Merryweather chuckled and shook his head, which Bethany did not understand, but sometimes gentlemen were simply odd.
“I will have clothing delivered and then see about the arrest of the men who did this, though I suspect that they are long gone since I was asking questions.”
“Likely with my horse and good boots,” Claybrook grumbled.
“Yes, but you gained a wife.” Merryweather laughed again. “I will have them hold your cabriolet until you can retrieve it.” He then nodded to Bethany and was gone.
At the click of the door, Bethany stomped to the bed. “Why did you tell him we had wed?” she demanded.
“Because eventually we will, and this protects your reputation.”
She could not believe she heard him correctly.
“We most certainly will not marry,” she insisted and then returned to the breakfast, removed plates for herself and then deposited the tray on his lap. “I should have left you in the road.” She didn’t mean her words of course, but neither did she want to face the truth.
“We should discuss the matter,” he said.
“You should eat your breakfast,” she argued and turned her back on him.
She could not marry the Duke of Claybrook. She just couldn’t.
Oh, why did it have to be her who found him in the middle of the road?
They would never suit. He did not even like her, and she couldn’t stop loving him. Well, she did not care for the man he had become in the last two years, but still loved the person he had been before she pushed him into the Serpentine.
She loved the man she had thought he was.
Bethany sat on the settee and stared at the food before her, no longer hungry. No matter how much she wished to deny their predicament, deep down she knew the truth.
Chapter Eight
The two of them ate in silence, though Bethany picked more at her food than ate it. No doubt she was disturbed by his declaration that they would wed, but surely, she understood that they had no other choice.
Did she hate him so much that the very idea of life as his duchess was abhorrent?
At one time, they had gotten on very well and he had even started falling in love with her and then it ended, and Leopold never knew why. One day they were enjoying a pleasant conversation while all he could think about was kissing her and the next day, she pushed him into the Serpentine with no explanation.
“Why were you originally going to miss Christmas with your family?”
Bethany looked up from her plate and stared at him. “It is not important.”
“It must have been, or you would not have made your original decision.”
Bethany glanced down and picked at the eggs on her plate.
Maybe he shouldn’t pry, but he wanted to know her reasons. One does not simply miss out on such an important holiday with family without good cause.
“The club,” she finally answered.
Bethany and Tessa had opened a gentlewomen’s club this past spring. From what he had been told, it was more of a salon where sciences, politics, and arts were discussed. There was another room for gambling and a dining room where meals were served. Even though it was for women, he knew gentlemen who were granted entry and paid for a subscription. He had applied once and was turned down. At the bottom of the rejection either Tessa or Bethany had penned: You would not approve, Your Grace.
Ellings had told him that Bethany deemed him too priggish to appreciate what was offered.
Priggish! Was that how she saw him?
Though, these past few years, he had been.
No wonder she did not want him around and it explained why she refused to discuss marriage.
