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Now it was Lavinia’s turn to look flabbergasted. “You did?”

Frau Elinor shrugged the question off. “I didn’t know he was a bastard, I didn’t know anything about him. All I knew was that Victoria was so clearly and deliriously in love.”

Victoria wrinkled her nose at such a recounting of events. Frau Elinor wasn’t wrong. She had been deliriously in love with him. And when Uncle Bastian refused his plea to court her, Victoria went to her aunt in tears. She had been determined to marry him already. But her aunt’s reassurances were what helped her to go through with it.

She shook her head. “That is not the point. The point is that he is very charming, indeed. And seeing you being charmed by him just made me question whether you can keep a level head when it comes to dealing with issues about him. I am living with him now, and I need advice from you, the women I most admire. But I am doubting your objectivity now. Are you going to take his side over mine?”

“Of course, we are on your side, darling!” Lavinia reached out and covered Victoria’s hand. “And as we have said, we are only civil to him for you…” There was a pause and the women exchanged guilty glances. “For the most part.”

Victoria wrenched her hand away and covered her face. “Oh, that rogue is too charming. Not even you can resist him.”

“Do not be ridiculous, Kindchen.” Frau Elinor patted a place beside her on the settee. “Come. Tell us what is wrong.”

Victoria moved to sit on the settee between her great-aunt and cousin-in-law. “That is the problem,” she said emphatically. “He is too charming. And I have to withstand ten more weeks of this.”

Lavinia wrinkled her nose. “Are you sure you want to withstand it and not… you know… enjoy it?”

Ugh! Victoria groaned again. “Lavinia!”

“What?”

“He has locked me up in a tower with two rooms and no servants. He doesn’t allow me to leave the tower without his permission, yet he gallivants about town doing God knows what. Then he comes home and demands where I sleep and what I do when I am around him. And yet, his blasted charm lets him get away with it every single time. I cannot fight him. When I do, he still wins. He is a master manipulator and I am supposed to enjoy it?”

“Have you asked him why he is doing what he’s doing?” Frau Elinor asked.

“Yes, about a thousand times.”

“And why does he say he does it?”

“Because I am his wife, and he wants to keep me close.”

Lavinia took a sip of tea, her eyes narrowed in thought. “And why does he want that?”

Victoria took a deep breath. “That is the ultimate question, is it not?”

Lavinia set her cup down and turned toward Victoria fully. “Don’t you want to find out?”

“Of course, I do. But who is to say that anything he says is even true?”

“Kindchen.” Frau Elinor patted Victoria’s knee. “If you want to know how a man feels, you do not ask him a direct question. No, no. You watch his actions.”

Victoria let out a chuckle. “Well, his actions are not speaking in his favor.”

“Not the actions of the past,” Lavinia intervened. “The actions of today. And for that to happen, you need to actually communicate with him. You’re living with him. You’ve been given an opportunity to get to know him better than you ever have. And will you forgo this opportunity simply because you’re mad at him? Because you’re holding on to the past? Yes, he’s made mistakes, and so have you. But you have grown up during the last two years; you are practically a different person. Hear him out. Learn something new about his intentions perhaps.”

“He’s made mistakes? He has made every mistake under the sun. Lying, blackmailing, killing, threatening, tricking, stealing, and apparently, even graverobbing! Why should I forgive him?”

“You shouldn’t,” Lavinia said decisively. “You shouldn’t just forgive him. But you should try to understand him. I know you’re frustrated with him. I know what he did—everything he did—is wrong. And he went about your relationship wrong, too. He lied and tricked you. I don’t know what has been happening between you in the past two weeks or what he has done since you reconnected but try to understand it from his side. All he ever did throughout his life was lie and steal. That is all he knows. He was born to a duke but was never given the opportunity to live a noble life. His brother was the heir, while he was no one. He had to steal to give himself the lifestyle he thought he deserved. In the same way, he tricked you into marrying him because he thought he would never have you otherwise.”

Victoria frowned in thought. He had said the same thing himself. He never thought he deserved her, so he got her the only way he knew how. Because even though she loved him, if she had known the truth about his origins, she probably would not have married him.

And that was the core of the issue, was it not? It was why she was angry with him. She’d had this ridiculous dream of marrying a titled man and reuniting with her sister, ruling Russia by her side.

But so many things had changed since then, yet the frost between Victoria and William had never melted.

And then other doubts started plaguing her mind. If he’d lied about one thing, who was to say he hadn’t lied about everything else? Had he even truly loved her? Or did he want her for other selfish reasons?

“He never had a real family,” Lavinia continued. “No one set an example of how to win women over, how to treat them in a marriage. He does not know what communication, trust, and support are. Of course, he thinks that stealing is the only answer.”