Page 28 of My One and Only Duke
Jane squeezed him again, though hugging him was like hugging a stone cross. “I am ecstatic to see you hale and at liberty, sir. Nothing could please me more. A pardon—a royal pardon, I take it. You are so wonderfully alive.”
She beamed up at him, while he regarded her coolly. “I rejoice to be alive. Have you only the one trunk?”
Five words? He gave his resurrection from the dead a mere five words? Jane used the sleeve of her cloak to dry her eyes, until a square of white linen, initials monogrammed in red silk on one corner, was dangled before her.
“My mother’s cedar chest is at the pawnshop.” An inane reply. Mama’s hand mirror, her jewelry box, her earbobs, her writing desk—they all gathered dust at the pawnshop. “The one trunk suffices.”
“Then let’s be on our way. We have matters to discuss.”
He offered his arm, Jane took it and descended to the waiting coach. Before she gathered her skirts to climb into the most elegant conveyance she’d ever beheld, she spared her former home a final inspection.
Papa stood in the doorway, his expression blank. Jane felt again the compulsion to apologize, to beg forgiveness, to protect Papa’s dignity even at the cost of her own.
Mr. Wentworth waited in silence, Jane’s hand on his arm. A footman stared straight ahead; not even the horses dared fidget.
Jane did not know her husband at all. Having her for a wife might be a great inconvenience to him now. Having him for a husband might be something of an inconvenience as well.
Oh, dear.
She climbed into the coach and settled onto the padded comfort of the front-facing seat. Her husband took the place beside her, rapped the roof once with a gloved fist, and the coachman gave the horses leave to walk on.
* * *
As Quinn’s town coach pulled away from the curb, his wife—his duchess—let down the shade over the window.
“All of London will soon know we’re married,” he said. “Not much use trying to hide.”
Jane sat back. “The sun causes everything to fade. I close curtains out of habit.”
She looked tired, and Quinn was growing to hate her damned gray cloak. “I prefer curtains and windows open in all but the coldest weather.”
They regarded one another, two strangers now legally one flesh.
Jane’s joy at seeing Quinn had been unexpected and not entirely welcome. Not entirely unwelcome, either.
She no longer radiated exultation. “We hardly know each other, Mr. Wentworth.”
Quinn knew she needed help, knew she’d been genuinely glad to see him. Those factors alone would not have sent him to her doorstep, but he also knew she was with child. The evidence of her pregnancy had been pressed to his very person, and yet, her father had watched her departure with complete indifference.
“We have time to become better acquainted,” Quinn said, though they’d be at Joshua’s town house in less than an hour. “What would you like to know?”
She rolled up the window shade. “Do you have children?”
Interesting place to start. “I do not—yet.” This topic needed to be raised. With Quinn’s family underfoot, the requisite privacy for such a discussion would be scarce. “We are married, Jane.”
“I was present at the ceremony, Mr. Wentworth.”
Quinn had been present in body. He still wasn’t sure where his wits had got off to. “Do you intend to honor your vows?”
She fussed with her cloak, the dreariest excuse for an outer garment Quinn had beheld in years. The wool would keep her warm even when wet, and thus qualified as that most offensive of wardrobe items, the practical garment.
“What are you asking me, sir?”
“You did not anticipate becoming my wife in truth, did not anticipate sharing a household with me. The marriage can be annulled, for a sum.” He would make this offer, though it rankled. Vows were vows.
“You are correct that I did not foresee myself married to you, and in the general case, I dislike surprises. What if I said yes, I’d like an annulment?”
Quinn would be disappointed, but not surprised. In the course of this long and strange morning, he’d been plagued by regrets and memories, though among the flotsam in his mind had also been treasure: Jane had kissed him on their wedding day.
