“Why here?” she asked.
“I don’t think anyone will happen upon us here.” Marina guided her to a chair. Eleanor sat. “Are you all right?” she asked.
“I didn’t know that he was going to do that,” Eleanor said. “The duke, I mean. I didn’t mean to ruin your wedding week, Marina. I’d never have wanted to do that.”
“Of course you wouldn’t,” Marina said easily. “I know that. And you haven’t ruined anything. Pay no mind to what Mother said about it. She’s only being dramatic.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to make you unhappy.”
“You haven’t,” Marina assured her. “How could I possibly be unhappy? I’ve told you so many times, haven’t I, that the only thing I need to make me happy this week is to get to marry Jacob? And that’s still going to happen, so how could I be unhappy? I’m not unhappy in the least. Mother may think that everyone will remember this week for the drama and scandal, but it isn’t true. What I’ll remember is that I married the man I love, and that our life together began. Nothing can ruin that for me, I promise you.”
Eleanor managed a smile. “You have a way of always looking at the best side of things,” she said. “I’m so lucky to have you for a sister.”
“I feel the same way,” Marina said. “Has this week been ruined for you by what the duke said? Mother didn’t bother to ask about your feelings, and I think she should have. Are you upset about what happened?”
“I’m not at all upset,” Eleanor said. “I know that you might expect what I’m about to say.”
“You return his feelings for you.”
“I do. I never thought he could feel that way forme, Marina. But apparently he can. Apparently he cares for me and not for Lady Hannah. And it even seems as though she genuinely loves Phineas, which would mean that I’m not interfering in anything by admitting to my feelings. It means that I can…” She took a deep breath, scarcely able to believe that she was going to speak the words. “I can be in love with him. I can love him, and I won’tbe ruining anything—as long as I’m not ruining what you wanted your wedding week to be.”
“You’re not,” Marina said gently. “Of course you’re not, Eleanor. The only thing you’re making me feel is happiness for you. I’m so glad that you’ve found love. I hope you’re able to find a future with the duke. I don’t know what will happen now, but he’s a lovely gentleman. I know Father wishes you to marry. Perhaps he will agree to this courtship.
She took Eleanor’s hand, and Eleanor was filled with a hope that she hardly dared to let herself feel.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Nicholas asked, turning to face his friend. “You could have told me, Phineas. At any time, you could have told me what you were feeling. What you were going through. You could have told me of your love for her.”
“How could I?” Phineas asked helplessly. “You and she had an arrangement.”
“And you didn’t think I would step aside for you? I was willing to step aside even for my own sake. I didn’t want to marry her from the start. Why didn’t you feel that this was something you and I could talk about, Phineas? We could have!”
Phineas shook his head. “Hannah told me that it wouldn’t make any difference,” he said. “I believed her. I believe her still. Her father wants her to marry you, and she’s determined to make her father happy.”
“Her father doesn’t want her to marry me,” Nicholas said. “Her father doesn’t carewhoshe marries. He wants her to marry money, that’s all.”
“But it comes to the same thing,” Phineas said. “He wants money. You have it and I don’t, so he will always approve of you, and he will never approve of me.”
“Well, he can’t have me for his daughter,” Nicholas said. “And it’s time for all of us to look at different solutions—solutions that have a chance at making everyone happy. Forcing Lady Hannah and myself into a marriage will benefit no one.”
“I should have told you the truth sooner,” Phineas said with a sigh.
“Yes, you should have.”
“But It still don’t see what good it would have done,” Phineas admitted. “What can you actually do about it, Nicholas? You can refuse to marry her—you have done that—but of course that doesn’t mean there’s any future with her for me.”
“We’ll see,” Nicholas said. “I think there may be something we can do to change that. To make things easier for the two of you, so that a future might be possible.”
Phineas cocked his head, clearly about to inquire further, but before he could, Lord Codfield came bursting out of theballroom as if his heels were on fire. He ran across the foyer and over to Nicholas and Phineas.
“What’s the meaning of this, Your Grace?” he demanded.
Nicholas stared. “You have some nerve approaching me with such ire when you just threw a drink in my face,” he pointed out. His clothes were still sticky. “I don’t know what you think you can possibly insist upon from me right now, given the treatment I’ve just experienced at your hands. If you’re here to insist yet again that I marry your daughter, you may as well know that even if I had been inclined to consider it, I would be thinking twice after that altercation.”
Lord Codfield took a deep breath, clearly aware that he had overstepped the mark. “You must forgive me, Your Grace,” he said. “It’s a very difficult thing, having a daughter, trying to secure the best possible future for her. Perhaps you’ll find that out for yourself one day. All I want is my daughter’s happiness.”
“All you want is to settle your own debts,” Nicholas said coldly. “I know the truth now, Lord Codfield. Lady Hannah has been in love with Phineas here from the start. If it was truly her happiness you desired, that would have mattered more to you. You would have listened to her when she told you who she really wanted to marry. You would have encouraged the two of them to make their dreams come true instead of forcing a situation that no one wanted.”
