Page 3 of Duke of the Sun

“Ablessing?” Solomon repeated.

“Now,” she continued in a smaller voice, “I might be free to -”

Solomon raised his hand, silencing her immediately. “What you so ignorantly believe to be a blessing in disguise will be the thing that drives you into an irreversible state ofruin.You are lucky, child, to have a father such as I to have already procured you another option. Thank me, thank your brother, thank the standing your sister has within society.” He leaned forward even more, his shadow casting over Cordelia ominously. “Without them, you would have been thoroughly shunned and forgotten long,longago.”

Cordelia’s hands tightened into fists and she did not bother trying to hide them.

“Can you, child, at least tell me what you did to drive the man off?”

She gaped. “Drive off?” she repeated. “What do you take me for, a wild woman incapable of polite society? Just because I -”

“Silence!” Solomon interjected as he returned to his seat. “After everything you have put this family through, you lost the right to defend yourself.”

His words stung deeper than she thought they would. Cordelia was no stranger to disappointing her family. She noticed the looks on their faces and knew exactly what they meant. Even more so now that Colin decided to run off, landing her in a spot that framed her to look like a piece of discarded clothing. For a moment she considered the few meetings she had with Colin, the promenades they had taken. Perhaps there was something she did wrong, something that settled in with him and pushed him towards fleeing to Gretna Green with an even better woman.

Cordelia shook her head. Never would she succumb to that thinking.

“We have one last resort,” Solomon continued, talking more so towards Duncan than her. “Unfortunately there is no time for proper introductions or anything else respectable.”

“Do you mean I won’t even meet the man before being forced to marry?” Cordelia blurted.

Solomon’s head flung back towards her in a wild rage. “The longer we wait, the more this scandal settles in on the Ton! The less they are to forget it, and the easier they are to ridicule us in all forms of society! Do you wish for your cherished siblings to face the wrath of society for your misgivings?”

She bit back the things she really wanted to say. “No, Father.”

“Then you will do as I say,” he snapped, “And make sure you keep this one.”

Cordelia jerked her head away, the angry hot tears threatening to streak across her face. “Might I please be excused, Father?”

Solomon jerked his hand around at her without saying another word.

She spun around on her heel and stormed out of the parlor. Shooting through the hall, Cordelia marched till she came to the pair of double doors that led out to the gardens behind Darkenhill Manor. Shoving them open, a burst of fresh air crashed against her face, and she inhaled it eagerly. In the distance, she heard the squawks and quacks of the geese. They shot by overhead, flying towards their next destination, and leaving her behind.

Behind her, gentle footsteps drew near until Irene stood at her right.

“Do you know who I am to be betrothed to?” Cordelia asked.

“The Duke of Solshire,” Irene replied. “But you will love him all the same.”

“Love?” Cordelia repeated. “What makes you so sure?”

Irene sighed wistfully. “Because you must.”

“I refuse.”

“Why must you be against us so much, Cordelia? It is not like you do things we haven’t already done before you. It is not like this is out of the ordinary, or not what has been expected of you all along.”

Cordelia looked over the gardens and past them, all the way towards the rolling hills and the distant horizon. “Mother always told me to never be rid of my free-spirit,” she murmured. “‘Never forget the things that make youyou.’ That’s what she said.”

Irene eyed her silently for a moment. “Mother is gone, Cordelia.”

“I’m well aware.”

“We are here,” she continued. “Father is here. Don’t you wish to see him proud, to see him happy in his aging years?”

“Tell me when he has sought out my own happiness, and I will say yes.”

Irene sighed heavily again, shaking her head. Pity laced her gentle green eyes. “I fear your stubbornness might drive you far away from this family, Cordelia. You can only be so carefree for so long.”

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