For a moment, a distance lingered between them like an ethereal mist. She could not discern if she had been the one to lean in, or if he had moved first, but the abyss evaporated as his lips met hers.
She lost herself in his warm and tender lips, enjoying the firm and sensual press of his mouth against hers. A deep, throaty sound escaped from him as his hand pressed needfully against the small of her back and pulled her closer.
Suddenly, Isabelle’s forgotten wrist grazed a lone key and the pianoforte rang.
With a startle, she and the duke sprang from the bench in surprise. As he retreated to the window bank, she backed away towards the safety of the fireplace.
What have I done?
Windham linked his hands together behind his head and paced back and forth. “I apologize. I should not have done that.”
“I do not believe that you are the only one at fault in this scenario.” Isabelle’s voice trembled with raw emotion as she stared down at the flames in the hearth.
Felix sighed. “I am the one who should have known better. My family had been entrusted to your care and now I have ruined your virtue. I have utterly abolished your hopes of finding a husband.”
Isabelle took a deep breath, but was secretly relieved that she would no longer have to marry.
The duke strode over to her. “We will marry at once. Of course, this shall compromise the other half of the arrangement, but there is only so much I can do to remedy the situation.”
“Theother half?” Isabelle asked, her tone suddenly sharp. She spun and glared at him, her arms crossed angrily over her chestand her marriage prospects forgotten. “What do you mean by that?”
His face grew ashen. “I mean that there are sacrifices that will have to be made. Nothing more.”
She fumed. “You arelyingto me. After what just happened and the times that we have spent together, I would think that you would be more forthcoming with the truth. I am not a child, Windham. I demand to know what the other half of your arrangement is about.”
“You needn’t concern yourself about it.”
“You and my father are playing games with mylife. I deserve to hear the truth so I know what I must prepare myself for.”
Windham wavered. She watched the emotion drain from his face as he reconstructed the walls that had existed between the two of them.
Whatever he had to say to her, she knew it was going to hurt.
“Isabelle, it is truly unimportant. We shall be married and then it will all be over.”
“Not all of it.” She marched over to him, stopping a few inches away. “Tell me about the rest of the deal,Your Grace.”
His face hardened further. “There were to be additional funds awarded for each child you produced, and even more if I found you a husband with a considerable fortune. Provided that came to pass,andyou received a title of baroness or higher, your father promised to sell me the piece of farmland in his possession that backs onto my estate.”
“Price per child.” Isabelle felt hollow with disbelief. “You put a price on each of my unborn children. You set another price based on my acquiring a title. And yetanotherprice for bringing me here in the first place! Is there a single aspect of my life that you have not had the gall to assign aworth?”
Felix colored and looked away, his eyes incapable of meeting hers. He stared at the ornate flooring beneath their feet as Isabelle angrily wiped tears of rage and betrayal from her eyes.
She took a shuddering breath and drew her shoulders back. “We willnotbe married.”
“I have tarnished your reputation. No other man will want you now.”
“An unnecessary reminder, I assure you.” Isabelle turned and fled for the door. Before she exited she turned to him once more. “It is a disgrace that you felt the need to lie and hide things from me while I was prepared to walk through fire for you and your family.”
Windham House was silent. The rest of the family was out, and the servants had the night off. Lady Evangeline and Lady Hyacinth had gone to stay with their aunt in the country.
Isabelle was free to be alone, but she wished that she wasn’t. She longed to tell Victoria everything that had happened. She wished that she could confide in her, but it would be for nothing.
Isabelle stood in her room and looked at the American dresses in her wardrobe, ready to be worn at all of the events a young lady with an upstanding reputation was expected to attend.
The longer she looked at the dresses, the more she understood that she would never be accepted into English society.
She could see it in the pulled seams that had been altered to bring her American dresses up to English standards of fashion. The military elements that she had once liked so much now looked out of place. It was now easy to see the many ways that she had fallen short.
