

It was enough that his sarcastic words caused Leonor to smile.

"Goodbye, Your Majesty," she said. "Please write me as much as you write my husband."

His agreement was enough before he was to mount his horse and return with the entourage who came to retrieve him. The days of mischievousness and laziness were behind him. It was time to retake the capital and push his influence further.

Until the last man of the king was out of their gates, Leonor stood there with her arms crossed and an indecipherable expression.

"I will go inside first," she said to the duke, bowing her head so she didn’t have to see anything else.

He seemed to want to say something but she couldn’t bring herself to listen. She was fragile, with her heart in her throat. She feared having to feel anything more.

Once back in her room, Leonor wandered before she decided to try reading again. She didn’t want to read romance but history about the duchy might help invigorate some pride and inspiration within her.

Flimsiness was not a feeling she was used to. Even if she was scared, she could summon strength.

The situation gave her room for nothing else except for the sickness of betraying someone she genuinely loved.

For only a couple of short hours, Leonor’s focus went in and out of a few different books. She did her best to be studious, but it was fleeting each time she was distracted.

Normally while she studied or read, Leonor would unconsciously stroke the necklace. It was a move she didn’t realize Desmond noticed from the beginning. Since she no longer wore the locket around her neck, she clenched her fist or found a seam on her dress.

The locket was returned to her mother’s jewelry box where it belonged in the first place. Perhaps with it out of sight, it could fade to the back of her memories just as Valerio seemed to when Desmond was in front of her.

Leonor gasped and jumped simultaneously when she was pulled from her thoughts and someone knocked on her door.

Since it wasn’t locked, she called, "It’s open. You may come in."

She was certain a maid came to bother her as they always seemed to. What she wasn’t expecting was her husband to walk through the door. His head was downcast but he looked like he was ready to go someplace.

He wore boots and a thicker cloak than normal considering the season. Gloves were on his hands and she couldn’t see a bit of his skin until he turned towards her and revealed a mostly hidden face but it was devoid of bandages. The most alarming difference from his usual garb around the house was the sharp silver sword sheathed at his side.

Leonor stood up, feeling rude not to stand for the duke, but he stopped her.

"Please, stay seated," he requested. "I’ve come to talk to you."

Leonor relaxed, but she closed the book she was reading. To be told he needed to talk to her was overwhelming. She didn’t know what he could say considering two days before he said she was more frightening to face than a dragon.

"May I sit down?" he asked her.

"Of course," she said.

Desmond felt he was walking on eggshells but didn’t know how else he could act considering the information he learned about her that she wouldn’t tell him herself.

"Are you alright?" he asked first.

"What did Stephano tell you?"

She felt immediately combative as if her secrets had been laid on the table.

"Enough to know that my wife is feeling bad and it isn’t something I can drive away with money," he admitted in his usual gravelly voice.

"I’m going to be fine," she said. "I have everything I need."

He wished she would cry to him the way she cried to Stephano but he knew it was too much to ask.

"If you’re sure," he said.

Leonor’s hands balled up the edge of her outskirts. She was feeling on edge and wasn’t sure about anything.

"Why do you seem as if you’re getting ready to go somewhere?" she asked.

Desmond looked at her as closely as he did the day they held hands and fell asleep with one another - the day everything seemed to have fallen apart out of either one of their control.

"I came here to tell you I’ve been summoned to the border," he explained. "I will have to leave tonight to join my men."

He was vague and it made Leonor suspicious.

"Which border?" she asked.

"Letum," he admitted. "I’ve had soldiers there for months, cleaning the area and being sure there isn’t something else we need to attend to."

Her frown grew. It seemed so cruel to make someone who had lost so much there return. Since it wasn’t Stephano’s order, she imagined it was something Desmond would have to do down the line no matter what they did.

"You’ll be okay?" she asked, her voice finally wavering. "It’s safe?"

Desmond stood up and approached Leonor who sat up straighter. She resisted pushing herself further back into the couch.

She wanted him closer. She wanted him much further away.

The duke kneeled in front of her, moving his sword to the side so it wouldn’t inhibit his position. He removed his gloves and tossed them onto the table.

When his hands were free, he grasped her hands where they were on her lap. He noticed her clenching her fists on the material and wanted to relieve her fingers.

He looked up at her, his face revealed to her more than he normally allowed it to.

"I’ve taken this trip a few times in the past couple of years," he admitted. "These lands are devoid of threats."

"If you’re sure," she whispered.

At that moment, he gave a small smile that reminded her so much of the carefree Valerio she once knew and it brought tears to the corners of her eyes.

Perhaps it was the guilt of losing the keepsake that was making her see things.

She tried to avert her gaze but Desmond reached for her face in a way that he had never done before.

There was no choice but to look at him.

"We have something to talk about when I return," he said. "I can no longer put it off."

A tear escaped her left eye and fell down her cheek. He let go of her hands.

Instead of simply wiping the tear away, he risked it for a moment and wrapped his arms around her. The first time he had ever initiated a hug.

"I have to break my promise," he whispered. "I hate to see you cry tears of sadness."

To his surprise, she slid forward and off of the couch until she was sitting on his legs.

He fell to his backside and embraced Leonor who put her entire heart and soul into the hug, feeling as if she might truly be alright. Within his arms was a world she was allowed to take part in if she wanted.

It was the warmest goodbye she ever had with a guarantee that she would see him again so they could talk.

She hoped it was finally time to tell him the truth about her divided heart.