Page 66 of Taken By the Duke of Stone

She ducked her head, blushing, because she had had every intention of consummating their marriage. "He was not all that interested in continuing his line."

Jenny gaped at her, "what were you thinking Lavinia!" she cried.

"I was obviously not thinking," she dropped to her back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. "If I was, I would never have allowed myself to fall hopelessly in love with him."

Tears began to slide down her eyes, and her lips trembled, "I have fallen for him and I do not know what to do. I do not know whether to try harder with him or to leave him be. But then the thought of never speaking to him again."

"And my family," Lavinia continued, "they will hate me if I do this to them. I cannot smear their names because of my selfishness. I should never have attempted to save us if I had no plans to follow through."

"Oh, Lavvie," the other girl sighed, "it is by no fault of yours. How could you have known that this would happen?"

That was when she burst into tears, huge racking sobs that made her curl up into a ball and bury her face in her hands, body trembling. Jenny was at a loss because she had never seen her strong and capable friend in such a state and she felt a little panicked as at what to do, but finally, she crawled into bed with her and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Do not cry, Lavinia."

"H-how can I not?" she sobbed. "I cannot break the engagement because my family and I will only suffer from it but neither can I go ahead with it because I do not think I will be able to live that way. He is perfect in every other way but for that one unforgivable flaw."

She rubbed her hand up and down her friend's back, trying to soothe her. Lavinia knew she was acting like a fool, and she hated to cry because it made her eyes puffy, gave her a headache and didn't solve anything either. What she should have been doing was thinking of a way to fix this.

But she was tired.

So very tired of wearing a smile and pretending that everything was fine when it was not.

"Do you think I should end it?" She opened her eyes and stared at Jenny through blurry vision, "I do not want you to pity me. I want you to tell me what you would do if you were me. It appears that this entire situation has made me impractical and I desperately need someone to be my voice of reason."

Jenny paused, looking thoughtful, "I cannot tell you what to do, Lavvie, I'm sorry. You're the only one who can decide your course of action."

That was exactly what she had feared. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to imagine being married to Victor. In her mind's eye, her future stretched ahead of her endlessly filled with unfulfilled longing and unreciprocated love. She saw herself withering away ever so slowly.

But then she imagined a life without him, he would find someone else of course. He was a young, wealthy and handsome Duke and within minutes of the news that he was back on the marriage mart spreading through theton, he would have women beating down on his door.

Either way, her story would be tragic.

"What if you managed to find another gentleman to marry you?" Jenny suddenly piped up. "That could save your family from the gossipmongers. The story would be that you jilted a Duke in the name of love and it would betrès romantique."

Lavinia sat up and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, "Who would marry me? You forget that before the Duke came along with his scheme, I did not exactly have a line of callers or admirers."

"Only because you are oblivious and you decided that none of them are nearly good enough."

"I was holding out for love," she pouted.

"Of course, of course," Jenny agreed easily, "but now, you have caught the attention of thetonby being involved with the Duke. It is time to use that attention for your own good."

"Are you saying that I should..." she trailed off, thoughts racing. For the sake of her family's reputation, she could get herself another gentleman. But who? Not Noah's friends of course. Someone else. Like the marquess perhaps.

The idea began to cement in her mind, but then Victor's face flashed in her head and her plans stuttered to a stop.

"I cannot," she finally said, "I love him too much."

"I understand," Jenny told her, "I do not expect you to make any decisions now, Lavvie. I believe you will make the right choice though and I will support you through whatever you decide."

She began to nod and then froze. It only just occurred to her that she had made this decision to save her family from ruin by herself and if her aunt ever found out, she would be disappointed. She had lied to her about the nature of her and the Duke's relationship. Well, she hadn't exactly lied.

She had just made her believe that they were both equally attached to each other.

"What am I going to tell my aunt?" she wailed. "She thinks the Duke loves me and I don't know where she has got that idea, and I have no idea what I will tell her if I ever decide to endthe engagement. She will be so disappointed if she finds out the truth."

"You will figure it out," Jenny soothed.

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