AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“However you wish to describe it, it will not happen again.” He figured if he could restrain himself from Hermione forever more, then perhaps he could still hold true to his promise to Fergus. Without children, Fergus could still someday be Duke. “We will marry, but it will be a marriage in name, and that is all.”
He stepped away from her, seeing the tears that were spilling out of her eyes now. “Good night, Lady Hermione,” he said, finding her title once more. His voice broke slightly as he bid her goodbye; it was no longer filled with the harshness that had been there before, just a sadness. It was him fighting his temptation to apologize and wrap her up in his arms.
“Good night… Your Grace.” She used the formal address and stared down at the floor. Hearing the address made a pain bloom in his chest as he left the room.
This is for the best.He assured himself as he walked down the corridor, though nothing about it felt good at all.
* * *
Hermione felt numb. She was sat in the drawing room at a small table, surrounded by the preparations for the wedding that were scrawled out on parchment. On one side of her was the Dowager Duchess and on the other was Rufus and Cordelia.
Every so often, beyond the window to the garden, she caught a glimpse of Officer Stenham and Phoebe together, wandering the garden with a maid in tow as a chaperone. Phoebe looked incredibly happy, and Hermione tried to take comfort in that.
At the end of the day, this is all for Phoebe. Is not the marriage a good thing?Yet, Hermione found she could not be happy. Her sadness was emphasized by Antony’s absence. He had left the house early that morning and hadn’t been seen since.
“I think we should scale back a little,” the Duchess said as she ticked off a list. “We do not wish to spend too much money.” Hermione said nothing; she still felt numb as the Duchess passed her a piece of parchment.
“Is that necessary?” Cordelia asked, her voice so strained that Hermione looked up to her, startled by the sound of it. She barely sounded like her aunt at all. “Do we not wish it to be a celebration?”
“I agree with Her Grace,” Hermione said simply. It hardly felt like a celebration to her. “Scaled back celebrations will be for the best.”
“Oh good, I am glad you agree, dear,” the Duchess said, tapping the back of her hand. Hermione tried to take comfort in the action. The woman was kind, sweet, and about to be her mother-in-law, yet all Hermione could feel was guilt, for the Duchess was as tricked as Antony was. “I do so hate needless expenses.”
“Really?” Rufus looked shocked to say the least. Hermione wriggled in her seat, trying to turn away from her father’s purpling face. She knew as soon as the marriage was done, he would be asking the Duke for a loan to pay off his debts, but with the Dowager Duchess holding the purse strings, clearly it would not be as easy a task as he first thought.
“Oh, yes,” the Duchess said with a nod. “Now, Hermione, what do you think? Roses or lilies for the wedding?”
Hermione smiled softly at how the Duchess had lost the title of ‘Lady Hermione’, clearly intending to welcome her into the family, yet her smile vanished the next moment as the emotion was replaced by guilt.
“Oh, roses, surely,” Cordelia answered for her. “Lilies are so often a funeral flower. We wish this to be a happy occasion!”
You are one of the few people who think it a happy occasion,Hermione thought to herself as she turned her eyes out of the front window, hoping to see Antony return with his carriage at any moment, yet he did not.
“About the money, Your Grace,” Rufus said, leaning forward across the table. He moved so close to Hermione that she moved her hand across the surface, preparing to pinch him through his sleeve to make him be quiet. “Is it really necessary to be so tight with the money? After all, I wish my eldest daughter to have the perfect wedding day.” He affected a sweet smile, the kind that Hermione hadn’t seen for a long time, and patted her hand, purporting to some kind of affection. She would have recoiled from it if she could have done it without drawing attention to herself.
“Well, you can contribute to the expenses for the wedding if you want things to be more extravagant, I am sure, Lord Branigan,” the Duchess said with ease. “I simply wish to make sure that the expense is not too much from our side.”
Hermione turned her eyes to her father, seeing his nose reddening with each second.
“But I–” Before he could say anymore, Hermione pinched him through his sleeve, glad that the Duchess was looking down so much at her notes, and she hadn’t noticed. Rufus merely shot her a dark glare in return, angered to have been quieted so.
“I hope we are not putting you to too much trouble, Your Grace,” Hermione interjected before her father could speak again. She may not have been able to stop her father’s plan from being enacted because of her own weakness to Antony’s power over her, but she could do all she could to protect his money from her father’s clutches. She would rebuff any attempt Rufus made in that direction.
“No, of course not,” the Duchess said, looking up with such a smile that it lit up her features completely. Hermione was greatly touched to see the change in her countenance. “Every cloud has a golden lining as they say. I am just so excited to see my son is getting married at last and to someone as lovely as you.” The guilt radiated inside of Hermione.
“Silver lining. The phrase is silver lining,” Rufus said, a little more tartly than she would have preferred. She stepped on her father’s foot under the table, earning another sharp glare.
“Is it silver? How odd, they always look golden to me,” the Duchess giggled at herself.
“They do to me too,” Hermione said, overwhelming pleased when the Duchess smiled at her, clearly warmed by her agreement.
“Perhaps we should discuss the date?” Cordelia said with excitement as she clapped her hands together, rather like a child would when promised they could visit a confectioners’ shop.
“Oh, yes,” the Duchess said, sitting straight in her chair once more. “I have sent a messenger off this morning to speak to the local vicar about obtaining a special license.”
“A special license?” Hermione felt her mouth go dry with surprise. Such things allowed marriages to happen very fast indeed.
“Yes, we shall see what comes of it later,” the Duchess smiled.
“If all goes well with that, perhaps we could put in a date of a week from today?” Cordelia asked.
“One week?” Hermione said, nearly falling out of her chair in surprise. She had one week until she married Antony, one week until she had to vow herself to a man who had vowed never to love her for their entire lives together.Can I do that?
