Page 35 of The Duke's Treasure
He shook his head, wanting to be in his own space. “The study.”
His brother accompanied them, taking one of the seats before the desk while their mother arranged herself as best she could on the opposing chair, the volume of her skirts making it difficult for her to do so. Perhaps that would prevent her from prolonging this conversation.
“Edward,” she began in that voice of hers that told him she was trying to compliment him so that he would see her side ofthings, “Lady Palencia is a beautiful woman, and I know how much the exotic appeals to you.”
He lifted his brows at her description. “I would stop there, Mother.”
She didn’t listen. “However, you are an English duke. And an English duke should marry a well-bred Englishwoman. A Protestant Englishwoman. Do you understand me? Lady Jane is here, awaiting your arrival, and what am I supposed to tell her and her mother now?”
“That you made a mistake? That you invited her here without my knowledge and I am marrying someone else?”
She scoffed in horror. “I could never say that.”
“This is not my mess. It is yours,” he said simply. “I have something I must make clear.”
“Yes?” she said warily.
“I expect you to be welcoming to Mariana. She was already apprehensive about coming here and agreeing to my marriage proposal. It will be all the worse if she feels she is not wanted.”
“But—”
“She is the woman I am going to marry. If you want grandchildren, this is your only option.”
“They must be raised Protestant, in English traditions.”
“Mariana and I have not discussed that yet.”
“She has been married before?”
“She has.”
“And she did not have any children?”
Edward paused. He saw where she was going, and truthfully, he hadn’t considered it before. But then, he realized, he didn’t overly care.
“If she cannot have children, then Arthur can have them.”
Arthur began to sputter.
“Perhaps Arthur should marry Lady Jane,” he said, immediately warming to the idea. “They could have the English children you so desire.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” his mother snapped, pushing herself out of the chair in which she had been struggling to sit and rearranging her skirts around her. “You are the duke, Edward. It is a privilege to be born to such a role, and it is about time you began to appreciate it, do you understand me? Now, this nonsense with the Spanish woman. Keep her as a mistress if you’d like, but you will marry Lady Jane.”
Iciness began to climb up Edward’s spine. He loved his mother, he did, but sometimes she forgot that he was no longer a young man who had to do as his parents told him.
“Mariana will be no one’s mistress,” he said, his voice even but firm. “She will be mywife. The sooner you realize that, the better. Now, I am going to go speak with her so she doesn’t think she has been cast aside the moment she walked through the doors. Arthur…” He turned to his brother, ignoring his mother’s attempts to argue with him. “Will you please make the arrangements with the church for the banns to be read? I shall marry her in three weeks’ time.”
“Of course,” Arthur murmured, although his face was slightly green. “But Edward, I cannot marry Lady Jane.”
“Why not? She seems agreeable.”
Arthur looked over at his mother, then back at him. “We will speak of this later,” he said meaningfully, and Edward nodded. “Very well.”
He strode toward the door, opening it up just in time to see a flurry of red skirts whisking around the corner. Damn it all. Mariana had been listening.
He started after her, practically chasing her down the hall, not caring of what the servants would think or even Lady Jane and her mother if they were to see him.
“Mariana,” he called out, closing in on her as she rounded the corner. “Mariana!” he called again, but before he could reach her, she was slipping through the terrace doors of the library, pushing out into the garden, where night had already begun to settle.
