“He is usually with his secretary at this time of day, miss. Do youwish me to enquire?”
“Yes, please,” said Beth, and when the man had gone she sank down intoa chair with relief and a small glow of triumph. It was just a matter ofplaying the game by the rules.
In a little while she was bowed into the duke’s study by Mr. Westall,who discreetly took himself elsewhere.
“Yes, Elizabeth?” asked the duke, removing his spectacles and rubbingthe groove they had left in the bridge of his nose.
Now the moment was upon her, Beth was not at all sure what she wishedto say. “You are my father,” she said at last. “It seemed I might be ableto talk to you, but now I am not sure.”
His austere features softened slightly. “I would like to think that wastrue. I have watched and admired your handling of this situation. You maythink it would have been easier to avoid this time at Belcraven,Elizabeth, to have lived more quietly before your marriage, but that wouldhave been a cruel type of kindness. You are learning to cope.”
“I can cope, I believe, with the pomp. I am not sure I can cope withthe marquess.”
The duke’s lips tightened. “What has he done?”
“Nothing,” said Beth hastily. She had no wish to cause furtherdissension in this unhappy family. “I simply cannot decide how to handlehim.”
The duke relaxed and smiled a little. “I am afraid you have come to thewrong person for advice on that, my dear. I am not sure how to handle himeither. I manage, because I long ago decided what I wanted from him ? thathe grow up with a well-educated mind, a healthy body, and the manners of agentleman. I have steered him in that direction with whatever force wasnecessary at the time. What doyouwant from him?”
Beth raised her hands helplessly and let them fall. “I don’t know.”
“What do you want from him that you do not currently receive?”
Beth shook her head. These questions did not help. “I am so lonely,”she said at last.
He sighed. “Ah, loneliness . . .” He looked at her. “Perhaps what youwant from him, my dear, is friendship. The heir to a dukedom is not overlyendowed with true friends. If you offer Arden simple companionship, I donot think he would reject it.”
Beth had known friendship in her younger years, but in the course oftime her friends had left the school to take up different kinds of lives.Beth knew the duke was correct. She did want a friend, and friendship inmarriage had always been her ideal. But her rash lies has made such atreasure impossible between herself and the marquess.
To share secret feelings, to listen to anxieties, to know the otherperson will immediately understand ? that all depended on trust.
“I cannot imagine it,” she said bleakly.
The duke rose and paced the room. “I am perplexed. I am not blind: Ihave seen the constraint between the two of you. It seems to me that themarquess could charm any woman, but you are not charmed. It seems to methat two people of sense could find common ground upon which to build andyet you appear to be achieving nothing. Is your future happiness not worthsome effort?”
Beth met his look. “We are trying. We keep finding ourselves settingstones in quicksand.”
After a frowning study of her, the duke sighed and looked away with ashake of his head. “When we all move to London,” he said, “you will makefriends of your own. These recent days have not been typical of yourfuture life. As you have seen,” he said dryly, “people such as we do notneed to live in one another’s pockets. Once you are married, there is noneed for you and Arden to see much of each other. Or if you do, it willmostly be in company.”
Beth knew with a pang this was not what she wanted at all. Then shenervously considered the private moments. “If I could be more at ease withhim . . .” She could not finish the sentence.
Perhaps it was her rising color which enabled the duke to read hermind. “You are concerned about the intimacies of marriage, Elizabeth. Itis only to be expected. I can merely say this, my dear. I have absolutetrust in Arden’s ability to handle a marriage bed with courtesy andkindness.”
But, despite their truce, would the marquess feel he needed to handlethe marriage bed so carefully? And even so, no matter how it was handled,it was going to be a gross invasion by a man who had no desire for thebusiness at all.
Beth looked up at the duke and said, “You are my father.” She had notthe slightest idea what she intended by it.
“Yes. And I love you, Elizabeth, as I did not expect to when thisstarted.” The genuine concern on his face, however, was wiped away. “Iwill cherish you as best I can,” he said in his usual manner, “but I willnot give up my plan.”
Beth stood and said desperately, “I wish it were all done!”
The duke walked over and took her hand. “It will soon begin, Elizabeth.The ending, of course, is death.”
Beth had only looked ahead to the wedding. Now her life stretchedbefore her, intimately entangled with a stranger, watching every word andtreading among quicksands. She stared at the duke for a moment, thenwrenched her hand from his and ran out of the room.
Catching the interested look in the eye of a footman, she pulledherself together. Oh, how she hated the fishbowl life of Belcraven. Sheforced herself to walk composedly to her room, where she found her cloak,then slipped out of a side entrance to march mindlessly along the manypaths of the grounds.
“Till death us do part.” Soon she would have to say those words to themarquess, and it was true. Once there were children they would beentangled forever. Even if she were to flee him, the knowledge of thechildren would always be there.
