“I am not doing this because I want to. And nothing will change that. I am doing this out of duty, of which Miss. Carstone is aware, just as she is also aware of what that means.”
He raised a warning eyebrow at his friend, meaning for this to be the final thing said on the matter. “Married in name only and despite what you might think, that isn’t going to change.”
Sebastian pushed his lips together and then sighed as if conceding the point. He turned and waved at the bartender, indicating for a drink to be brought to him.
“As you say,” Sebastain agreed finally. “I suppose a toast is out of the question.”
“You can. I won’t.”
Sebastian laughed and fell back in his seat, stretching out. He fixed Ronan with a devilish smirk and then a shake of the head. “Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps not everyone has it in them to change.”
“And that, Sebastian, is the first smart thing you’ve said since sitting down.”
Some people changed, but those people weren’t Ronan Ward, the Duke of Westvale. Sometimes, he wished that he could change his ways, that it might make things easier. But easy… no, that was never his way. He was who he was, and had long since learned to live with it.
Now, much to her own detriment, Miss. Carstone would have to live with it too. And for that, he was truly sorry.
Seven
“Are you ready?” Thalia’s Aunt Isadora asked.
“As ready as I ever will be,” Thalia answered her.
Her aunt was shaking with such nerves that one might have guessed that it was she who was about to walk down the aisle today. She had been much the same these past two weeks, wanting to present a brave front, but unable to divorce herself from the opinions she had of the duke.
She is worried for me, and I could not be more grateful that she holds such concern for my well-being. I just wish she would do so more privately, because I could use a little false bravery right now.
“I still can’t believe this is happening…” Her aunt looked out the window of the carriage, her gaze falling on the small church which sat ready and waiting. “And so quickly.”
“For the best.”
“It is,” her aunt agreed. “I just pray that nothing…” She bit into her lip. “I pray that the two of you find happiness.”
Thalia smiled and reached across the carriage, taking her aunt’s hands. “It will be perfectly fine. That the duke has agreed to this at all tells me that he is an honorable man. Surely, that alone is proof that not everything they say is true.”
“Yes… of course… nothing to worry upon whatsoever.”
Again, Thalia found it slightly frustrating that she was the one having to convince her aunt that there was nothing to fear. She supposed in a strange way, it helped with her own worry and fear, forced to speak the words out loud that she needed to hear as if they might be true.
She looked out the window, her eyes falling upon the church, her stomach turning as it had been doing all week. The moment she was both dreading and looking forward to had finally arrived.
“Olivia is inside?” she made sure to ask.
“Oh yes, you will see her there. I left her with my dear friend, Sally Walters, who has three children of her own, so she knows what she is doing.”
Thalia nodded. “Good. This is a big day for her, also. Let us hope she understands why…”
Thalia had already explained to Olivia what was happening and why. And Olivia, ever eager to please and forever a ball of joyous energy, was excited by the prospect of Thalia marrying. She seemed to think that it was not so much a husband that Thalia was gaining, but a father for herself. As if these things were so simple.
And where Thalia would have liked to have explained the complications of this situation… she wouldn’t even know where to start! Olivia was not her daughter, and Ronan would never be her father. This was a situation of circumstance, the final results of which Thalia could not even imagine.
But that is for the future. For now, all I can do is get this over with and hope I’m not making the biggest mistake of my life…
“Shall we?” Her aunt shuffled forward, still holding Thalia by the hand.
A deep breath, a final look at the church, and Thalia pulled herself back into the moment. “No time like the present.”
With that decided upon, Thalia opened the door of the carriage and climbed out from inside. Her aunt came with her, her arm linked through her own, acting as moral support and in the role that her father would have played were he still alive. Someone had to give her away, so it might have been the only person in the world who still cared for her. A natural consequence of burning every bridge she had ever walked over.
