The Sins of Duke Evander (BOOK III)

Chapter 18- Home Sweet Home

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"Welcome home, Duchess," Clyde stood at the top of the stairs, hands intertwined in front of him as I held Alina's hand in mine. "It is nice to have you back," He said as we walked up the stairs, a warm smile on his face.

"It's nice to be back, Clyde. Have you been well?" My wife leaned forward, embracing him in a short hug while I simply waited for her to let go of him.

"Yes, thank you for asking... The estate hasn't felt the same without your presence,"

As we entered the mansion after what felt like years, we were greeted by the warm welcome of all the other workers, and unlike me, who didn't care, Alina made sure to go around greeting all of them, talking to them as if they were best friends, and remembering each and every one of their names, which I never even tried to do.

"What about your job?" I heard one of the maids whisper to her.

"I'm going to go back to working with Paulo," My wife whispered right back. Yeah, she probably wouldn't be comfortable in that company if she went back to working there, not as the wife of the boss of her boss; if that made sense.

And so, the day calmly drifted by, and then the next, and then the next, and this carried on as we fell back into our usual wedded life once more, the fight we had just recovered from long forgotten by now.

"Darling, I can't sketch if you keep moving like that,"

I paused, with the pencil in my hand, looking away from my sketchbook and to my smiling wife as she stood there, in the middle of my art studio, in front of the large windows, draped in a red piece of cloth.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it,"

"And why can't you help it? I didn't think seeing your husband sketch would be so funny," I couldn't help but chuckle along with her laughs, continuing on my sketch of the base design of the statue that I would be sculpting of her.

As I had promised to her in the past, I was going to sculpt my beautiful wife.

And to start off, we were currently holding a session in which she posed as I sketched her. Along with a variety of different photographs, and sketches that I had done of her throughout our life together so far, I've added up quite a lot of research.

All that's left to do now is to sketch out the final piece, and then start sculpting. And this sculpture is not one that I will allow to leave this estate to go to France. It's the first sculpture of her that I'm making, and therefore, it will stay with me.

"Okay, I will be quiet now,"

Rolling my eyes at her, I slid the pencil above my ear, keeping it there for a moment as I used my fingers to blend the drawing for shading purposes.

And then, the sweet, melodious, sound of her laughter rang through my ears.

"Do you know how handsome you look when you're drawing?" I paused with my finger, looking up to meet her cute grin, and a grin of my own broke onto my face.

"No. But hearing my wife's compliments certainly helps with my self-confidence," And shutting the sketchbook, I threw it to the side, getting up as I stalked towards her. Not waiting for a single breath as I picked her up in my arms.

Laughing, she wrapped her arms around my neck as I nuzzled my face in the crook of her neck.

"What happened to sketching?" She asked.

"I can draw you a million times over without having to look at you," I replied, pulling her closer to me as I moved to leave the room.

"You know, when I first met you, I never would have imagined for you to be such a hopeless romantic. I thought you were a big, intimidating man that didn't smile much," I smiled at the memory of our first meeting, it was quite a nice first meeting.