Page 26 of Denying a Rakish Duke
“There is a very obvious solution to this issue, and I am not quite certain why it has not yet been suggested. It is very obvious to me that your intention was to have your youngest daughter marry a Duke, and while I feel that it is deplorable that you would turn your back on one daughter to elevate another, the way that you run your family is not any of my concern.” The Dowager glanced from the softly crying girl in the center of the room to Joseph.
Over the course of the day, he had mentioned this girl many times. Far more times than he had ever mentioned another woman to her in his entire life. The way his expression shifted when she was mentioned, the way he seemed to gravitate toward her in a room— how hurt he looked at the notion that she might be using him despite having similarly used countless women in his life— this was the Farbridge that he genuinely wanted. She found no sense in harming a budding affection that was by all accounts mutual because of a little perceived scandal.
“Must I spell it out for you?” The Dowager sighed and leaned into her cane with both hands. “My grandson, the Duke of Willow, will marry your daughter, Lady Vanessa. This will save your family from any further scandal and prevent her from being compromised.” She left no room for argument or negotiation. Her word was meant as law and an end to the conversation.
“Good, then it is settled. We shall retire for the evening, and at first morning light, the Duke will go and plead for a special marriage license to have them happily wed at the earliest convenience. Is that agreeable to all?”
Every person in the room looked as if they wanted to disagree, but not a single one said a word.
“Very good, then we have a wedding to plan.”
ChapterSixteen
“It is not as if attaining a special license is a simple thing to do, you know,” Joseph muttered bitterly to his grandmother in the carriage ride on the way home. The Dowager did not so much as look at him. He could see the small vein in her neck pulsating, always a telltale sign of her thinly veiled irritation. She had not looked in his way since leaving Evans Manor. Were it not for his own guilt drawing at him, he might have been able to pass the ride in the tense silence.
“So, you are determined to not even speak with me?” he huffed, his own frustration and worry growing.
“My dear grandchild, you usually are opposed to my speaking regardless of the subject matter— and now suddenly you are discomforted by the quiet?” The Dowager’s voice was cold and hollow sounding. He had only heard her rage reach such a level twice before, and neither time was an event that he had ever wished to relive. He had given her plenty of trouble in his youth, to be sure. He was wild and reckless with very little care to the emotions of others, but even with all of his antics, she had only usedthisspecific tone twice before.
If only he could recall the method he had employed in order to get back into her good graces either time, because the memory of it was escaping him. He was not afforded the luxury of time to mend things between them. Not with the pressing nature of the circumstances that he had created. He was unaccustomed to feeling guilty for the things that he did.
His relationship with his grandmother would seem strange to most, he knew that. The brusque way they often communicated could be considered scandalous or even rude, but there had always been a playful undertone. She was the only person in the world who understood why he acted the way that he did and why he said the things that he did. She was not a woman who was truly displeased with him often— but even her current ire did not compare to how upset he was with himself.
He had wounded Vanessa. Perhaps not in a tangible, physical way, but she was injured just the same. Joseph’s reputation would continue on much in the same as it always had, rumors abounded wherever he went. However, unlike Vanessa, he would be seen in a favorable light because of them. He would be congratulated at the club for managing to go where many had tried and failed before him. Vanessa and her younger sister, they would be ruined. Any prospects of an advantageous marriage between Amanda and another would be forever gone. The look of horror on Vanessa’s face when Amanda had gone running from the room was not one that he was going to easily forget. It had twisted something inside him, something he did not wish to explore any further.
“You had no right to speak on my behalf, to make this arrangement for me!”
Only then did the Dowager turn her attention to Joseph. “I beg your pardon?” He knew better than to speak until she was finished. “Do not take your hurt feelings out on me, Boy, what I did, everything that I said, was for the good of us all. This was the only way out of that situation which will not leave that already pockmarked family in completeruin,and you have the audacity to speak to me about rights?” She whipped her head back to look out of the window as her grip tightened around the head of her cane. “I am ashamed of you, Your Grace, and I should hope that you are ashamed of yourself. You have been taught consequences better than most— and above all else you should be well aware of what a scandal can do to a person. You declared your intentions to me for one sister and instead have a dalliance with another, well fine, but to stand there quaking in your boots like a young child sneaking sweets before dinner? Allowing her to take the brunt of her family's ire? It turns my stomach to look at you.”
Joseph looked down at the space of carriage floor captured between his feet blankly as her words settled over him. She certainly had never said anything like that to him before. He wore her words like a noose, tightening as he replayed the events of the evening. He did not care for the insinuation of his character. Even if he obtained the license in the morning, what would that spell out for his future? What life would a marriage between them lead to? Certainly not happiness. Joseph had no doubt in his mind that Vanessa would marry him for the sake of her family and for the sake of Amanda specifically. He had been so shocked by the way her mother and uncle had spoken to her—he should have said something. He should have tried harder to interject on her behalf.
“I did not intend this,” Joseph muttered softly. “I would not have wounded her intentionally.”
The Dowager glanced over at her grandson, her lips pressed more firmly together to keep from speaking. She knew him well enough to know that while he might be a fool, he was not a deliberately malicious fool.
“I would have not—” his words trailed off into nothingness as he, too, turned to stare out of the carriage window as they traveled back to their Estate. “She is infuriating … it is almost like I lose all sense of restraint around her. She is so … she is so—” he trailed off again, unable to find the words that would make any sense.
* * *
“Do not look at me,” Vanessa said simply, adjusting the fit of her modest dress.
Something about the way that she had been dressed did not sit right with him. She deserved something of grandeur, something made finer or with more detail. He knew that she likely had something nicer to wear even if it were not white and silver like she was dressed in now. Perhaps her wedding dress did not mean anything to her at all as she had proclaimed herself destined to be a spinster.
He could not help himself— he looked at her. Still just as beautiful standing next to him as the first time he laid eyes on her. She should be afforded more than this. He wanted to give her more. He wished to be able to make the occasion more of a celebration because she deserved nothing less. He had not been able to sleep for the past three nights, and it did not appear that Vanessa had fared much better than he had.Standing here in front of the priest without her sister in attendance must be miserable for her.From what he had overhead, Amanda had yet to come out of her chamber for anything other than meals. Even then it was sporadic. If Joseph knew nothing else about Vanessa, he knew that she treasured her sister. There were not many witnesses present to verify their union, rushed as it was. Of all of those in attendance, only the faces of his own grandmother, her uncle Tobias, and her mother were known to him.
News of their scandalous discovery had been the talk of thetontwo days ago and was still the case this very morning. A part of him had wondered if they would have to bar people from entering the chapel or not.
Contracts had been drawn up in near silence. Income and dowries were discussed, but he had drawn the line at living arrangements as he needed to discuss that with Vanessa before he spoke about that with any of the others. As he had not been allowed to see her in person until this very moment, there were still a great many things to be discussed between them.
He wanted to say something, anything, that might calm her and make this process simpler for her. His lips parted to speak, but words would not come to him. Nothing could make this simpler, and a single tear rolled down the side of her face that she quickly wiped away before anyone but himself saw it.
“Do not,” she muttered harshly, and the sound clipped against the back of her teeth before he commented on what he saw. She rolled her shoulders back and lifted her chin defiantly as the priest began to speak. He could hardly hear the words leaving the man’s mouth as he spoke. “I simply could not bear it,” Vanessa whispered out of the side of her mouth, and Joseph was silenced.
“Do you promise to honor and obey this man until death do you part?” the priest asked Vanessa. To her credit she did not move, and her chin dipped into a small nod. She did not hesitate.
“I do,” Joseph answered, only vaguely aware of the fact that it was then his turn to speak.
“Do you promise to protect and cherish this woman until death parts you?”
