Page 11 of The Perks of being a Duchess
Honestly.
“It also rhymes with pillow.”
His features contorted into a dark scowl. “Damnation, tell me, then,” he growled.
“Why do you wish to know the whereabouts of my sister?” Willow countered. She suspected she wasn’t going to like the answer. Holly had to be protected at all cost.
“Your sister made a spectacle of me,” St. Ives answered.
“You weren’t jilted,” Willow pointed out.
“Do you imagine just because you stepped in, your sister will be released from the consequences of her actions?”
“Yes?” Willow drew out the word.
“Have you any thought on how it feels to be so publically made a fool?”
Willow’s heart dropped to her stomach. No, she did not. But all the same, beyond her own reasons for marrying the duke, she must protect her sister.
“I took her place, is that not enough?” she implored.
“That won’t absolve her from the consequences, no.”
His dismissive tone sparked her temper. “And what consequences are those?”
He shrugged. “She will marry my brother, Jonathan.”
She jerked forward in her seat.What?
The man had just discovered the deception! How had he already plotted a plan of reckoning?
“And how long did it take for you to decide that?” Willow demanded.
“About as long as my astonishment lasted when I discovered I had been betrayed by my betrothed.”
Willow snapped her brows together. His astonishment, as he called it, had lasted only a blink of an eye. “That seems harsh, does it not? Can we not come to another sort of understanding?”
“It seems perfectly appropriate that she marry my brother as I have wed her sister, do you not agree?”
“An eye for an eye, you mean.”
“If that’s how you wish to see it.”
“Your logic is archaic,” Willow rejoined.
“Maybe,” the duke returned. “But if saving your sister from the consequences of her actions was why you happily took her place, you have grossly underestimated your position.”
“Well,” Willow said with a petulant pout, “I would not go so far as to say happily. But I had thought you would spare my sister your anger. Plus, Iamthe oldest sister. By rights, I ought to have been married first. And before you attempt to bully me, you should know that I will always protect my sisters. Nothing and no one can force me to do otherwise, including you.”
“Commendable.”
Willow quelled a shiver at the deep timbre of his voice. Lud, she had to be careful. He might be her husband, but in this matter, he was her adversary. “So what happens now?”
“We attend the wedding breakfast.” His eyes turned frosty. “You will sit, smile prettily, and not mention a word of what transpired today. For all intents and purposes, it was you I courted. As far as anyone is concerned, you were always meant to become my wife.”
You were always meant to become my wife.
In another life, with another man, those words would have melted her insides. From him, only coldness settled in her belly.
