Valentine raised a brow. “Do not pretend, Rowan. You have been tense from the moment we set off. You barely spoke a word until we reached the river. Something about this is troubling you.”
Magnus nudged him with his elbow. “A man of your temperament rarely stays this still. Has the prospect of marriage suddenly made you pensive?”
Rowan’s jaw tightened, and he remained silent for a moment. There was much he wished to say that had been the very reason he had summoned them, but the thoughts tangled in his mind, stubborn and unyielding, resisting any attempt to form them into words.
Valentine leaned forward, curiosity sharpened. “You are concealing something, Rowan. Tell us plainly. What has got you brooding like this?”
Rowan finally let out a slow breath. “It is she,” he said simply. “Lucy has a strange effect on me. There, I said it.”
Magnus’s eyebrows shot up. “Effect? What do you mean? I know she is clever, yes, but cleverness alone rarely leaves a man so… distracted.”
Rowan shut his eyes, searching for words that would satisfy them without revealing more than he should. “It is not her wit or her counsel or the manner in which she carries herself. It is the way she exists alongside me. I find myself noticing everything she does. How she speaks, how she moves, how she interacts with my sons. It unsettles me, though I do not wish to beunsettled. Yet I cannot stop noticing. She is too... involved in my home. In my life.”
Valentine smiled knowingly. “So it is not simply marriage that makes you uneasy. You are aware of her, more than you expected.”
“Yes,” Rowan admitted quietly. “More than I expected and more than I can fully explain. That is why I am quiet. That is why I have not spoken. My mind is not occupied with the ride or the horses or any of the things I might normally comment upon. It is preoccupied.”
Magnus shook his head, half amused, half incredulous. “I have never seen you like this. Ever. You are tense, silent, even thoughtful. For you, this is remarkable.”
“But beyond all of this, there’s something else that bothers me. I’ll explain from the start,” Rowan said and turned to face them both.
Magnus leaned forward, curiosity sharpened. “By all means.”
Rowan took a slow breath. “It begins with a deal I made. Well, the deal Lucy and I made. I gave Lucy two weeks to find me a suitable bride when she first arrived at the estate. That was the condition. I did not want to waste any time on it, so I gave her a deadline.”
Valentine’s brow rose. “Two weeks?” he repeated. “Surely that is an impossibly short span of time to secure a marriage for a man of your standing. Even the most industrious matchmaker would struggle.”
“Indeed,” Rowan said. “She failed. But there was a condition if she failed. One she had to meet.”
Magnus blinked. “She failed, and therefore...”
“She becomes my bride,” Rowan finished.
Valentine whistled low. “You gave her two weeks to find you a bride, or she becomes your bride?”
“It was her choice,” Rowan replied. “I made the terms clear. It was different because Lucy did not want to get married. She was adamant on it. That’s why she was so keen on becoming a matchmaker. I figured that would make her desperate enough to do the job well. She knew what was at stake. If she could not find a suitable match for me, she would accept the alternative.”
Valentine exchanged a glance with Magnus, both of them fascinated. “So you offered her a choice, and she chose to risk her future. Bold, I must say.”
“There’s more.” Rowan exhaled slowly, running a hand along the horse’s mane as he searched for the words. “When she failed to find a bride for me,” he said. “I confess… I had already begun to reconsider the arrangement. I thought perhaps she need notmarry me at all. I could release her from the terms. She could go, live her life as she chose. I would not hold it against her.”
Valentine’s eyes widened. “Did you release her?”
Rowan’s lips pressed together. “Yes, I did. I told her that she was free to leave, deal or not. That she need not marry me simply because she had failed her task.”
Magnus’ eyebrow furrowed. “I’m confused. If you set her free from the deal, then...” He let the words hang, knowing the conclusion before Rowan spoke it.
“She volunteered,” Rowan admitted. “She chose to marry me, despite herself. Despite the fact that she has never wished to wed. She chose to keep her end of the deal.”
Valentine leaned back against his saddle, exhaling slowly. “But why would she do that? You are correct. From what I have heard about Lucy from my wife, she does not wish to wed. It was precisely for that reason that her mother sent her to live with her aunt in the countryside.”
Rowan’s eyes traced the riverbank. “It surprised me,” he murmured. “Yet… somehow, I began to wonder if her acceptance was not simply duty. She was not bound to me in any way. She owed me nothing. So all I can think of... the only thing that makes sense is that perhaps she feels something else. Perhaps she feels as I do. “
Magnus squinted his eyes. “And just to be clear... what you feel is...”
Rowan lifted his eyebrows. “The strange effect.”
“Right.” Magnus tilted his head, a faint, knowing smile on his lips. “But you are not certain of this strange effect. Even now?”
