Lady Margery whispered from between the branches, “Poor Selly is twenty-seven and feeling every minute of it.”
His Grace did not rise to his sister’s teasing jibe, but merely grunted his displeasure as he placed a candy cane upon the tree.Aurelia stole a glance at him, smiling at this tall, handsome gentleman who was clearly in the prime of his life.He reached high above her head to hook another candy cane onto the uppermost boughs.
He stood so close that she could’ve hugged him.Aurelia wasn’t sorry to feel an attraction for the man who might’ve been her husband.The Duke of Brantingham had been her dream since she was sixteen, and a leopard could not easily change its spots.
Despite their agreement to be friends, her foolish heart yearned for him.
His Grace’s arm brushed hers as he hung a gilded walnut.The warmth of his skin radiated through the wool of his jacket, and he bent very low to ask, “What doyouwant to do, Miss Goldsworthy?”
“For Christmas?”She blinked at him.Smiling brown eyes gazed into hers, and she felt a blush stain her cheeks.“I suppose I’m at your mercy, sir.”
He laughed.“Oh, I doubt that.”
Aurelia grinned as she recovered her composure.He was only a man, after all.The Duke of Brantingham was her match in every way that mattered, and she wouldn’t be cowed by him now.“I meant to say that I’ll be happy to go along with whatever plans you all have for Christmastide.I should love to seeHamletwith Lady Margery and Lord Peregrine if invited to do so, but that still leaves rather a lot of days to fill.”
“You’re a good sport, Miss Goldsworthy.”
“I’m not, Your Grace!I’m greedy, as I’ve never had a proper Christmas before, and certainly not one in London.I want to go to parties, visit the picture galleries, and dash about Bond Street shopping for presents.”She stepped nearer to him, drawn to the Duke’s side without a thought for anyone else in the room.“I wish to be included in everything, if you’ll have me.”
***
Selwyn knew that Miss Goldsworthy hadn’t meant anything untoward by her words or her manner, yet he couldn’t help but feel a more profound impact somewhere in the vicinity of his heart.
‘If you’ll have me.’
She had left her home to join him in his.She’d brought a trousseau worth of trunks and an open mind to Brantingham House, and now, in the face of so much disappointment, she was glad to be included in the plans of a family that would never be hers.
Truly, he couldn’t imagine that Mama would have maneuvered a girl into his life for the sake of seeing him wed, but neither could he fathom why anyone would play a trick on either of them.
Yet somebody had deliberately misled her, and he felt duty-bound to look after her.
She might not have been illegitimate, for no one knew the circumstances of her birth, but she was certainly an orphan with no lineage and only a modest living to see her settled in the world.
Miss Goldsworthy was educated, well-dressed, and charming, but she would never have the advantages that Margie or Fannie did.She would not be presented at Court and would never know the security of life as a peeress.Her best chance for a stable future would be a connection with the Charltons.
Perhaps that was all this mischief was ever meant to be—a launch of sorts.A leg-up toward a better way of living, and some puppet master’s clever hand was managing it from behind the curtain.
Selwyn did not appreciate being managed.
He did feel sorry for Miss Goldsworthy, though.She remained innocent in all this.
He pressed a sweet, striped candy cane into her hand.“I’ve told you that you may stay here for however long you like, and you’re not beholden to us in any way.Go to the theater if you wish.Visit the galleries to your heart’s content.Meet people, make friends, and bring them to tea.Let Brantingham House be your headquarters in London.You are a free woman, Miss Goldsworthy, for the first time in your life.”
Frowning, she turned the candy cane between her fingers.“I didn’t realize I was ever in chains…”
“I only meant that you’re at liberty to please yourself.It could not have been easy to imagine yourself betrothed to a stranger for the whole of your adult life.It couldn’t have been easy imagining yourself betrothed tome.Now, you can find out who you are irrespective of who I am.”
“Of course, Your Grace, you’re very sensible,” said she, softly as they moved around the Christmas tree.For a moment, they were shielded from his siblings’ prying eyes.“Thank you for letting me down gently.”
“Am I letting you down?”If so, then why was he the one feeling battered about the guts?“Forgive me, I thought I was getting out of your way.”
Miss Goldsworthy hung the candy cane on a low branch that had been overlooked by the rest of his family.“Did you ever struggle with your identity beneath the coronet to which you were born?Has the nature of your true self changed as you’ve ascended the ranks of the nobility?I suspect you understand that one’s occupation or choice of partner ought not to alter who one is within.”
She touched her hand to her breast, palm flattened over her beating heart.She was courageous, and she was correct.“My self-worth is neither dependent upon the man who sired me nor the man I marry.”
She’d put him in his place.Selwyn had always known that he was destined for the dukedom, though he hadn’t welcomed the loss of his father to make it happen.At any rate, he did not believe he was any less of a man for having his future decided for him.
Aurelia Goldsworthy was no less of a woman—or any less of an individual—for feeling that same sense of acceptance over her own circumstances.
