“Well, I don’t care what you hear. I don’t care what you think of my brother. What I care about is this—you need to take these events seriously. You need to understand that there is only one way out of the situation in which we find ourselves now. Youmustmarry me.”
“You cannot force me.”
“Of course, I can’t. But your father can, and he seems as if he is pleased with the idea, doesn’t he? I have to tell you, LadyPrudence, I feel as though you are wasting everyone’s time by putting up a fuss about this when we could have had the whole affair over and done with by now. We could be on our way home. I do have other things to do today, you know.”
“Oh, well, I’m so very sorry that I haven’t rushed to the altar quickly enough to accommodate your schedule!” Prudence snapped. “You seem to have no consideration whatsoever for how difficult this is for me, and it doesn’t make me feel good about the prospect of having you as a husband in the slightest.”
“How you feel about it is your own business.” His eyes flashed. “But it is what must happen. It’s what isgoingto happen.”
She was transfixed by him. The height of him, towering over her, so much taller than she had ever dreamed a man would be. The crystalline blue of his eyes. She recalled the day she had first seen him in the pub and how much more interesting she had found him than his brother.
If I had been choosing for myself—choosing one of them I wanted to marry—he would have been the choice every time. I would never have wanted Peter over him.
That doesn’t mean I wanted him. I never did. I can’t believe he thinks he can just step in and marry me—as if it makes no difference who I marry!
But she also knew that, to everyone present, itdidn’tmake any difference. They were simply eager to see her married. They didn’t care who she was married to at all.
She would have to try to persuade someone to see things her way. She pushed past the Duke and surveyed her family members, trying to decide which of them could be trusted—which of them might take her side.
They were all watching her. They had clearly been waiting for her to finish discussing things with the Duke. “Are you ready now?” her father asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Father, do you really expect me to marry this man?”
“I don’t know what you mean, Prudence. You came here today to get married, didn’t you? Now, you’re asking me if I expect you to get married? Of course, I do. It’s the reason we’re here.”
“But I was supposed to marry a man who didn’t arrive. You can’t just push the closest available man to the altar.”
“No one is pushing the Duke anywhere,” her father reminded her. “He has made us an offer, Prudence, and it is a good one. You’ll be a duchess, just like your sisters.”
“I have no desire to be a duchess.”
“No, of course, you don’t,” her father sighed. “You’ve never had any desire to do anything that could be perceived as good or helpful to this family. You care only for yourself. You cannot avoid this. Remain here with your mother, please, while His Grace and I go and talk to the pastor. We’ll make thearrangements to change the marriage license, and hopefully, we will be able to get this done with no further delays.”
He walked off in the direction of the Duke, leaving Prudence with the clear understanding that she had been dismissed yet again and that this was all going to happen without her input being considered at all.
Is there truly nothing I can do to prevent it? Will I spend the rest of my life shackled to this man, all because no one was willing to listen to me?
She tried to console herself. At least it wasn’t Peter. That had been her greatest fear of all, and she was grateful to have escaped that outcome. And yet, the escape she’d believed for a moment that she had made now seemed like nothing at all, for she would still have to marry today. There seemed no way out of it.
She looked over at her mother and was shocked by the expression of concern on her face. Baroness Highgate was not the sort of woman to allow herself to worry about things. Her usual way was to assure herself, and everyone around her, that everything was all right even as things began to fall apart. But today, she seemed unable to draw upon her usual determination to ignore the troubles around her. She seemed genuinely bothered by something.
Prudence longed to ask her what it was—but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She couldn’t rely on her mother to take her side. She’d trusted her mother once before when her mother had interceded on her behalf to stop a truly dreadful marriage fromtaking place. She had let herself believe that she would have an ally in future arrangements. But she couldn’t trust that. That much was apparent to her now. Her mother wanted to see her married today.
Whatever she was worried about, it wasn’t going to help Prudence to escape from the situation she was in.
There was no escape.
It was only minutes later that the pastor, her father, and the Duke returned. Prudence’s father was smiling, and the sight of it made Prudence’s heart sink, for there was only one thing that could have made him smile like that—he had gotten his way.
She didn’t even bother trying to resist when he came to her side, took her arm, and walked her to the front of the church. The only option left to her would be to jerk her arm free and run out the back door, and she had run away too many times in her life. She would be found and dragged back, she knew all too well. And this time, there would be no escaping the noose. Now or later, she would be forced to marry.
And although she didn’t like to admit it, there was something else driving her to give in today as well.
If she was going to have to marry, the idea of a marriage to the Duke was not exactly the worst thing she could think of. There were many worse men out there—Peter Hall would have been one of them. The Duke was angry and disrespectful, to be sure,but she had never seen any signs of violence from him—and he intrigued her.
At the very least, this would not be boring.
Still, as the marriage ceremony was performed, and Prudence spoke her vows, she could feel her freedom slipping through her fingers.
