“Oh my yes, and all of them willing to tell me so, and take me to task for my cruel dismissal.”
“Your brother said no one knew about his suit—”
“Not at first, but word got out. It always does.”
Yes, it did. He knew that well enough. Word would get out about Amelia, too, but by then she’d be a Sutherland, or as good as one.
“Why, then?” Cam wasn’t sure why he persisted in his questions. He didn’t want to know, didn’t want to think about her reasons or her hopes or her dreams, but somehow it was of crucial importance he know it all—that he understand the extent of his crime.
She kicked her horse into a fast walk, as if she could escape the place and the conversation at once. “I begin to think I don’t . . . that is, I don’t wish to marry. I don’t believe it will make me happy.”
But she would marry, and soon, despite her wishes. She may have escaped Durham, but she wouldn’t escape him. He followed her. “So cynical. Why should you not be happily married?”
She slanted him a skeptical look. “Are you such a strong believer in marriage, then, Camden? Do you believe in love at first sight, as well? Oh, but wait . . . that must be why you wish to marry me. Love.”
There could have been innuendo in her words, but there wasn’t. She wasn’t flirting with him. Just the opposite. She thought the very idea absurd, and he . . .
He’d have preferred flirtation. Anything even, to such bitter sarcasm.
But she was right. He put as much faith in true love as he did in mermaids and dragons—they were fairy tales. Illusions, nothing more, but for some inexplicable reason, he didn’t like to hear his own cynicism echoed by her. She was too young, too lovely to be so jaded.
The thought was so ironic it left a taste of metal in Cam’s mouth.
You deserveto choke on it.
“You’ve no reason to think people can’t be happy in marriage, Eleanor. Your brothers appear to be satisfied with their spouses. With two such examples before you, you must have some faith in the institution.”
“Satisfied?” She looked at him the way a schoolmaster looks at a student right before he canes him for stupidity. “They are much more than that. My brothers are deeply in love with their wives, and their wives are mad for them. But they are the exception, not the rule. You couldn’t have chosen poorer examples to make your point.”
Cam remained silent. He couldn’t argue with her. Mermaids, dragons and Lady Eleanor Sutherland’s brothers. He wouldn’t have believed such love existed if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.
“My sisters-in-law are fortunate in their marriages, but most ladies are forced to settle for far less. Dangerously less, in the worst case.”
She shouldn’t have to settle for less.But she would.If she didn’t, Amelia would have to, and Amelia already had less. Much less.
Didn’t she?
Amelia had him. She had Julian, and Aunt Mary. It was true she’d never known that sweetest, purest love—the love a parent had for their child—but she’d never lost it, either.
It had never been Amelia’s to lose.
But dangerously less—what did Ellie know about that? Cam shifted uneasily on the saddle as he pictured Hart Sutherland, with his cold eyes and thin, cruel mouth. He pictured Lady Catherine, gentle and sweet-tempered, and his stomach roiled with nausea.
Whatever had happened between his mother and Hart Sutherland, Amelia hadn’t had to watch it. But however bad it had been between Lady Catherine and Hart Sutherland, Ellie had seen it all. It seemed incredible to him Amelia could ever have been more fortunate than Lady Eleanor Sutherland, but maybe thiswasa fairy tale, after all.
Or maybe the most poignant ironies were the stuff of truth, not fairy tales.
But what difference did it make? Hart Sutherland stole something from his mother and Amelia, and Cam would have it back, one way or another. “You won’t have to worry about the worst case when we’re married.”
She laughed, but the sound was cold—not a laugh at all. “Oh, no, of course not. I’ve no reason at all to worry, given our delightful courtship.”
Cam flinched.A fair hit. She had no reason to trust him, and any number of reasons not to, but then she hadn’t looked at this from every angle yet. “You’re so determined to escape me, you haven’t even considered the advantages of the arrangement.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Yes. I can’t think how I could have overlooked them. Pray explain them to me.”
“You’d have far more freedom than most women enjoy in marriage. You could do whatever you wish.”
“I do whatever I wishnow. I may legally be my brother’s responsibility, but Alec doesn’t limit my freedom.”
