“No, just optimistic. But it won’t be pleasant for you at home if you do flee.”
“My parents won’thavea home if I do.”
“Well then, we need to consider that there are ways to have a marriage that is not really a marriage.”
“To pretend?”
Alfreda paused at the bottom of the stairwell to clarify. “It’s probably too soon to consider this, but what I refer to is a mutual agreement not to live together intimately. You would be surprised how often such arrangements have been made over the centuries, when families, especially noble ones, joined for reasons that had nothing to do with love and esteem and everything to do with land, power, or wealth. An heir is usually needed first, but once that has been accomplished, the husband and the wife go about their own interests, even living in different households—if they can agree to such an arrangement.”
Brooke thought that sounded incredibly promising. “Is any of that actually true, or are you just trying to make me feel better?”
“Did it work?”
“So it’s not true?”
“It is. You have so very little knowledge of thetonbecause your parents socialized in London without you. But my mother worked in London before I came along and she moved back to the country. She was privy to a good deal of gossip in that big town and used to amuse me with tales of the inner workings of the nobility’s households.”
“So if such couples do hate each other, why wouldn’t they agree to such an arrangement?”
“Because the husband will do as he pleases anyway and might not care about his wife’s feelings—unless he is afraid of her family.”
Well, that was a brief hope, wasn’t it? It didn’t even last one minute.
Brooke sighed. “The wolf doesn’t fear my family, just the opposite. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wants to kill us all because of what my brother did.”
“Do we know yet what he did?”
“All I learned is that he blames Robert for the death of his sister. He got too angry for me to want to press for more information about it.”
“That’s a good reason for a duel, but it’s an even better reason to get your brother imprisoned or hung. I wonder why Lord Wolfe didn’t pursue that course of action.”
“Because he wants to be the one to kill Robert. Three duels definitely suggest that.”
“Possibly,” Alfreda conceded. “We can find out what really happened from the servants here.”
“I asked Gabriel, but he just said I should ask Dominic about it. I have the feeling no one here wants to talk about it.”
“To you, maybe. But servants will talk to other servants. Let me give it a try.... So, did you decide to be yourself with him?”
“I wasn’t going to, but he got me so angry, I’m afraid I couldn’t hide my true feelings.”
“He must have provoked you.”
“Deliberately.”
“Yes, but that wouldn’t tell him much about you, poppet, now would it? It wouldn’t reveal that you’re as quick to laugh, that you aren’t vindictive and wouldn’t seek revenge even if warranted, that you have a good, pure heart, despite the family you come from.”
Brooke sighed. “Suggesting a pretend marriage would probably just make him laugh because he would be the husband who would do as he pleases with no care a’tall for my feelings. Besides, he doesn’t wantanymarriage to me, he made that perfectly clear. All he wants is for me to leave, which I can’t do.”
“Would you like a love potion instead?”
Brooke blinked in surprise and choked back a laugh. “There’s no such thing.”
“Yet there are herbs—and I do have a tiny supply left—that will stimulate... Well, the villagers called the tonic I made from these herbs a love potion because it stimulates desire, and some people equate that with love. But if the wolf suddenly wants to bed you, then he will look more favorably on the marriage, and everything can go uphill from there.”
“He already kissed me.”
“Did he?”
