She Walked Away Silently After Broken Engagement — Minutes Later, Duke’s Royal Carriage Came After..

Chapter 2

The interior of the Duke’s carriage was a world removed from the bleak road outside. Deep crimson velvet upholstery, mahogany paneling that gleamed like polished amber, a small oil lamp casting dancing shadows across the ceiling. It smelled of leather and old books and something sharper beneath — the faint residue of gunpowder, or perhaps the scent of a man who had lived his entire life on the edge of violence.

Maximilian Devereux retrieved a heavy wool blanket from a compartment and handed it to her without ceremony. He did not fuss over her, did not treat her like a fragile thing that might shatter. He simply ensured she was warm with the efficiency of a general supplying his troops, then sat across from her, his long legs crossed, his gray eyes fixed on her face with an intensity that should have been unsettling but felt, instead, like being seen for the first time in years.

“Tell me what happened,” he said. Not a command, but not quite a request. A statement that assumed she would obey.