Page 110 of A Lady of Means
I will make you a duchess.You will have all that you want…You’ll have no one’s loyalty more than my own.
Moria shook her head.“No, I still want to.”
“Are you sure?”Noelle asked, the others cut her a look.
“I made him a promise,” she said as Kathleen finished pinning her veil in place.It had been made by their grandmother and worn by their mother.
“You made me a promise too.”Jasper said, squeezing her hands.
“I did?”
“No more martyrdom, remember?”
“Hardly martyrdom marrying a Duke,” Olivia said.“What?It’s true!He has over twenty-thousand pounds a year without the hefty dowry he was given for taking her off our hands.”
Moria looked to the collection of loyal supporters in front of her and nodded.“Olivia is right, the only way forward is through.Sometimes, you go far enough down a road, there’s no turning around.”
“It doesn’t have to mean what you think it has to mean,” Kathleen argued.
“I think it does,” Moria said, standing and immediately almost toppling over from the sheer weight of the skirts, train, and lace veil nearly as long as the train.Jasper steadied her.
“If you’re sure.”
Moria tried to take in a full breath, felt the whale bone stays constricting the movement, and took in short breaths through her nose.“I’m not sure of anything, but this is what I have to do.”
Ella fluffed her veil.Kathleen dabbed at her eyes, adding, “You’re already the most beautiful bride to ever….bride.”
Noelle placed a hand at Moria’s back.“Not if she doesn’t want to be one.”
Olivia grimaced.“She does though?Just to a different man.”
Don’t think of him.Don’t think of how his eyes go when you make him laugh, don’t think of the way he smells or the way his body looks beneath you.Don’t think of all the beautiful words he gave you from his beautiful soul.
She met her reflection in the mirror, straightening her shoulders.
Think of a different man.He’sthe one you’re marrying.
“I love you, you know.All of you?I’m not good at it, saying how I feel.I think I’m a little bit broken that way.But thank you all sticking by me.You’re all that’s kept me getting up in the morning some days,” Moria gave them each a small smile.“It was a long road to the altar, but you were the best travel companions a girl could want.”
ChapterForty-Six
Devyn heard the clock toll.He thought maybe he’d drunk enough the night before that he’d slept past the wedding, but there it was.
One more hour and she’d belong to another man.
Legally.
But would her heart still bear his name?
He could smell her scent, like lemons and sugar in his room.Devyn jolted upright, looking around him.A bundle of letters sat atop his table.
D-
You’re all there is for me too.
But when I was a different girl, I said a lot of awful things.I wrote them down.(Some of them were true, though).Someone stole that book, and shared my words.Without it, I was forced to make a choice to protect my family from the shame of what I’d put on paper.And then you returned.
You gave me so many better words.
