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CHAPTERFIVE
Edwina climbed back into the carriage, hands shaking.
“What happened?” Lizbeth asked her, reaching over to touch her knee. “What arrangement did you come to, Miss? You’re pale.”
“Did he hurt you?” Bertie asked, looking from Edwina to Lizbeth. Edwina struggled to meet their eyes, trying to collect herself.
“You look terrified,” Lizbeth said, crossing over to her side of the carriage to take her into her arms. “Did he touch you?”
“I am not frightened,” she breathed, realizing she spoke the truth. She had been afraid at first; the Duke’s mask obviously hid painful scars, just barely visible around his eyes and the edge of his lips. He had stared at her with such anger, and heat, she had genuinely wondered if he would ask her to give up her virtue.
After he kissed her, something about her perspective of him changed. When she looked up at him, she had seen just a man. The mask hid his expressions, but being so close to him, it was as though she could see the feelings he tried to hide. She had seen his desire to kiss her, but it was not malicious or ill-intentioned. When she had parted her lips, she had realized, part of her wanted him to kiss her. Why, she could not say. It was ridiculous – she barely knew him, and he had so poorly treated her father. She felt like a traitor.
“What arrangement did you come to, Miss?” Bertie pressed.
“I agreed to marry him,” she finally admitted, her voice trembling. “I am to be the Duchess of Hillow.”
“You are going to marry that brute?” Lizbeth cried, clutching her hands. “After what he did to your father, after how he acted? Miss, he is a dangerous man. You cannot go to live alone with him.”
“He just wants an heir,” Edwina explained, her voice feeling far away. “It is no more than a business arrangement.”
Bertie scoffed. “An arrangement. That’s no better than selling your body on the streets. If you do not mind me saying, Miss, bearing a child is a much harder toll than spreading your legs.”
“Bertie!” Lizbeth cried, turning to Bertie in horror. “What a terrible thing to say in front of Miss Haverton!”
“Perhaps,” Edwina said grimly. “But there’s more.”
“More?” Lizbeth asked in horror.
“Well, he agreed to lay a salary on my father, so that father can go back to working on his inventions.” Both Bertie and Lizbeth just stared at her in shock.
“What?” Edwina cried with exasperation. “He was going to ensure my father got convicted of theft! I could not allow that to happen, and this was the only thing that would placate him.”
“Your father will be heartbroken,” Bertie told her, shaking his head. “There has to be a way to get you out of this.”
“Nonsense,” Edwina said, sniffing. “This way, we all get exactly what we want. I get a marriage of convenience that allows me to do whatever I want once I produce an heir, and my father gets to go back to his inventions. In a few years’ time, I will be a free woman.”
“What if you do not produce an heir?” Lizbeth asked gently. “It happens, sometimes, where women do not have sons. Or they die in childbirth. Or never have children at all.”
“Assuming I do not die, then he can cast me off, right?”
“It doesn’t work like that anymore,” Bertie explained. “He would have to say you were an adulteress, and you would be ruined.”
Edwina sat quietly for a moment then shook her head. “It does not matter. The odds are still in my favor. I will do my duty for my father to ensure his happiness.”
“But what about your happiness, Miss?” Lizbeth asked. “What are you going to do, living in that great house with him by yourself?”
“I shall make him pay for what he has done.”
Bertie and Lizbeth traded shocked looks with each other before turning back to Edwina. “What do you mean?” Bertie asked.
“Surely you do not mean anything drastic?” Lizbeth asked.
“He wants this to be a business arrangement, cold and unfeeling. I shall make him regret asking for such nonsense. I will torment him as he has tormented me and my father,” she explained. Realizing that they were staring at her in horror, she leaned forward and hurriedly explained. “Oh, nothing devious. I assure you. But if either of you thinks that I will just quietly do my duty – no. I will make myself a force to be reckoned with.”
“Oh good lord,” Bertie breathed, leaning back. “I thought you wanted to off him as soon as you produced his heir.”
“Me?” she cried, shocked. “No! Good gracious, how could you think such as thing.”
