“I am very sorry about the dresses,” she said quietly. “Truly, I am. I didn’t know any of this, and I never would have spent the money if I had.” Her expressions hardened somewhat, and she raised her chin in a defiant gesture. “But if you had spoken bluntly about this to me beforehand, none of this would have happened. If you had treated me like an equal, like a partner, instead of like a naive little girl, then I would have known to spend sensibly at the modiste.”
“I didn’t think it was proper for me to speak to a lady about money,” he said simply. All the fight seemed to have gone out of him, and he could only speak in a monotone. “And you must admit that you behaved rashly.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I behaved like a duchess who is under the impression--an impression you work hard to maintain, by the way--that her husband is rich. It won’t happen again. But I also think this is an example of how your ideas of what is ‘proper’ and ‘correct’ got in the way of doing what actually would have made more sense. I understand, of course. It is difficult to speak about money problems, probably especially to a new wife. But these are things we must discuss now that we are married.”
This was surprisingly sensible, and Lucien realized he had no response to it. After a moment he said, “I will be cancelling the orders for the dresses.”
“If you must.” She hesitated, then leaned forward slightly. “Although if you don’t mind, I would very much like to use a portion of my dowry to pay for the dresses. The girls were ever so excited to have such fine dresses made, and I know it would make them very happy to have. Please… let me do this for them. I care for them very deeply, and I don’t want them to be disappointed.”
These words made Lucien pause and sit up a bit straighter, noticing her as if for the first time. He had not expected this. From her behavior so far, he had assumed she was a rash, reckless person who didn’t take responsibility for her actions. But here she was, offering to pay a huge amount of money forthe dresses, and all just to make his sisters happy. It was a very decent thing to do.
“That is very kind of you,” he said after a moment. “And I will consider it. I need to use part of the dowry to…” he hesitated, and she gave him a look that seemed to say,Go on. “I need to use part of it to pay off my father’s debts,” he said hurriedly, clearing his throat and looking away. “But I think there will be enough left over to pay for the dresses.”
“Oh, good,” she said, smiling then. “The girls will be so pleased.” It was the first smile that she had aimed at him since, well, maybe ever, and to his surprise, it lightened his mood a little to see it.It’s good to know that we don’t only argue with one another, I suppose.“From now on,” she continued, “I will check in with you before taking Leah shopping for things she’ll need for the Season.”
“Thank you,” he said, inclining his head slightly. “Speaking of which… There is something I need to discuss with you. You remember what I said before, about how we must pretend to be happily married in order to deflect any scandal that our hasty marriage might have caused?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Well, when I was away in Cornwall--”
“Ahh, so that’s where Henry ran off to, is it?” Emery interrupted, looking intrigued. “Is that where you have been this whole time? It would explain why you were gone so long.”
“Yes. It’s Henry’s favorite of our family houses, so I suspected he would be there.”
“And was he?”
“Yes, but as I was saying--”
“And what did he say?” she asked, leaning toward him. “Was he sorry for having run off? Did he offer to duel you when he found out you’d stolen his fiancé? Or was he happy that you’d taken his place?”
Lucien didn’t really want to relive the fight with Henry, but he did feel that Emery was owed an explanation of the events that had affected her so much. “He felt as you did,” he said stiffly, “that the marriage was wrong. And he felt bad for having put me in the situation he did. Although he… He seemed to think I shouldn’t have.”
Emery snorted. “Well, that makes two of us.”
“Anyway, as I was saying, when I was in Cornwall, I came up with a story that might help sell the version of events where you and I are happily married.”
“Oh?” she raised her eyebrows. “And what might that be?”
He hesitated, a touch embarrassed by what he was about to say, and then forced himself to proceed. “I thought perhaps we could put about a rumor that you and I had fallen in love beforethe wedding, but that, because you were already engaged to my brother, we both tried to ignore our feelings and do our duty. We will say that despite this--our selflessness and willingness to sacrifice our own happiness for our family--Henry discovered that we had feelings with one another, and, given his friendship with you and his love for me, decided that he did not wish to stand in our way, but ran away to Cornwall in order to allow us to marry one another.”
Emery stared at him, a small, astonished smile on her lips. “And you just thought of this?” she asked. “Over the last few days?”
“Yes,” he said stiffly. “Why?”
“It’s just… something out of a romantic novel.”
“Er, I suppose. I wouldn’t know, though. I haven’t never read a romantic novel.”
“Are you sure?” Emery asked, and there was definitely a note of laughter in her voice now.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Lucien said, frowning at her.
“I’m just saying… That’s a very elaborate and romantic backstory for a man like you, who despises romance so much, to come up with.”
Lucien frowned at her. “Do you think it is too ridiculous? That no one will buy it?”
She smirked now, and he felt his stomach lurch uncomfortably at the sight. “Not if you really sell it,” she said. “I just worry that it will be hard for you, since you aren’t used to showing any tender emotions toward women.”
