Page 35 of A Duchess to Unravel
“You’ve only engaged with him a few times, Amelia. You cannot possibly know what he is truly like,” she retorted.
“And you have not engaged with him at all,” Amelia replied. “You only have rumors pushing your opinion which I consider quite childish.”
Rose looked ready to argue but Seraphina spoke first.
“Might I remind you that my cousin has been quite successful thus far in his business ventures in England?”
Rose made a face.
“What does that have to do with anything?” She retorted.
“It means that even if this is a marriage of convenience, at least our dear Theo will be well provided for,” Seraphina replied.
“And, might I add, that a marriage of convenience turned out very well for me,” Amelia added.
“Good,” Theo sighed, throwing up her arms, “Let us get this out now. I will not bear complaints once this wedding is through. Ophelia. What do you have to say?”
Ophelia, who had lain on her couch, propped her head up by putting her elbow in the cushion and looking intently at Theo.
“I want to know how you feel about all of this,” she replied. “You have not mentioned it once since you told us. No happiness, no remorse. No fear or love. So, tell us. How does this engagement make you feel?”
The quiet bickering among the others stopped, and all four of Theo’s friends looked expectantly at her.
Ophelia was the only one of them that knew about Theo’s visit to the last Masquerade and had already expressed in private that she was now more worried about the man that had sent her the threatening letter than Alistair.
Theo fiddled with her gloved fingertips and let out a sigh. It was a question she had been trying to answer herself for the last five days. She too was more concerned about the man threatening her than the man she was about to marry.
“In truth I do not know what I feel,” she confessed. “I am not numb, as I was after Mama’s death … but I am … quiet inside.”
Ophelia sat up slowly, the reflection of Theo’s secret glimmering in her eyes.
“Perhaps quiet is not so bad,” she said softly.
“Ophelia!” Rose exclaimed, looking at her with betrayal. “Come, you were to be on my side with this!”
“What we should do is support our friend,” Ophelia quipped back, giving Rose a silencing look.
She then turned back to Theo, softening her voice.
“What doyouthink, Theo?”
Nibbling anxiously at her bottom lip, Theo turned back to the mirror. In the reflection she saw a version of herself she’d never seen before. A beautiful, delicate woman with small curves and dark curls. She thought of Alistair’s words from the garden:like a fairy.
Perhaps she was the one that looked like one, but it was Alistair that had the power to grant the wish she now needed. To be free of her stalker. To be free from it all, really. Perhaps, even, if she was bold enough to ask for it, the freedom to experience pleasure as well.
Her blood warmed at the thought of his kisses, at the touch of his rough and large hands over her body. So possessive, encompassing, and addicting that every time they were on her she thought of nothing else.
“I think that this marriage could give the duke and me what we both want,” she replied at last. “And if it cannot, then it does not truly matter. When he leaves in three months, I will have the ability to be independent and wealthy enough to not care about this ridiculous society ever again.”
“How romantic,” Rose said, her dry tone laced with sarcasm.
“You can have romance,” Theo replied, growing more certain of her decision, “I shall take practicality.”
A knock at the bridal chamber’s door interrupted them, and Tristan stepped in. Though they had not been on the best of terms this last week, Theo smiled as she saw him handsomely dressed in his best black suit. His eyes widened as he looked Theo up and down and to her surprise, a small, soft smile touched his lips.
“Sister, you look beautiful,” he praised.
Theo felt a ball of emotion catch in her throat at the sincerity of his praise, and her eyes grew watery.
