“We will be married in a week,” he said, as if announcing the time of dinner.
She stared out the window. “Will you require me to pretend to love you, or just to look the part?”
“Neither,” he said. “But I will require honesty. It’s rarer than affection, in my experience.”
She pressed her lips together tightly and leaned away from him, her heart clenching dangerously as she considered his cold, cynical words.
“That, I can provide,” Rose said eventually, wondering what on earth she had agreed to.
She had always considered St. Clement’s to be a prison, but at least it was a place she understood. Now, she was heading for uncharted territory.
The carriage lurched into motion, the wheels clattering over ruts and stones. Rose looked down at Lizzie, who had been lulled to sleep, her tiny mouth twitching as if she dreamed of something sweet. She tucked the child in, then cut her eyes to the duke, meeting his gaze with clear, unflinching resolve.
“We are not the family anyone would have chosen,” she mumbled. “But we are hers.”
The duke looked at her for a long moment, his eyes scanning her facial features, pausing just a second too long on her mouth. “That will be enough.”
The carriage rolled onward, away from the stone walls and the hollow prayers of St. Clement’s, toward a future as unknown as the next dawn.
And Rose did not look back.
CHAPTER 4
“My parents will not take this calmly,” she said as she stared out the window. “They’re likely to believe I’ve gone mad.”
The Carden carriage was a thing of quiet malice, all black lacquer and brass trim, swallowing sound as it barreled through the ruts. Felix had insisted they take it, rather than some less conspicuous hackney, and now he was beginning to regret that decision.
The interior was close—too close—and warm, heavy with the scent of new leather. The baby’s smooth breathing layered itself over every other sound.
He leaned back, stretching one boot forward until it grazed the basket at Rose’s feet. “Your parents can be managed. I’ll send a note as soon as we reach the hall. In the meantime, I will see to the special license and have my solicitor fix the papers for Lizzie’s guardianship.”
Rose sat opposite, the infant in her arms, swaddled and cradled as if she expected the next bump to launch Lizzie into the hedgerow. Felix noted the discipline of her hold, the way she used her whole arm rather than just her hands. She almost looked like a mother, despite the glacial set of her features.
He could also see a trace of indignation in Rose’s eyes. “All so neat. Why not order up a new set of memories while you’re at it?”
He scoffed, counting the seams in the carriage’s velvet roof as if they might prevent his coming headache. “Would you rather I toss you and Lizzie to the wolves of society all alone?”
“There’s a difference,” Rose replied, “between offering a home and performing charity for the sake of your conscience.”
“Charity has never been one of my vices, I assure you.”
“No,” she said, gently. “But self-preservation is.”
He wanted to snap at her, to say something sharp about the luxury of self-righteousness, but the baby hiccupped, then started huffing in preparation to cry, making both adults turn to her at once. For a moment, their mutual enmity was forgotten in the face of a wailing, red-faced infant who had not agreed to any of this.
Rose adjusted Lizzie’s blanket, tucking it around her shoulders with a touch. “She’s hungry,” Rose muttered. “Or overtired. Or both.”
Felix reached for the baby before he thought better of it, but Rose was quicker, shifting Lizzie onto her shoulder and bouncing her with a practiced rhythm. He let his hands fall, trying to hide the way the rejection stung.
“You could have prevented this,” Rose said, her voice lower now.
Felix stared at Lizzie’s tiny fist knotted in the fabric of Rose’s dress. “If you’re so certain of my failings, Lady Rose, you might as well enumerate them to my face instead of sighing them at the window.”
“If you had come for Julia when she needed you, none of this would have happened.”
The duke sighed. “Listen, I understand why you feel the need to display such strong-willed defiance… and even hostility. Today has been filled with many… surprises, not all of them good. But you should know, Lady Rose, that this sort of conduct will not be tolerated when we reach Carden Hall. It would behoove you to remember to whom you speak.”
Rose shook her head and glared at him. “You clearly understand very little, Your Grace, except your own needs. If you had ever put someone ahead of yourself, Julia might still be alive today.Youwould do well to rememberthat.”
