Page 17 of Her Duke By Accident
Lady Egerton sighed. “It is your wedding day, Alicia.”
“Iknow,” Alicia replied, her voice harsher than anticipated. “I woke up with the euphoria every young woman wakes up with on her wedding day. I dreamt of a church filled with loved ones, flowers decorating the pews and falling from the high ceilings. It felt so real. I awakened with so much joy within me that I thought I might implode.”
Penelope stuck her tongue out.
“Then you are happy,” Lady Egerton said with relief.
Alicia gently pulled her hands away from her mother’s comforting grasp. “No, Mother,” she whispered. “I feel as though I might be sinking.”
“Sinking?”
“I woke up this morning,” Alicia continued, a lump buried deep in her throat, “and could not stop smiling at the idea of father walking me down the aisle.”
A silence overtook them. The bed creaked as Penelope sat up, the playful glint extinguished from her large eyes.
Lady Egerton stepped back as she struggled to keep a smile on her face. “Alicia?—”
“I do not say this to make you sad, Mother,” Alicia interrupted.
“I know, my dear.”
“I will never know the pain that rests on your shoulders,” she continued. “I cannot imagine it, and I do not wish it upon any other wife in all the world.” Alicia lowered her gaze. “I just?—”
“You are allowed to miss your father, Alicia,” Lady Egerton said.
Alicia lowered her head, trying to stop the tears from ruining everything they had already done to make her presentable.
With tears brewing in her eyes, Lady Egerton lifted her daughter’s face by the chin. “I know how disappointed you are,” she quietly said. “You lived your childhood with the idea of romance and falling in love with a man who could only proclaim undying love for you.” Lady Egerton pressed her lips together. “Perhaps that was our fault,” she whispered. “Giving you the unrealistic expectation that every marriage would be like ours.”
“Why can’t it be?”
“Love cannot be forced, Alicia,” her mother said. “It must be earned, it must be fought for, it must be a devotion. Love does not happen on the flip of a coin.”
Penelope stood from the bed. “Was that not how you and father met?” She twisted her hands nervously together. “Love at first sight.”
Lady Egerton laughed as tears slipped down her cheeks. “No, my dear,” she wistfully replied. “It was not like that.”
“Your father was a gentlemen, who was like all the other bachelors in London,” Lady Egerton began. “He needed to find a wife to secure and better his financial standing. And unlike you children, he did not grow up with the idea that falling in love would secure a marriage. There was only progress, and he intended to follow through with it.”
“This doesn’t sound like a hopeful story,” Penelope whined.
Lady Egerton shook her head at her with a light chuckle. “Sometimes, all it takes is the first meeting to change an entire person’s outlook on things.”
Alicia frowned, trying to hide her own disappointment with her future husband.
“But I do not speak for all,” Lady Egerton said at the sight of Alicia’s face. “Your father courted me, and with each new day I saw him, I grew more and more infatuated with him.” She reached, grasping Alicia’s hand. “All it takes is time, my dear. You must be patient.”
Alicia squeezed her mother’s hands. “But you did fall in love?”
“Yes, Alicia,” Lady Egerton replied. “We did.”
Despite her mother being inches shorter than her, Alicia dipped down and wrapped Lady Egerton in a tight embrace. They shared tears, and as Penelope found her way into their embrace, they cried together. “That is all that weighs you down, Alicia?” Lady Egerton said once they’d dried their cheeks.
With a tight smile, Alicia nodded. The weight of the uneasy future rested upon her mother’s shoulders; she would not include the fear of her loveless marriage. On that morning, there was no way for her to trust a future with the duke, but that was a thought she would keep buried.
Just hours later, Alicia stood at the beginning of a church aisle. It was the smallest in London, with short pews and a humble altar. Each side had no more than five guests, all standing and looking toward the bride. Alicia met the gaze of the youngest on the duke’s side, a pretty girl with the same head of wild, dark hair as his. She could only assume that it was the duke’s only sibling, Lucy. The girl gave her a quick smile. Alicia held a bouquet tightly at her stomach, her fingertips almost pierced by minuscule thorns.
Within the attendees, Lady Egerton mouthed to her, “Walk now.”
