“I needed almost everyone and behaved as if I needed no one at all, which was not my finest period,” Charity gave him a dry look.
Duncan found himself looking at her longer than he should have. He had seen her angry, frightened, defensive, exhausted, and determined, but this was different. There was no fight in her now. She was simply speaking, and in that plain, open way, she looked younger and softer and far too easy to look at.
He shifted slightly in his chair, annoyed with himself at once.
“And these friends,” Duncan said, keeping his tone even. “They know about the marriage?”
Charity’s smile faded, though not completely.
“They know enough to understand that it is happening quickly and under difficult circumstances, and the ones who know me well enough will understand the rest without my writing it plainly.”
Duncan studied her for a second.
“And they approve?”
Charity let out a small breath. “I do not know if approve is the word, but they trust me to make the best decision I can, and I think they will be relieved that my sisters and I are safe, which matters more to me than whether they find the arrangement romantic.”
The word sat between them for half a second.
Romantic.
“It is not romantic,” Duncan looked down at the desk, then back at her.
Charity’s gaze held his, and for a moment, he could not tell whether she was agreeing with him or simply noting that he had felt the need to say it.
“No,” Charity said at last, and her tone stayed calm. “It is not. I have no qualms about that, Your Grace.”
Something in him eased at hearing it, and something else did not.
He glanced at the papers in her hand again. “You said there were others.”
Charity nodded and looked back at the list.
“There are a few local people who have shown us kindness in the past and who would be hurt if they heard of the wedding after the fact, and I would rather avoid that if I can. And then there are the practical names, of course, people who ought to be informed rather than invited in any intimate sense, which is a different category entirely.”
“That sounds sensible,” Duncan gave a short nod.
Charity hesitated, then looked up at him with a different expression, one closer to uncertainty.
“May I ask you something?”
“You may ask.”
Charity set the list down in her lap.
“Do you really not wish to invite anyone else? I know that is going to be an intimate ceremony, but should there not be some more representation from the groom's side?”
“I think Malcolm is enough.”
He did not elaborate further.
“Fine, then. Well, if it means anything to you, I am more than happy to share my friends,” she said. “Some of them are married to dukes, and I should think that they would take to you swimmingly.”
“I appreciate you looking out for me,” he said, half in jest, “but I am fine as I am.”
“You wouldn’t have to worry about company anymore either…”
“I was never worried.”
