“Really?” Leander looked up to Cedric. “Your father gave you a cat?”
“It’s Miss Aria’s cat actually,” Emily said as she went to her chair. “She found it, but she lets me keep it on the weekends.”
While the two chatted, Ariadne reached for that day’s edition of the Times, and by habit, she turned to the scandal pages, and the moment her eyes landed on the large black letters, her heart fell to the pit of her stomach.
Who is the new Duchess of Holloway?
Society reeled as His Grace, the Duke of Holloway, the most elusive Duke in London, emerged one day as wedded to a Miss Ariadne Hargrave—but insiders whisper the marriage is more cover-up than courtship.
Suspicions arise as bystanders see the two in a renowned sweetshop with his child in his arms, but a few recall a certain ball when the gentlelady was promised to hisbrother, Lord Moreland.
“Everyone believes she was compromised,” confided one guest, requesting anonymity. “The poor girl’s reputation was hanging by a thread, and suddenly the Duke swoops in? It’s all too convenient.”
Cynics suggest that the union is less a romance than a rescue mission, designed to cloak a scandal and not a true union. No one knows the truth of the matter, but it is truly suspicious how one brother was switched for the other.
Ariadne stared at the paper until her eyes began to hurt and she dimly heard her name being called between what felt like cotton being stuffed into her ears.
“Ariadne?” She belatedly realized Cedric was calling her name—and had been calling her name for a while.
She turned to him and mustered a smile. “I am sorry. I went off wool gathering. Is something the matter?”
Cedric’s eyes narrowed. “Not entirely. Emily was asking if you would take her to see Amelia this evening.”
Swallowing, Ariadne said, “I—” her gaze landed on the child, her expression hopeful, and it cut her in two to know that she was going to disappoint her. “Unfortunately, I cannot today. Maybe the governess can step into my stead.”
She felt Leander’s eyes on the side of her neck while Cedric’s brows began to knit. “I am sure she will. If you want to go and rest?—”
“I’ll do that, thank you,” she pushed away from the table and headed back to her rooms, to a bed she had abandoned for weeks. As she rested her head on the pillows, she clenched her eyes tight and tried to block of the memory of the words on that damned paper.
How much do they know? Is our secret truly out?
What had started as a marriage of necessity to keep shame from both their families had grown into something so much more than a marriage of convenience.
When had she fallen fully and completely in love with Cedric Greymont? And now, that love was going to be called into question by nosy busybodies in the ton.
The worries circled her mind in such a furious way it exhausted her from the inside out, and soon enough, she dropped into a tremulous sleep.
It was the soft dip of her bed that roused Ariadne from her troubled sleep, but she did not turn until Cedric gently hooked a hand around her waist and pulled her in.
“I know you’re awake, Ariadne,” Cedric said, and she heard the rustle of the newspaper drop to the end of the bed. “And I know about the rumor rag. Please open your pretty eyes and look at me.”
She forced her eyes open. “Do you think they know?”
His hand cupped her cheek, “So what if they know? It’ll blow off eventually, and no one will care a whit about it anymore. Rumors won’t invalidate our marriage, even if they will make the ton titter over their breakfast trays and at supper.
“This is the part of the ton that no one talks about or acknowledges,” he said. “These lords and ladies will smile at your face and stab you in the back the moment you turn it.”
His hand rested on her hip. “You’ll learn to grow a thick skin, Ariadne. My hide is thicker than a rhinoceros' armor at this point, and I don’t mean just the parts of my skin that look like a melted candle.”
“Will it make your life harder?” She asked.
“No, not exponentially.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I’ll get the editor to stop these publications and make sure you are not targeted for these vile rumors.”
“But they are not rumors.” She whispered.
“Regardless,” he said. “I’ll make sure you and your family are protected.”
“You cannot do everything, Cedric,” she said. “I want to help, but I don’t know how. My countryfied sensibilities are at a loss here.”
