Valery? Shall we go?Beatrice mouthed again, Amelia and Isolde both pale and worried on either side of her. Even Lionel had blanched, sitting with his entire body tensed, as if ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. Only Edmund and Vincent were smiling obliviously.
The reverend opened out his arms, resembling an ominous bird, casting a dark shadow over Valeria’s sweating face. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you to the church of Saint?—”
The doors flew open with a starlingbangand the shriek of protesting hinges, footsteps thudding on the flagstones as every head in the congregation whipped around.
Valeria’s was no exception.
A wild figure wearing nothing but a shirt and trousers, his collar open to the middle of his chest, his dark brown hair windswept and adorned with a leaf or two, sprinted down the aisle,bellowing, “Stop! Valery, do not do this! I love you, Valery! My God, I love you.”
He skidded to a halt a few paces away, breathing hard, his eyes feverish as he stared at her. His sun-browned skin was slicked with perspiration, making him glisten in a manner that had a few older ladies gasping. Although, that might have had more to do with his state of undress, his unexpected declaration, and the fact that he had just halted a wedding.
“I love you, Valery,” he urged, panting. “Do not marry him. Marry me.”
Valeria gaped at him, speechless. She had dreamed of this moment for three weeks, waking each morning to the crushing disappointment that it had not been real. In her dreams, she confessed her love, and he swept her up into his arms, carrying her out of there without delay. But now that itwashappening, she did not know what to do or say.
Chaos erupted around them, protests and shouts rising up to the rafters. Friends of Roger began to clamber past their neighbors to come to the defense of his honor, while older ladies called out to the reverend, a few gentlemen calling for the presence of constables.
All of a sudden, Valeria’s father snatched her hand back from Roger. Moving quickly, Aaron curved his arms around the two of them—Valeria and Duncan—and ushered them back up the aisle, muttering, “Hurry! Hurry up!” in his urgency to get them out of there before the congregation became a mob.
As they passed by the pew where Valeria’s friends and Duncan’s friends were seated, they gave nods of encouragement, surging into action. Lionel sprang out, guarding the trio in their escape, and as they made it through the doors, Valeria turned in time to see Lionel, Edmund, and Vincent barring the exit, their arms outstretched to prevent anyone from pursuing. Amelia, Isolde, and Beatrice formed another line in front of the men, Beatrice shouting out, “You will wait! Attempt to push past me, and I swear that I shall bite!”
It would have been funny, had it not been Valeria’s wedding day… and her scandal to now navigate.
“I hope you are sincere in this, Your Grace,” Aaron said gruffly, steering the couple toward a waiting carriage, pushing them into it. “If you are not, you may expect a duel.”
Duncan turned to the older man. “I am genuine, Lord Skeffington. I have never been more sincere in my life.” His voice hitched. “I love her, and I am only sorry that I did not tell her sooner. All I can do now is pray that she will forgive my foolishness.”
“Yes, well, it is clear that you need to talk,” Aaron replied, agitated. “Driver, take them to the Dower House. I must diffuse this situation.”
He slammed the door, and the driver pulled away from the church, leaving Duncan and Valeria entirely alone in the shade of the carriage, though Valeria still did not have the first idea of what to say.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“What is the matter with you?” Valeria blurted out, finding her voice at last. “Are you quite sane? How… howdareyou, Duncan. How dare you do this to me!”
Anger was the simplest feeling, closest to her grasp. It rasped out of her, spurred on by the shock of what had just happened.
“Do you expect me to clasp my hands together and swoon?” she continued in a breathless fury. “Do you think that your declaration is… is… at all welcome?”
Duncan swayed to the motion of the carriage, his demeanor unnervingly calm. “Whether it is welcome or not, dear Valery, is neither here nor there.”
“Excuse me?” she gasped, narrowing her eyes.
“What I mean is, I came here with no expectation,” he answered softly. “I ran to you because… it was necessary. I rode throughthe days and the nights to you because I would not be able to forgive myself if I did not. You were asking for my help, at the meadow. You wanted me to ask youto marry me, and I should have. Not out of obligation or as a favor, but because I loved you already. Love you still.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “I was asking no such thing. Iwantedno such thing.”
I did, with all my heart. I do, even now.
“Do you remember that night—that I meant to tell you something, but we were interrupted?” he said evenly, a sad smile teasing the corners of his lips.
She squinted in suspicion. “Yes.”
“My brother was a perfect man. He would have been your perfect match, if he were still alive,” Duncan said haltingly. “All my life, I have tried to compare to him, and when I realized I could not, I… lashed out. I became a wild thing, out of stubbornness and hurt and frustration. He used to warn me that I would ruin myself, but I ignored him, and when he died… I had no anchor at all, no one to attempt to nudge me back onto the straight and narrow.”
Valeria cleared her throat, refusing to allow any sympathy into her voice, though she felt it keenly. “I do not know how that pertains to me.”
“I did not trust myself to love you, Valery,” he explained. “I was a wretch who grew bored easily, who swung from one amusement to the next, feeling nothing, trying to smother my loneliness with vices.”
