He watched her disappear into the darkness beyond the garden lights, heading toward the dower house. The distant sounds of the ball—what remained of it—drifted from the main house. But all he could hear was the echo of her words.
“I expected nothing from you, and you have delivered exactly that.”
The lie tasted bitter on his tongue. Because the truth—that marrying her would change everything, that it terrified and thrilled him in equal measure—was too dangerous to admit.
Even to himself.
CHAPTER 25
Evelyn stood in the second-floor chamber that was meant to be hers when she first became Duchess. It hadn’t even been a year. It hadn’t even been six months. No—how long had it been? Four months? Goodness gracious. She was becoming a duchess twice in four months. Surely it had to be some sort of record.
She looked at her sister. “One of you should have placed a wager that your sister would become a duchess twice over in less than a year. All of Father’s financial worries would be gone. Oh, no—I might even make it through the wedding breakfast this time without becoming widowed.”
“Do not be so bitter,” Charlotte said. “You’re marrying a young, handsome duke. One who isn’t so tethered to society’s wants and needs. One who will let you have your freedom. And Father? He is utterly Friday-faced because the Duke has made it clear that there will be no secondary dowry.”
Nathaniel had told her this morning. Evelyn knew this—he had told her as much the day he informed her he had obtained a special license so they could get married quickly and in the privacy of their estate. Her father was not going to receive another dowry or anything else. Technically, he had already received one dowry from the Duke of Sinclair. He did not deserve another.
This had cheered Evelyn somewhat. At least her father would not benefit from this disaster. In fact, he wasn’t going to attend this wedding either. It was becoming somewhat of a tradition. She would marry a Duke of Sinclair, and her father would ignore the event until it was suitable for him to reach out his hand to demand some money. Although, of course, he would not get anything from Nathaniel. That much she knew for certain.
“Oh, and Marianne said you care for him. You admitted as much. You could be really happy if you allowed it.”
“He doesn’t want me. He made that clear. He didn’t think me good enough for Halston, and he certainly didn’t think me good enough for himself until he was put in a position where he could not deny it.”
“What were you doing in his study?” Charlotte asked. “Charmaine said that you were locked in a steamy embrace, lips locked upon one another, not a stitch between you.”
She rounded on her sister. “You better not listen to such vile gossip. We were doing nothing. We were doing nothing wrong whatsoever. We were talking. Arguing, as we always are. That isall.” She looked away because she knew that her sister would be able to tell the lie in her eyes. They hadn’t just argued. No, in fact, she’d been almost certain that they were about to kiss. But then hadn’t they been about to kiss several times, always to be interrupted or for one of them to walk away?
This peculiar habit of theirs was bound to catch up with them sooner or later. And now it had—in spectacular fashion.
“Have you brought all of your things back from the house?” Eugenia asked.
“I hardly took anything to begin with,” she said. “But yes. All my things are here in the east wing. It will be mine from now on. Nathaniel is going to stay in the west wing, where he always has been.”
“It’s not uncommon,” Eugenia said.
“No, perhaps not,” she said. “But he has told me that the entire wing shall be mine, including the drawing room, implying that he would like the downstairs drawing room for his own use.”
“Did he say that?” Eugenia asked.
“No, but it was implied.”
“You simply must stop reading things into what he says.” She turned to Evelyn’s sisters. “Girls, leave us for a moment.” Thetwo left, Marianne grumbling and Charlotte humming under her breath, ever the optimist that all would still turn out as it should.
“Evelyn,” her aunt said. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Evelyn sat on the edge of the chaise, not wanting to wrinkle her wedding gown—the second one in four months.
“He asked me to come to the study to talk. What about, I did not know. When I was there, I was riled. About how he implied that Lord Halston only wanted me because of his prior rivalry with Nathaniel. About other things.” She shrugged. “Things took a peculiar turn, and I thought perhaps…” She looked down at her shoes, knocking her toes together. “I thought he might kiss me, but then Charmaine came and ruined everything, and now…”
“So you did almost kiss,” Eugenia said, and sat beside her. “So, you do care for one another—I thought that you did. So why is this marriage such a terrible thing?”
“Because afterwards he admitted he was only doing it because it was the right thing to do. To save my reputation. He thinks of himself as some knight from an old tale, rescuing the damsel in distress.”
“I daresay you are still in distress. If he hadn’t married you, you would’ve been ruined.”
“Yes, but I want him to want to marry me, not because he has to. And he made it quite clear that this is all for practicalities. It means nothing.”
“It doesn’t sound as though it means nothing. Don’t you think that perhaps all might still be?—”
