The Possessive Lord's Contract Wife

Jane didn’t lift her head as she pondered on Eloise joining her whilst she tried on dresses. It was always done with her maid, and on rare occasions, with Camille.

Jane once thought of having her brothers join her, but it wouldn’t be the same. She wouldn’t get to experience what her friends spoke of with their mothers.

Eloise noticed Jane’s expression and thought she was sad. "You will get to see the dress I have decided to wear to the palace. It is beautiful."

Jane looked up. "Is it being made by a famous dressmaker? Damien said I could not go back to the lady I frequent."

"No, she owns a small shop, but her dresses are lovely. I know you think it is a risk, but her dresses speak for themselves. I will let you have a say in the dresses I select," Eloise offered.

Eloise noticed a spark in Jane’s eyes.

"Really?" Jane responded.

"It doesn’t mean you are to be bossy and try to have your way," said Damien.

Jane pouted, annoyed that Damien interjected. "We should save this talk for tomorrow before the men spoil it."

"We must," Eloise agreed.

Though small, Eloise sensed a shift in her relationship with Jane. From Jane’s excitement, Eloise realised what Jane needed most.

Meanwhile, Kyle dragged his feet to his bedchamber, certain he wouldn’t make it to his bed.

When he succeeded in reaching the top of the stairs, Kyle was startled by Quinn’s presence.

"Why are you sitting there? You almost frightened me," Kyle said, placing his right hand on his chest. "Are you drunk? I see what our dear sister-in-law means about sitting around on the floor."

Kyle hated Quinn’s lack of response. "Fine, don’t speak to me. Don’t let Eloise see you sitting on the floor. She’ll make a bet with you and tire you out. I should have known she wasn’t all so innocent."

"I don’t want to speak about Eloise," Quinn spoke softly.

"Why not? Wait," Kyle said, stepping closer to Quinn. "Did someone hit you? Are you sulking because you lost a fight?"

"Damien hit me."

"Oh, then you definitely lost," said Kyle.

Quinn looked up at Kyle, wanting to hit him. "Leave me alone."

"Usually, I would be thrilled that someone else is upsetting Damien, but if you two are so angry with each other that he hit you, we have a big problem. I don’t understand why you have been out of the estate so often," Kyle said, sitting down beside Quinn.

"I wanted time alone," said Quinn.

"We live on an estate. There are plenty of rooms for you to go into when you want peace. At times, I forget where your bedchamber is, so don’t tell me this is about peace," Kyle said, confident that Quinn was lying. "Be honest. It’s only the two of us here."

Quinn sighed. "You are like a fly. Do you ever feel like Damien gets all that he wants?" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"No," Kyle answered. "If he got what he wanted, he wouldn’t be stuck with us."

"I didn’t mean it like that."

"However you meant it, my answer is still no. I had to wear his shoes for the day, and I know it was only a little part of his duties, but I was overwhelmed. I can’t imagine how Damien felt when our father died, and he had to step up," said Kyle.

"Damien was being prepared by our father when he was alive," Quinn informed Kyle.

"He was being prepared for the distant future. No one expected our parents to die so soon. You would have thought Damien would be married and have children by the time father passed and he became lord," Kyle said.

"Instead, Damien had to bear our grieving the loss of our parents, and jump into the role of caring for us. All of father’s responsibilities were on his shoulders, and relatives were coming from near and far to pick at our wealth," Kyle said, remembering the chaos in the estate.

"If you are sitting here feeling jealous, you are a fool. I would not want to be in Damien’s position. We have freedom while he is stuck here at the estate. He’ll be a parent to Jane until she marries, and then that duty won’t stop," Kyle said, pitying Damien.

"That is not what I spoke of-"

"You can’t pick and choose. It is the truth that Damien doesn’t get all that he wants. He might be able to afford gifts or to fund his hobbies, but we all can. Damien is better at using his money," Kyle confessed.

"I know. I am speaking of how he always gets what he sets his mind to," Quinn clarified. "There’s no point in going up against him."

"Well, blame yourself for not being smart. What is it that our dear brother has that you want and cannot have? His wife?" Kyle joked and anticipated Quinn to hit him. "You should be hitting me, Quinn. You don’t like Eloise, right?"

"I did when I was younger. Perhaps I don’t like her now, and I am just jealous he got his way again. I know that he puts in the work, and it doesn’t come easy for him, but I can’t help feeling jealous," Quinn admitted.

"It’s understandable. We, younger siblings, always envy the older siblings at some point. It hurt once before that everyone only cared about Damien. No one cared about the third son because there was an heir and a second son. I got over it," Kyle said, no longer sad.

"What can I change? Harm my brothers? Eventually, I realised that I could have fun and run away from responsibilities. Today I learned that we have been abandoning Damien all because he is the heir," Kyle said.

Kyle looked to his right at Quinn. "I understand the jealousy, but you have to get over it. You might have wanted to be the heir, but to become Lord Hawthorne, Damie would have to die. Surely, you don’t want another death in the family."

"No."

"Then stop sitting on the floor and do something with yourself. Have a bath first since the smell isn’t pleasant. I’m supposed to be the brother who gets drunk and lies around, so get yourself together," Kyle said as he stood up.

Kyle offered his hand to Quinn. "I think we should both go down to dinner. We’ve always sat together for dinner, so we shouldn’t change tradition now. It reminds me of when our parents were here."

Quinn accepted Kyle’s hand to stand up. "Very well. Let’s go to dinner."