“Philip, I am not going to do this with you, and I am not going to tell the poor girl that you are some sort of monster when you are not. If you cannot bring yourself to see things a little more optimistically, and you lose this girl, then you shall only have yourself to blame. Am I clear?”
Philip sighed. He knew that his mother was right, and he had to find a way to get to know Lady Jacqueline better, as she would be staying with him for a good amount of time whether they married or not, but something told him that there was more to the predicament than his appearance. She did not seem to wantanything to do with him at all, and he had to know just what that was.
“You are most clear, indeed,” he nodded. “I ought to prepare for dinner, as Lady Jacqueline is. I shall see you later.”
“Philip—”
“I know. I shall think on what you have said, and I shall do my best to speak with Lady Jacqueline at dinner.”
He had not intended to attend the first dinner, or if he did attend then he planned to seat himself at the opposite end of a long table so that he could not be looked at too closely, but his mother was correct.
He had to at least make an effort and try to speak with Lady Jacqueline. He liked her well enough, that was not in question, and if she did not tell him directly that she felt the opposite then he had to believe she felt the same way.
He left his mother in the study and dressed for dinner, fixing a black mask onto his face to match his shirt. The shirt had been his favorite since the accident; long sleeves, high collar, and made of thick material that could not be seen through even if wet. It was a shirt he could not picture himself replacing, even though it had begun to thin from how often he wore it.
He made his way to dinner, his heart pounding in his chest. There would be a space beside her to sit in, and he had to sit in it whether he liked it or not, and talk to her. He did not know what he would be speaking with her about, of course, but with any luck the words would come to him with ease, just as they used to.
As he peered into the room, however, he realized that his evening would be far easier, but it was devastating all the same.
Lady Jacqueline was not there, even though her father and sister were. There were two empty seats instead of one, and he therefore had no real requirement to enter the room at all. There was no young lady there to impress, and so as far as he was concerned, he did not need to be present at all.
And so he walked away.
Chapter 5
“Do you have any idea what missing the first dinner signifies, young lady?”
Jackie’s father, it appeared, did not want her to miss it. That much was certain.
“It is certainly not the sort of thing a young lady wishing to marry a duke would do,” she snapped back, to which her father seemed surprised.
“Has the thought of marriage crossed your mind?”
“It has now that I know the truth.”
Her father gave Elizabeth a foul look, but Jackie stepped in front of her.
“It has nothing to do with her. It was the dowager duchess that told me. I do not know why you thought you could keep this hidden from me, but it has not worked as you can see.”
“And look at how you are behaving now that you know! Could you blame me for wanting to keep it from you?”
“I should have known so that I could prepare.”
“So that you could run away, you mean,” he scoffed. “I have given you a wonderful opportunity here. You are to become a duchess, and you cannot even thank me for it. All that you do is act spitefully toward me as if I have committed some act of evil against you.”
“Marrying me off to a man that I do not know and forcing my hand so that Elizabeth can marryisevil. How could you do this to me?”
“I thought you would do anything for your sister. You make a great show of running the household for her, at least. This is to be the last thing you ever have to do for her, so now is not the time to be selfish.”
Selfish. That was how her father saw her not wanting to marry a man she did not know outside of an unpleasant encounter. There was no reasoning with him, but it did not make following his orders any easier.
“Now,” he continued. “Act like the lady you were raised to be and come to dinner. Suffer through it, if you must, but you shall not tarnish the family name with disrespect.”
“I have a headache,” she protested. “I would be no fun there even if I did come down. Not to mention how disrespectful it would be for me not to eat a dinner prepared by their cook while sitting right there.”
“Are you truly unwell, Sister?” Elizabeth asked. “You seemed quite fine before.”
Jackie was becoming quite irritated with how her sister had changed since hearing of the plan, but she could not stay angry with her for long and so she did not bother being angry.
