No wonder Jasper had spent most of his adult life avoiding marriage. To him, as it was to her, marriage was an institution to be avoided—one to escape.
But to have been a child while his father initiated a divorce? The scandal would not only have affected his father and his wife, but Jasper as well.
Parliament rarely granted divorce edicts, and they were drawn-out processes, sometimes taking years, as approval was required by both houses. Only the husband could initiate one, and he would then have been burdened with proving his wife had committed adultery. He and his wife would be interrogated publicly—and were often humiliated.
Furthermore, it cost the participants a small fortune.
A person would have to be very unhappy to open himself up to such scrutiny—and to put his son through it as well.
Nia stared at Jasper, thinking about both of their fathers. And about her mother.
And the fact that marriage was the last thing either she or Jasper wanted.
It was almost laughable. Perhaps they were the perfect pair.
Individually, they’d both witnessed the reality of marriage and saw it for the cold-hearted institution it truly was. It was a ceremony where two people were joined in order to consolidate land, power, and money. The vows taken before God and everyone were nothing more than lines one read for a play—lies.
Jasper had gone quiet, staring out the window.
“No wonder you don’t want to marry,” Nia murmured.
But Jasper merely grimaced. “No different than most bachelors.”
But despite both of their aversions to marriage, the two of them were barreling north to possibly do just that.
All because she’d found his carriage in her flight for freedom. Because she needed his protection.
Could she, as his wife, somehow bring improvements to his existence?
He’d told her she had the entire journey to make her decision. But unless his friend brought about some sort of miracle, there was no decision to make, was there?
“Last night, you told me I didn’t need to decide until we arrived at Gretna Green… regarding the subject of marrying you.” She winced. It sounded rather ridiculous when she said the actual words aloud. They’d known one another for one day.
One. Day!
“And I meant it,” he said.
Just as he, no doubt, had every intention of going through with it. Over their short acquaintance, she’d surprisingly come to trust his integrity.
“What if this marriage of ours is… not a typical one? What if the two of us make up our own rules so that we can accomplish everything we want and leave out the aspects we find repulsive? What if, in place of traditional vows, we put together a separate agreement?”
Jasper had turned away from the window and now half-faced her, leaning forward with his arms resting on his knees. “Go on.”
The fact that he wasn’t laughing encouraged her.
“We each list out our expectations—a contract between the two of us. This way, after we marry, there will be no surprises regarding the other’s expectations.”
He nodded, albeit slowly, and Nia took that as agreement before glancing around the inside of the carriage. “Do you have paper? Something to write with?”
As luck would have it, a conveniently-designed box beneath the backward-facing seat contained all manner of supplies. A lap desk, a blanket, a few bricks, but also a picnic basket Jasper must have ordered prepared while she washed up back at the inn.
Jasper handed the lap desk over, handily supplied with paper and pencil. The coach was so well-sprung she managed to neatly title the document Marriage Agreement.
If they were going to do this, she wanted it official and binding.
She wrote out her full name. And then began… “Jasper…?”
He’d been watching her and supplied, “Jasper Victor Cameron Perry, Baron—”
