Page 65 of A Bride for the Wicked Duke
This might have been the first time ever that Aurelia’s mother had been complimentary toward her body. And where it should have brought her joy, the effect was the exact opposite.Does she not stop to consider why I have lost so much weight in such a short amount of time? Not because of how happy I am, I can say that without question. For two weeks now, Aurelia had felt so sick with thoughts of this coming marriage that she had lost her appetite completely. And where she might have looked better because of it, she certainly did not feel better.
“Thank you,” she said, looking away as she was beginning to feel annoyed. All this fake happiness and cheer, when her mother must have surely known how she was feeling, was starting to frustrate her beyond belief.
She turned her back on her mother, wishing to end this conversation. When she did, however, she was forced to look out the window of the small modiste, which had her spying something, or someone, which threatened to undo her completely. Her eyes widened and their eyes met, and she cursed the bad timing of this moment.Just when I think that things can’t get any worse…
“Oh, look who it is,” her mother said excitedly.
Aurelia grimaced when she heard the door to the modiste’s open, and she felt her cheeks and chest flush bright pink.
“Aurelia!” Rosalind cried. “That dress!”
Deep breaths taken, forcing calm and composure because she needed it more than anything, Aurelia turned about to greet her friend. “Rosalind, what are you doing in the city?”
“Shopping, eating, getting out of the house.” Her friend came for her, eyes wide and glimmering as she took in Aurelia’s dress. “But never mind that, it is you who we should be speaking of. This dress… gosh, it is stunning on you.”
“Thank you.”
Behind Aurelia, lurking in the doorway but careful not to walk too deeply into the store, was the duke. He stood with his arms folded, his body half turned, his attention filtering from Aurelia to his sister to the door through which he had come like he was desperate to flee. He looked just as Aurelia remembered him. Dark and stormy. Masculine and powerful. A sight which made her legs tremble and her loins moisten despite how much she wished they would not.
“Gerald,” Rosalind said, turning to her brother. “Does Aurelia not look beautiful. Tell her.”
The duke grimaced but then fixed a plain, almost disinterested expression on his face. “She does. I mean…” He looked at her finally, their meeting across the room and holding for just a moment. In that moment, the store faded around them, nothing seemed to matter in this world but his opinion, and Aurelia forgot how to breath, how to stand, how to not look as if she might float away. “… you do, look beautiful, I mean.”
“Fine,” she said, looking away.
As enraptured by the duke as she was in the moment, his telling her how beautiful he thought she was set a fire inside of her.If he thinks I am that beautiful, then why did he turn me down? Why did he choose to treat me as if I am nothing?She purposefully turned her back on him next, happy to fold her arms and pretend he was not there.
“Rosalind, we really must not linger,” the duke then said to his sister. “I told you, I do not wish to spend all day in the city.”
“Yes, yes,” Rosalind dismissed him. “I just wished to pop in – I couldn’t very well walk past without doing so.”
“Will we be seeing you two at the wedding,” Aurelia’s mother asked.
“Of course,” Rosalind said. “We would not miss it for the world.”
Aurelia continued not to look at the duke, even if she thought that she could feel his eyes on the back of her head. As much as she still wanted him, she was so angry with him that she refused to give him even the sense that he was still in her thoughts.
They left shortly after that. A few more well wishes. Rosalind opining on how she could not wait for the day. And then… they were gone, the duke leaving quickly, not another word said.
It broke her in ways she thought were beyond her at this point. Not that Aurelia had been hanging onto any false sense of hope, but still there was that lingering feeling that maybe when she saw the duke again, when he was reminded of her in the flesh, something would change in him.I do not believe he has not thought of me once these past two weeks. I refuse to accept that I have not had an effect on him.
Now, perhaps, it was time to accept it.
Such that it was that the rest of the day passed in a sullen fashion, Aurelia doing what she could not to look broken, her mother carrying on about how much weight she had lost, the modiste praising her on the dress and its beauty, and everyone seeming to agree that this wedding and this marriage was the most wonderful of things.
* * *
When they arrived home later that same day, Aurelia went straight to her room. She did so because her mother was starting to annoy her. The falsity of her praise. The purposeful ignorance of what thus marriage promised to be. Aurelia was doing all she could to hold her tongue and feign a sense of being content, but she could only push herself so far.
“Aurelia!” Her mother appeared in the doorway almost the second that Aurelia sat down on her bed. “Do not hide up here – I told you, I wish to discuss food options with you. I have narrowed it down, but as you are the blushing bride, I think it behooves you to have the final say.”
“I really do not mind, mother.”
Her mother tittered. “I can see that. With all the weight you have lost, perhaps you will dine on water and air.”
“Funny…”
“Truly, Aurelia…” She swept into the room. “I still cannot believe it – just as I cannot believe I did not notice it!” She reached Aurelia and took her arms, looking down at her daughter with an admiring stare. “I am just so proud of you. And honestly, if I had known this is what it would take for you to lose the weight, perhaps I would have insisted that you were married years ago.”
