The back rooms of the house were quieter. She moved to the garden door that had been propped open to take advantage of the lovely day, but then stopped when she heard her husband talking to Kate.
She would have announced herself except she heard Kate say, “Willaislovely. And I’m certain she will make an impeccable duchess even if she is little more than a child herself.”
That was a statement to stop Willa in her steps.
“Stop it, Kate. Willa is a woman in every way.”
“She’s an example of the pampered class. She knows little of the world. And her eyes follow you everywhere as if you are some treasure someone has placed in her lap.”
Did she have that expression? Willa didn’t think so... except she could admit to being slightly dazzled by her husband’s good looks.
She was pleased that her husband defended her. “She is far stronger and more sensible than you imagine,” he assured his sister.
“I’m certain you are right. However, in our family, we marry forlove, Matt. We learned that from our parents.”
“There is the title—” he started, but she cut him off.
“Love. That’s all that is important. Why do you think I am still single? I refuse to settle for anything less. So, tell me you love Willa and I shall shut my mouth. Even after your ridiculous decision to join her name to yours.”
“Kate.” He said her name as if wishing she would understand.
“Matt.” She mimicked his tone, unrelenting in her demand.
He made an impatient sound and then said, “Our parents were fortunate. What they had was rare. I’ve seen it in no one else—”
“Alice and Roland, Amanda and Robert—” Kate began ticking off.
Matt interrupted her. “I know, I know. They are all lucky, because I will tell you, I’ve been in love. Yes, see, you didn’t know that, Kate. It made a bloody fool of me. No, worse, it almost destroyed me. This is better. I respect Willa.”
“And her sizable dowry,” Kate added, sounding disenchanted. “How touching.”
“That will see this family through difficult times,” Matt assured her.
“Do you think money is what we want from you? That it is the reason Alice and I traveled to London? If you do, then I pity Willa. Marriage is hard, Matt. Without love, it is little more than a business transaction.”
“Says someone who has never been married or in love.”
There was a pause as if his words had struck home. And then she said, “I don’t understand how you went so far astray. There must be a reason, and I’ll wager the fault lies withyou.” She must have walked off with those words because he tried to call her back.
Willa wished she’d never heard this conversation.
Of course, she and Matt were not a love match. All she’d asked was to be respected and to be valued.
But he’d also said he’d loved someone else...
Willa knew who.
She had no reason for jealousy, and yet, every time Letty’s name was mentioned, acid soured her stomach. It had been this way since the night of their betrothal when he’d left London without a thought of Willa. And now was he merely placating her?
She had a strong urge to start upending tables and throwing glassware—which was very out of character for her.
Instead, she found a quiet corner and sat because she was always polite. Well bred. Raised to be a duchess. Even if she was as blank and boring as the pieces of paper on her desk yesterday.
And, really, what should she have expected? Matt’s poems might have inspired an almost desperate hope in her for something meaningful between them, but now she realized they were nothing but words.
She thought about her father’s mistresses. The humiliations her mother was forced to live with because she was dependent upon her husband’s whims, his moods. All any woman did was sell herself into marriage. What other option was there for them?
“Here you are,” Matt’s voice said from behind her. He came walking from the front of the house. No one’s smile was better than his. If she let herself, she could imagine he was happy to see her.
