AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You were to be married.”
“I was to be marriedoff,” she corrected. “My father’s only daughter—a peace offering to a business rival.”
His brows shot together, and when he spoke it was with a low, threatening growl. “What happened?”
She was lost to the memory for a bit. “It was all very ordinary—no different than it has been for countless others. I was born a girl, and so my value was in marriage. In being traded for money or power or peace. I knew what was expected, and I prepared for it. I donned my wedding dress and walked alone to St. Stephen’s in the rain.”
“Alone.” He whispered a curse. “St. Stephen’s,” he said. “Where is that?”
She didn’t want to tell him. Didn’t want this to end just yet.
He nodded, seeming to understand. No judgment. “Go on.”
“The groom stood with me, and it was all perfectly ordinary. Perfectly normal. The parson began and...”
“And?” he prodded.
She shook her head. “Before the ceremony could end, a new path was offered to me.”
“The Duchess of Trevescan.”
He noticed so much. So much more than anyone else ever had. Adelaide nodded. “She helped me escape.”
“And the wedding?”
She didn’t misunderstand the question. He wished to know if she was married. “It didn’t take.”
“Thank God for that.” She liked the relief in his voice. Like he would have asked for an Act of Parliament himself if her answer were any different.
She nodded. “After that, I knew that this was the work I wanted to do. Ending bad matches. Offering women new paths. Reminding them that marriage to a bad man is not better than a lifetime without one. Ensuring that they enter their matches with wide eyes and, hopefully, full hearts.”
“Full hearts,” he repeated.
She nodded. “I do not pretend that every match is a love match, but when you marry, wouldn’t you like a bride who comes to you with hope for it?”
In her lifetime, Adelaide had never imagined having such a conversation with a half-nude man. Let alone a half-nudeduke. She would do well to remember that bit. Dukes and men were vastly different flavors.
He hesitated, and she wondered at the pause. What it meant. Instead of asking, she said, “It is the least we should expect.”
“A full heart,” he said, tasting the words on his tongue. “That sounds like you believe in love to me.”
She pushed her spectacles up on her nose. “You would know.”
“Mmm,” he replied. “So you do believe in it.”
“I believe in it,” she said, and it was the truth. A year ago, she might have said differently. But she’d seen Sesily fall wildly in love—seen the lengths to which her friend would go to protect the man who was now her husband. Seen the sacrifice and the sorrow and the immense joy. But that was Sesily—who had never once in her life taken no for an answer.
Adelaide was not Sesily. “I also believe it is not for everyone.”
He watched her for a long moment, and she wondered what he was thinking—all the replies he tossed out before settling on, “I agree.”
He did?
“It is not for you, either?” Why had she asked that? She didn’t care.
“It is not,” he said, as if he’d given the question a great deal of thought. “I have no intention of marrying.”
She lingered over the words, the memory they summoned of his declaration that his brother was his heir. “You do not intend to marry,” she said. “But that is not the same as not intending to love.”
