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“I need to speak with you,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“But I want to help wash Button!”
“You can help later. Come. Let us sit.”
He settled on the sofa, propping his daughter on his lap.
“I have some excellent news,” he said with a tight smile. “Soon, you will have a mother.”
Millie scrunched up her nose. “But I don’t want a mother.”
Rhys heaved a sigh. Millie didn’t take well to strangers, not that he blamed her. “You need one. And I need a marchioness. This is the way the world works.”
“Well, I dislike how the world works. Can we make the world work differently?”
Rhys furrowed his brows, then scratched his jaw. “Perhaps… I hope we can. You will definitely change the world, darling girl. But not right now.”
“Why not?” Millie pouted, bouncing her leg.
“Because it takes a long time to change the way the world works. And sometimes, we need immediate action. And at the moment, I need to marry Miss Lewis.”
“Miss Lewis? The lady who lost Button?”
“Actually, she was the one who found him—”
“I don’t want Miss Lewis to be my mother!” Millie scrambled from Rhys’s lap and stomped her tiny foot. “I don’t want a mother! Why can’t we live like before?”
Rhys slid from the sofa and crouched before his daughter. “I promise you, nothing will change in this house. Nothing will change with us. She will just help us, that’s all.”
Tears slipped out of Millie’s eyes. “I don’t want anyone’s help. Why do we need help?”
Rhys’s heart squeezed at Millie’s reaction.My fault.“You’re growing up, and you need to know things… Things that I can’t teach you. And I need to take up the reins of my responsibility in Parliament.”
“Did I do something wrong? Is it because of me?” she whispered.
“No, my darling. Trust me. You are a perfect little angel. But you need education. You need to learn how to be a lady.”
“I don’t want to be a lady. Please, Papa!” Millie directed her liquid eyes toward him, and he almost relented. He could never refuse her anything.
But the situation with Miss Lewis was beyond his control. And for the first time in her entire life, he had to say no to his sweet daughter.
“I am sorry, darling girl. But it is done.”
* * *
“You are not marrying that man, and that is that!” Richard roared into Isabel’s face.
Isabel reared back, wisps of her hair moving from impact, then unhurriedly took out a handkerchief and wiped her face. “I am. He shall come to visit you on the morrow to sign the marriage contract.”
“While you were out, running around and getting compromised all over again, I made some inquiries. Do you know that man is accused of murdering his own wife?” Richard scrubbed his face and started pacing restlessly.
Isabel frowned. “Accused? By whom?”
“Rumors, Isabel. There are rumors about this man and not the flattering kind.” Richard irritably threw his hands.
“Since when do you put much stock in rumors?”
Richard halted. “Since they are about a man my sister is willing to marry!”
