“Why else, lass?” he said. “You dinna think Iwanttae marry her?”
“And this occurredafteryou took me home?”
“Aye.”
Sabrina glanced away from him. He heard what sounded suspiciously like a growl, but coming from her, doubted it. When she looked at him again, a long moment later, she was without expression and her tone was matter-of-fact.
“Ophelia lies about many things, but how Mavis feels about her isn’t one of them. She brought it on herself, though. They used to be friends, but only just recently had a falling out. It happened at Summers Glade, actually, but the result was, Ophelia tried her hardest to blacken Mavis’s name.”
“How well d’you know this Mavis? Would she want tae get back at Ophelia, e’en if it meant hurting someone else tae do it?”
“I’m sorry, Duncan, but I don’t know her well enough to say. I liked her. She seemed quite nice—at least when she wasn’t around Ophelia. When she was, she became rather catty and snide in her remarks. But then Ophelia seems to have that effect on a lot of people, bringing out the worst in them. It’s an amazing quality, that.”
“Nae, what’s amazing is that it would be assumed that I compromised her, merely because o’ where we were seen t’gether, when I’ve ne’er touched her. And there doesna seem tae be any way tae get oout o’ marrying her, unless”
“Unless?”
He turned around, wondering why he’d even thought of it, much less mentioned it, when it would be indirectly using her just to save himself. Not that the outcome wouldn’t be infinitely more desirable, but it would still be taking advantage of her—again.
“Never mind,” he mumbled. ‘Twas a wayward thought best left unsaid.”
“I would think you would want to explore every option—if you really don’t want to marry her.”
She’d said it rather stiffly, which had him turning back to her and countering defensively, “You dinna think I have? It stands oout plainly in my mind that I havena really compromised her, but Ihavecompromised you. If I should be forced tae marry anyone, it should be you—och, that didna sound the way I meant it.”
Her voice went from stiff to much stiffer, even though she allowed, “However you meant it, it’s not an option, Duncan, because it wouldn’t alter the fact that Ophelia would be ruined if it gets out that you were in her bedroom alone with her. Doesn’t matter that you’ve never touched her. A scandal is just that, and I know firsthand how detrimental one can be. Perception is everything where scandal is concerned, with truth and fact having little to do with it. And much as I have come tonotlike Ophelia, I will not be a party to her ruination, indirectly or otherwise.”
She walked off yet again after that. Duncan didn’t try to stop her this time. The uplift in spirits he had hoped to get from an encounter with her hadn’t occurred. If anything, he felt worse now. That she had seemed as down in spirits as he was the cause.
Thirty-eight
It was raining, hard enough to conceal most of the view outside. Duncan stood at the drawing room window watching the downpour, and wondering if Sabrina was watching it, too. She liked the rain, liked storms, liked anything to do with nature apparently, no matter the time of year. He remembered the joy in her expression when he’d taken her out onto that terrace in the rain
“You can’t keep avoiding me.”
It was distinctly jarring, hearing that particular voice behind him, even though he’d had warning that Ophelia might be approaching him, had seen her reflection in the window. The rain had darkened the late afternoon enough to cause the lamps to be turned on in the house, but he would probably have seen her reflection even without the light behind him, since she seemed to glow with her own internal light, her white-blond hair and pale skin only partly responsible.
He didn’t turn around. He reallydidn’twant to have a conversation with her, of any sort, but least of all on the subject of avoiding her. He simply hadn’t decided yet how to deal with her.
He could tell her the truth, that he could barely tolerate her, but that would no doubt lead to their living estranged once they wed, which, all things considered, sounded like an ideal arrangement— for him anyway. Or he could try to get along with her, to make the best of an unwanted marriage. He wasn’t sure hecoulddo that, but he could at least try. However, she was bound to sense, sooner or later, his true feelings, and that would probably lead back to an estranged relationship anyway, so why bother?
But he had the answer to that. He would make an effort for Archie. Archie wanted him to marry and supply him with new heirs. He wouldn’t be getting those heirs as he expected, but Duncan had plenty of time to make him see reason on that point. Yet he wouldn’t be getting the heirs at all if Duncan couldn’t manage to bed his own wife.
“How will it look to people?”
She was still there? Duncan sighed inwardly and turned about to face Ophelia.
“As if we dinna really want tae get married?”
He surprised himself in giving her that answer. It simply came out, despite the internal debate he had just been having with himself. So much for any pretenses. Yet he preferred the truth, and perhaps they could work around it and try to get along anyway.
That thought had him wondering if it was possible for Ophelia to change her ways, or if she was too far gone in her self-absorption. Did he even want to try to change her? Her answer suggested it would be a lost cause.
“Well, I don’t want to marry you,” she said in a huffy tone. “Not anymore anyway, since talking to your grandfather pointed out how tedious it will be living here. But you—there’s no reason for you to keep pretending, Duncan. You know you won’t mind being married to me at all. You, no doubt, only object to how we got engaged again.”
He wasn’t rendered exactly speechless, but it did take a moment for him to get past his amazement enough to reply, “Did it e’er occur tae you, Ophelia, that outward appearances might no’ be what everyone finds important, that some men might prefer sterling qualities in the lass they marry, rather than a pretty face?”
She stared at him blankly for a moment, but then she laughed in a condescending way and informed him, “I’ve had hundreds of marriage proposals to prove otherwise, and most of them from men who barely knew me. What does that tell you about what men prefer?”
