“Still Unmarried?” Her Ex Laughed—He Didn’t Know She’d Married The Most Powerful Duke In England

Chapter 2

Eleanor had seen Nathaniel Graves exactly once before.

She was seventeen, standing beside her father in a crowded city council chamber, invisible to everyone present. He had not been invisible. Even then, even to a girl who did not yet understand the language of power, there was something about the way he stood that communicated something final and immovable. Like a river that had decided on its course and would simply go around whatever stood in its way.

He was forty-one now. He had not softened.

His face was angular and spare. Dark eyes that moved through the room with the precision of a man doing arithmetic — cataloging weight, value, relevance — dismissing what did not matter. He wore a dark coat, no ornamentation, nothing that asked for attention. He did not need to ask.

Mrs. Hargrove nearly overturned a side table getting to him.

“Mr. Graves. My goodness, we weren’t expecting —”