“It’s no wonder you’ve never married.”
“I’ve never married because I’ve never met a lady I’ve wanted to marry,” he said. “I’ve never encountered anyone I felt would be a good duchess for me.”
“That’s what you’re looking for? A good duchess?”
“Well, of course,” Allan said. “I am the Duke of Harbeck, and it’s my duty to eventually find a worthy lady to marry and make a duchess of. It’s one of the most important obligations that comes with my title.”
“Oh,” Lady Edwina said.
“You sound as if that surprises you.”
“It doesn’t surprise me to hear that the responsibility of a duke is to find a duchess,” she said. “It surprises me to hear that that’s something you care about, though.”
“I see. And why is that?”
“I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of you taking an interest in affairs of the heart.”
“Well, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” he explained. “I don’t believe marriage should be viewed as an affair of the heart. I am aware that people see it that way—I know Seth and your sister see it that way. But to me, marriage is about fulfilling one’s duty.”
“Then why haven’t you ever done it? Don’t you take your duty very seriously?”
“I do,” he said. “And it’s something I know will happen eventually. The day will come. But I’m not in any particular hurry about it, and I don’t know why I ought to be. If I try to rush into marriage, I’m just as likely to find myself failing to notice important details about the lady I choose. It’s possible I’ll find myself with someone who isn’t fit to be a duchess at all, and if that were to happen, it would be too late to do anything about it.”
“I see.”
“And besides,” Allan added, giving her a roguish grin, “there is a lot of fun for a man to have before he is married. I wouldn’t want to rush out ofthateither. I take my duty seriously, but I also want to live my life to the fullest.”
She blushed at his grin and looked away from him. “Well, you certainly seem to be doing that.”
“And what about you? You don’t seem to consider marriage to be either a dutyoran affair of the heart. You seem to see it as a burden.”
“Not a burden for me,” Lady Edwina argued. “It can’t burden me if I refuse to let it.”
“But you do think that itwouldbe a burden if you allowed it to be?”
“Oh, most certainly.”
“But why?”
“I know what gentlemen are like.”
“You believe we’re all the same?”
“In some ways,” she said. “You all have expectations of ladies—expectations that I may not want to fulfill. Just look at you. You’re not interested in finding a lady whointerestsyou, someone you can have good conversations with and truly respect. You’re only interested in duty. You don’t care who you marry as long as she’s the right person to step into the role of duchess that you have in your mind. For you, it has nothing to do with what she might want for her own life.”
“You don’t think a lady would want to be a duchess?”
“I don’t want to,” Lady Edwina said. “I have no interest in such a thing. And I’m not going to forget myself and my own desires simply for the sake of pleasing a man.”
“What do you want for your life, then? What would make you change your ways and decide to marry after all?”
“I’m not going to marry.”
“I understand that. But if youwereto marry, what would make you decide to do it?”
“If I were to marry,” Lady Edwina decided, “it would be because I’d met a gentleman who treated me well.”
“I don’t treat you well?”
