How was that, really, a choice?
“If I accept…” she began slowly, “what would happen next?”
“Next, I would arrange for you to stay at a hotel with a maid.Grillon’s, perhaps, as would be befitting a duchess. You would have wedding clothes made up, a new wardrobe commissioned—all at the duke’s expense, of course—and the wedding would take place in a few days.”
“Days?”
“With your consent, there is nothing to do but make the necessary arrangements.”
“Of course,” she murmured. What else was there to delay for? “And the…dukeis amenable to marrying me, without ever having met me?”
“If he were not, he would not have agreed to this arrangement at all.” Mr. Arnold shuffled his papers and drew out a single sheet. There, printed neatly, was a contract. “You will sign this, agreeing to remain at the hotel and proceed with the marriage, and to tell no one about the unconventional method of your meeting and arrangement.” He tapped a space at the bottom forher signature. “You will not gossip. You will not betray his trust in any manner.”
Aurelia barely hesitated before signing the agreement. She would have a place to stay that she had not paid for. And what did it matter if the duke was, most likely, old with crooked teeth and bad breath? When a lady was out of options, she accepted even those that seemed unpalatable.
Her husband might be a tyrant, but he would offer her safety and security, two things that had been lacking since her uncle had died.
“There,” she said, putting down the pen with an oddly final clack. “I have agreed.”
Mr. Arnold smiled once more. “Then we may begin.”
Sebastian Hale, the Duke of Ravenhall, stood with his hands clasped behind his back as he stared out of his study window at the gale twisting the trees below. In the distance, the angry sea lashed at the cliffs. The weather reflected his mood, although what little reflected of his face in the glass did not show it.
He was not a man given to freely expressing his emotions.
Salt air seeped through the window frame. It always did, no matter how many times they replaced the seal. The sea was claiming Ravenhall stone by stone.
A knock came behind him. He half turned. “Come in.”
“A letter, Your Grace,” Fellows, the butler announced, holding out a letter in an immaculate white glove. “It arrived express.”
With a grunt, Sebastian accepted the letter and ripped it open to reveal its contents. Three words, signed by his solicitor’s hand.
It is done.
Well then. She had agreed, and his life would change. No doubt for the worse, but he required an heir, and a wife would provide one. After…
Well, after she had done her duty, he could ship her off to one of his other small estates, and they could live separate lives. ThisMiss Dufortcared little for London Society, Mr. Arnold had assured him; she would be, therefore, content to live out her days far from the capital, and far from him.
“Prepare the bedroom adjoining mine,” he instructed, returning to gazing at the sea. “It will shortly have a visitor.”
Fellows inclined his head. “Will they be staying long, Your Grace?”
Sebastian gave the matter little thought. “No. No, she will not.”
CHAPTER THREE
The wedding took place with dizzying speed. One moment, Aurelia was accompanied to Grillon’s Hotel by a maid and Mr. Arnold himself, who assured her she would be accepted no matter her appearance. And although Aurelia wascertainthe servants gossiped about her, everyone had treated her with the utmost respect.
A dressmaker had come, muttering under her breath about the depths to which she was obliged to sink, but measured and pinned every aspect of Aurelia’s body, promising a wedding gown for the following day, and a full wardrobe to be delivered to the duke’s address.
Aurelia had merely nodded.
Her maid had ventured out to purchase all the other necessary wedding garments—stockings and nightgowns and silky chemises that, in private, Aurelia rubbed her cheek against and wondered at. She had never worn anything so fine.
Then the wedding had taken place.
Aurelia’s gown was a soft rose pink, embroidered with tiny flowers, and gathered below her bust. The silk glimmered whenever she moved, and she thought it was the finest gown she had ever seen.
