“He’s run off, hasn’t he?” Celeste interrupted. She then blushed and lowered her eyes.
“You knew he wanted to?” Emery asked, astonished.
“Pardon me for interrupting,” Celeste said, but Emery shook her head.
“Don’t worry about that,” she said dismissively. “I’m just curious to know if you suspected something like this might happen.”
Celeste looked up, hesitated, then said quietly, “I knew that Henry dreamed of a love match. But I didn’t think he would actually run off and abandon you.”
“Hmm.” Emery took this as a good sign: despite being trained up in acting like a personality-less lady, Celeste was thoughtful and observant. “Well, he did run off, although I personally would have liked to run off myself.”
Leah raised a hand to her mouth in shock, and Eve giggled. Emery stuck her tongue out at her briefly, and she giggled again.
“But your eldest brother swooped in and ‘saved the day’, or at least, that’s how he tells it. So now not only am I married to a man I don’t love, I’m also married to a man I don’t know.”
From the looks on her sisters-in-law’s faces, it seemed as if all of them were trying very hard to disguise their shock at this turn of events.
“But… marriage to Lucien is not so bad,” Leah offered after a moment. “He is a duke, after all! Most ladies would be beside themselves with joy to land a duke.”
“And you know us,” Eve put in. “Not very well, but that is better than going to live in a house where you know no one.”
“At least we shall not be evil sisters-in-law, tormenting you in your new home,” Celeste said with a smile.
“That is true,” Emery said, nodding thoughtfully, relieved to see the tiniest amount of give in their armor. “But don’t you girls dream of a love match? Leah, you’re going to be out soon, aren’t you? Don’t you hope that you will fall madly in love with a gentleman? That you won’t have to marry for convenience or for money but in order to spend all your days with a man you adore and who adores you?”
Emery felt her face flush with excitement just thinking about it, but to her surprise, Leah was staring at her as if the concept had never even occurred to her. At last, she shook her head.
“Lucien says that love matches are not as desirable as they sound,” she said, lowering her eyes. “He says that passion is intense, but fleeting, and that it is far better to marry a man with whom I have a foundation of respect and mutual understanding, rather than to get carried away with my emotions.”
“Well, what does the Duke know about it?” Emery said, folding her arms. “Has he ever been in love?”
All three sisters stared at her blankly, and Emery took that for a no.Or they don’t know--either way, it is strange to think of my husband having been in love with someone. Although it doesn’t precisely seem to be in his nature. Unless he is suffering from some terrible heartbreak in his past…
For some reason, the thought brought a knot to her stomach. She didn’t like to think of the man who had taken away her chance for love having had a great love story of his own.
“I think I will follow my brother’s advice,” Leah said, a little doubtfully. “He is twenty-eight, a duke, and knows the ways of the world. I want to find myself a suitable match, preferably with an agreeable man who will treat me kindly.”
“And you deserve someone who treats you kindly,” Emery said, “but you also deserve love. And I hope that you will at least consider it when you begin preparing for your coming out.”
Leah bit her lip. She didn’t exactly give her word that she would consider it, but she didn’t say she wouldn’t either.
“Your brother has been primarily in charge of your upbringing, hasn’t he?” Emery said, looking between them. They all nodded. “Yes, I expected as much. I see he has molded you all into his own prim and proper image.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Eve asked, her eyes wide.
“No…” Emery began slowly. “I just think it’s important that you make time to have a little bit of fun in life. And if you know how to have fun, if you know what makes you happy and what doesn’t, then you will be more likely to find husbands that fit with you. Perhaps you don’t have to aim for love, but compatibility can be a good place to begin.”
Start small,she told herself.Don’t shock them too much and don’t try to force them to defy their brother and seek out love matches. You have time…
And truthfully, she didn’t want to try and control the girls. Their marriages were their decisions to make, just as hers should have been her decision to make, too. She just hoped that they would actually make their own decisions and not be foisted upon gentlemen their brother picked out.
In the meantime, however, I cannot live in a castle where there isn’t fun, or spontaneity, where everything is always proper and perfect. And I certainly am not going to allow my husband to take away his sisters’ chances at enjoying their lives.
Out of the corner of the eye, something glinted, and she turned to the window to see the edge of the lake in the distance. At once, an idea came to her.
Turning back to the girls, she grinned. “Have you three ever been swimming in the lake?”
Their scandalized yet intrigued looks told her everything she needed to know.
