Read Online When a Duke Says I Do by Jane Goodger - Free Book Online

life, every single minute of it, except for the times at school and those glorious two weeks that single summer. He felt as if he were suffocating, as if something heavy was pressing down on him, making it impossible to breathe. Why did his brothers have to die. Why?
    And then Oscar heard his father’s voice and felt his body convulse.
    “Hell, Hath, what’s he doing here? Sorry, old chap,” Whitmoore said with real concern.
    God, he wanted to cry. Instead, he straightened and schooled his features to betray no emotion as he watched his father walk into the room.
    “Drinking already? Isn’t it a bit early for that, Hathwaite? Is this your bad influence, Whitmoore?” he boomed.
    “No, sir. I mean, yes, Your Grace. In fact, that is mine,” he said, indicating the abandoned drink on the mantel. Whitmoore, the most confident of men, lost all poise in the face of the Duke of Kingston.
    “And the one in your hand?”
    “They’re both mine,” he said weakly. “Good day, sir.” And he was gone before Oscar could blink, not that he blamed his friend.
    “Still need your friends to lie for you, I see.”
    “The drink is mine, Your Grace.”
    Kingston ignored his son’s comment. “Why aren’t you out in the garden with your intended? I’ve heard you’re ignoring her completely.”
    “No, sir.”
    “There have been rumors about you. Ugly ones. The sooner you are married, the better.”
    Oscar gave his father a look of complete confusion. He never did anything or went anywhere. How could there possibly be rumors about him? “I don’t understand, sir.”
    His father looked at him with the purest disgust. “Is there a reason you don’t wish to spend time with your intended? A reason you haven’t shared with me?”
    Oscar thought back on every moment he’d spent in the company of Elizabeth and could not recall one thing that would cause his father distress. He had not been attentive, that was true, but neither had he ever put them in a compromising position. He’d never even kissed her cheek.
    “No, sir. We played croquet yesterday, as a matter of fact. She’s quite good. Rather a vicious player,” he said, with a small note of appreciation. In fact, her aggressive play was one of the most memorable times he’d spent with her, giving him a small glimpse into a woman who might not be a complete timid mouse.
    “I never hear of any escapades about you and females.” The words were innocuous enough, but his father’s tone was incongruous, as if this were some sort of strange interrogation.
    “That is because you forbid it.”
    His father threw back his head and laughed, but it was an ugly, evil sound. “Good God, Hathwaite, you must be the only son in the kingdom who has obeyed that particular edict. Unless there is something else keeping you from females.”
    Oscar stared at his father in disbelief as it finally occurred to him what the duke was suggesting—that he didn’t like women, but preferred men. “Rest assured, Your Grace, I greatly enjoy the company of women,” Oscar said, feeling his temper rise. “It is only my restrictive and oppressive life that has made any debauchery quite impossible. In addition, I am a Christian man and an honorable one.”
    “It doesn’t matter whether you are or not or whether you enjoy women or not. Just know that you will be married and you will produce an heir. I, too, am a man of honor and will obey the agreement I set down with Lord Huntington. Nothing will prevent your marriage. Nothing.”
    The duke turned on his heel, leaving Oscar behind seething with impotent rage. By God, when the old man died he’d dance on his grave and not care who saw him.
     
    Elsie, of course, was completely unaware of the tension and drama between Oscar and his father, and picked an unfortunate time to request her first kiss from the man she would one day marry.
    After dinner, Oscar, looking even more tense than usual, requested that she join him for a walk in the garden.