Page 75 of A Bride for the Cruel Duke

She needed everything to go perfectly. She needed to prove to Anthony that he could have peace and quiet and be happily married at the same time. Easier said than done, where her family was involved.

ChapterTwenty-Six

Caroline and Anthony met her family in the foyer of their manor. It was early evening, the sun still setting but close now to disappearing entirely, and Anthony was still struggling to come to terms with how he was feeling.

A part of him wanted to embrace this romance entirely because he knew that he was falling in love with Caroline. The other part worried about what that might mean for him, because where he did indeed care for Caroline, he did not enjoy what this emotion did to him. How weak it made him feel. How shrunken. How dependent he was now on Caroline’s happiness, and what would become of him if something went wrong.

Tonight, he knew, would be the ultimate test. Caroline’s family were a tempestuous bunch, sure to bring out the worst in Anthony. Could he weather the storm for the sake of this marriage? Or would he break, likely reminding Caroline who it was that she had married and how unfit he was for such a thing. And did he want that? To scare her away so that there was no risk of this marriage going further?

I am a mess. Emotionally drained. As unsure as I have ever been. I want happiness. I want to be with Caroline. But I also fear what that will make me.

“How are you feeling?” Anthony asked as they waited.

“I might ask the same of you,” she joked. “Are you prepared for the mayhem that is my family.”

“I will be fine,” he said a little too sharply. She frowned at the response and he forced a smile. “I am looking forward to it.”

She snorted. “Liar.”

“They are difficult,” Anthony agreed. “But they are your family, which means that they are my family also.”

She smiled at the comment, taking his hand and squeezing it. “It won’t be that bad. My family can be troublesome, but they are not without their positives.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Are we speaking of the same family?”

“They will behave,” she said with a grimace. “They know better than to…” She trailed off then, seemingly unwilling to defend her family as she must have known that with them came mayhem.

“I am sure they will be fine,” Anthony said, more for his own sake than Caroline’s. “I mean, how bad can they possibly be?”

Anthony had spent all day mulling over this exact question. More importantly, he had considered deeply how he was to behave tonight. He needed to be calm. He needed to be reasonable. He needed not to give Caroline a reason to question this marriage and the man with whom she would be spending the rest of her life.

This, Anthony knew, would be easier said than done.

They were still holding hands when it was announced that her family’s carriage was approaching, and Caroline took the moment to squeeze his hand tighter as if to tell him silently that she was here for him.

The door to the foyer swung open and through it swept Caroline’s family like a hurricane. Her mother came first, trailed by Aurelia who was bickering with Eveline, behind which dragged Iris, and then Daniel who wandered into the home with a sense that he would have preferred to have been anywhere but there.

“Caroline!” Caroline’s mother came for her, arms outstretched. “We heard what happened!” She took Caroline by both arms, pulling her into a kiss before holding her back to study her. “Honestly, girl, what were you thinking!”

“Good evening, mother,” Caroline said with a wince. “It is good to?—”

“I thought you said that she fell from a horse!” Eveline cried out from behind their mother. “She looks fine to me!”

“What were you expecting?” Aurelia said.

“I dunno,” Eveline shrugged. “More bruises, I suppose.”

“Do not sound so upset.”

“I did not say I was!”

“Girls!” Their mother turned and raised both eyebrows at them in warning. “What did we speak of? Aurelia, I expect you to keep you sister under control.”

“Me!” Aurelia gasped. “I did not do anything.”

“Exactly!”

“If Violet was here—” Aurelia started.

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