Page 3 of The Duke and the Unwanted Bride

“I was thinking it would be a plate?” Selina laughed. “Do you remember Christmas?”

Hannah smirked. “He still claims that he simply lost his grip, and that was why the plate ended up by his feet.”

“Of course, by his feet was somehow halfway across the room.” Selina grinned.

“Honestly…” Hannah rose from the bed and approached her cousin, who was standing before the mirror, inspecting her attire for the night. “Why he lets your mother get to him as he does is beyond me.”

“I choose not to think about it, but instead enjoy it.” Selina giggled as she turned around. “I know everybody else does.”

The two girls laughed, taking a little too much pleasure at the image of their parents behaving like children, as they did whenever they were together.

“Enough of that,” Hannah eventually managed to say as she composed herself. “I do not wish to speak of Father. It is you I am far more interested in.”

“Me?” Selina pretended to look confused. “Whatever for?”

Hannah rolled her eyes. “Oh, I don’t know. Is there anything interesting happening in your life at the moment? Surely, there must be something?”

“Hmm?” Selina pretended to think. “I do not believe so. Why? What have you heard?”

More laughter was shared between the two girls. Both one-and-twenty, cousins also, they had grown up together and considered each other best friends. Matching personalities, comparable looks, some might have mistaken them for sisters, which Hannah did not mind one little bit.

Even the fact that Selina was getting married, and to a duke no less, was cause for celebration, rather than jealousy. And it helped that Selina was not one to brag or hold it over others, treating this little arrangement as a necessary affair, rather than the life-changing event that it was.

“Oh, come now…” Hannah took her by the shoulders and turned her back so that she facing the mirror. “No need to be coy. You are allowed to show some excitement. I will not tell.”

Selina rolled her eyes. “Is that what I should be? Excited?”

“Are you not?” Hannah frowned.

“Do I not look it? His Grace is handsome and rich and renowned among the ton—well-known as a good man who any lady should be thrilled to wed. Surely that must mean that I am simply buzzing with excitement such that I can hardly stand still.”

Hannah studied her cousin, her mannerisms, not entirely sure what she should say to that. Selina had a rather dark sense of humor, and it was often hard to tell when she was being serious. And while her words were correct in their assessment, the way she said them… it was almost as if she wasn’t looking forward to marrying the man who was set to be her husband. And in less than a week’s time!

“Selina…” Hannah began carefully. “Is everything alright?”

“Oh, I am only joking, Hannah.” Selina shook her head. “Honestly, you are far too gullible sometimes.”

Hannah snorted. “And you are far too sarcastic for your own good.”

“Of course, I am excited…” Again, the right words, but they rang as false. “Just nervous, I suppose. You know, I hardly even know the man!”

“That is normal enough.”

“And we have barely said two words to each other.”

“Perhaps he is as nervous as you are?”

“And what he did say to me left much to be desired. Why, I do not think that he smiled once the entire time that we spoke. I have been to funerals where the corpse has more of a personality.”

Again, Hannah studied her cousin, sensing now that there was some truth to her words. Growing up together, Selina had never much spoken about romance and falling in love, not nearly as much as many of their other friends had. But she was also a dutiful young lady and knew that this was her lot in life, enough that when the day came that it was announced whom she would be marrying, Hannah had assumed that she was accepting it, even trying her best to see it for the positive thing that it was. Surely?

What this must be, Hannah decided, were pre-wedding jitters. Independent in so many ways like Hannah, Selina was likely just a little nervous about married life, now doing everything she could to talk herself out of it.

“Come here.” Hannah took her by the shoulders again and forced her to look at herself in the full-length mirror. “What do you see? Tell me.”

Selina rolled her eyes. “My reflection, clearly.”

“No, not that…” Hannah forced her to straighten up. “What do yousee? Tell me.”

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