Tag Archives: my timing sucks

@dukehumphrey

dukehumphrey:

iamthefirechild:

“Work,” she repeated, still in that low voice. He seemed to brighten when he spoke of his wife, and she hung suspended between jealousy and happiness. “Even if I don’t care what others say, I still cannot accept your offer. What would I do, in your silent castle? If you do not care what others think, what of your wife? What will she think, to come home and find your old mistress living there with you?”

He wanted to persuade her, she knew, though she wasn’t clear why. Couldn’t he see what a torment it would be for her? He had moved on, fallen in love elsewhere — she hadn’t. Stupidly. It hadn’t seemed so stupid until he had reappeared in her life. “Why aren’t you with her?”

“You clearly know nothing of my wife,” Humphrey said, calmly. “I am her third husband, Summer, and some call her a bigamist for marrying me. She actually employs one of my mistresses as a lady. She thinks it keeps me at bay… it’s not something that would ever keep me at bay, but who am I to destroy her ideals. She even told me to freely wander around, even recommended a wife of one of the lordlings in Ghent when she was…” he stopped, just a tiny bit, “when she was with child. Believe me, she would have nothing against you.”

“Why am I not with her…” he sighed. A husband should be with his wife to protect her, he knew it. He knew too well that he failed her, despite how it was she who wanted to stay. “Because in a couple months time I will fight for her, to the death. I returned to put all my businesses in order, attend Parliament and to draw up my will. In case that idiot of Burgundy cuts my life too short. Though I intend to ensure he will not. But Jacqueline wanted to stay in Ghent, since that is her home, and if she wants something, no one can stop her going for it, not even I.”

“So you wish me to come and live with you for a few months, and at the end of that time, send you off to possibly die.” Summer’s mouth tightened. “You spoke a moment ago of fate and her cruelties. You are what God uses to punish me for my sins. I never expected to see you again, and I was content with that.” Her hands trembled.

“It is easy to go on loving someone whom you never see. It is like a constant, steady flame, the presence light of life. But when that person comes closer, the flame becomes a roaring fire, and it consumes. You consume me.” Her voice shook, and she paused to swallow hard. “My lord, I have never stopped loving you, and so I cannot accept your offer, no matter how generous it is.”