Page 66 of The Duke's Bride in Disguise
"We swapped," Emily repeated, looking as uncomfortable as Ava felt, "I did not want to marry you and I thought that Ava might somehow be able to end our engagement."
"If you did not wish to marry me," Kilbride said, without missing a beat, "All that you had to do was say."
Both Ava and her twin hung their heads in shame; it was clear from Kilbride's face that he was annoyed and, worse, hurt by their actions.
"And you?" Kilbride turned to Ava, "Just who exactly are you?"
"I am who I said I was, Your Grace," Ava lifted her head, so that she could look him in the eye—she owed him that much at least. "I am Ava Smith; just an orphan, just a nobody..."
"A nobody," Kilbride echoed her, "Indeed. If you ladies will excuse me, I must take my leave."
"Please," Ava cried out, and Kilbride paused momentarily, "Please, believe me that the only thing I lied to you about was my name—everything else was real."
The duke did not respond, he merely spun on the heel of his Hessian boot and left the room, closing the door very quietly behind him.
"Oh, dear." Emily looked thoroughly wretched as she glanced from the closed door to her sister and back again; "I've messed everything up, haven't I?"
"No," Ava shook her head, as she reached her hand out for her twin sister, "It was I who ruined everything. I tried to push Kilbride away, but I felt there was a connection between us, and instead of ignoring it..."
"You fell in love."
Ava bit back a smile, as her twin sister finished her sentence. She nodded her head sadly, and Emily stooped down to embrace her in a hug.
"I should have tried harder," Ava said through her tears, "For I knew that all Kilbride wanted was a wife to bear him pedigree heirs. How silly I was, to think that there might be a fairytale ending for us."
"Hush," Emily whispered, "You were not silly; there is nothing wrong with wanting to fall in love. Maybe there will not be a happy ending for you and the duke, but we still have each other."
"We do," Ava agreed with a smile, but then she frowned; "But first, we need to tell your father who I am."
"And he needs to tell us," Emily replied, with a glint in her eye, "Just how we came to be separated."
After Emily had fetched a dress for Ava to change into, both ladies went in search of Lord Fairfax. They found the marquess seated in his library, sipping on brandy and smoking a cheroot.
"Father," Emily said, as she breezed into the room, "We have something to ask you."
"We?" Lord Fairfax looked up at his daughter in confusion.
"Yes, we," Ava said, as she followed her sister into the room.
You could, Ava wryly observed, have knocked Lord Fairfax over with a feather, such was his surprise. His face paled and he looked from one girl to the other, then back again, at least a dozen times.
"What on earth?" he asked Ava, dropping his cheroot onto the Persian rug.
"Oh, Father," Emily remonstrated, springing forth to pick it up, before it did any damage, "What have I told you about smoking cigars in the library?"
"Only by the window," Lord Fairfax parroted, staring at Emily with a dumbfounded expression, "So you are Emily?"
"I am," Emily confirmed with a smile.
"Then you are..?" Lord Fairfax looked at Ava.
"Ava Smith, my Lord," Ava said shyly, offering him a slight curtsy, "Emily and I found each other, just a few weeks ago. We decided to swap places, just to see how the other lived, before we told you what had happened."
"Indeed," Lord Fairfax looked, to Ava's relief, more amused than annoyed, "So you have been pretending to be Emily all this time?"
Ava nodded, her cheeks red with embarrassment. The idea of swapping places had, at the time, seemed a great adventure. What a pity, she thought, that neither she nor Emily had realised how much explaining it would entail at the end.
