Page 84 of The Duke and the Unwanted Bride

“I see now that it was always fraught with danger. A fool’s errand because to be around you and not be able to touch you…” He freed a hand and stroked the side of her face. It was soft and tender, and oh how he wished to cup it in his hand. “I do not have that strength.”

“Don’t say it.” She held his hand to her face and looked into his eyes. “I can take it back. We can go back to how it was.”

“You deserve better.”

“You are what I deserve.”

“You deserve to be happy.”

“I am happy!”

“Tell me.” He held her face with one hand, staring into her eyes so he could see the truth. His body shook as it threatened to collapse. “Can you tell me honestly that you do not want children? That you will be happy to be with me forever knowing that you will never have a child of your own? Can you tell me that? Can you make that promise?”

“I…”

“Because if you can, then I take everything back. But if you cannot, then you can never truly be happy. And, Hannah….” His heart broke as he spoke the words. “I love you too much to hurt you that way.”

The despair on her face told him her answer before she spoke a word. The look in her eyes. The pain he could feel radiating from her. She wanted to lie to him, he could see. She wanted to tell him what he needed to hear, for she loved him too. But deep down, he could see the truth of it, and she seemed to understand that as much as anything.

Slowly, she lowered her hand and let go of his other. Slowly, she stepped back and dropped her head. And slowly, she spoke the words that hurt her just as much as they hurt him.

“I cannot make that promise.”

Frederick felt his knees buckle, but he stood tall. “I am sorry, Hannah, but?—”

“Don’t say it. Please!”

“This marriage… it has gone as far as it can.”

“No.”

“And I think it would be for the best, for both of us, if… if…” A lump in his throat, unable to swallow past it. “If you move back to your parents’ home until we work out what can be done.”

“Frederick…” Her knees gave out, and she fell to the floor.

Frederick almost moved to stop her fall but forced himself not to. Looking at her there on the floor, her body shaking, her tears falling, her world collapsing, he wondered again if this was the right move. For if it was, why did it hurt so damn much?

“I love you, Frederick,” she said, weeping openly now. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” He forced himself to turn around and walk away. “That’s why I have to do this.”

And there he left her, weeping openly on the floor. The pain it caused him to hear those cries of anguish, to know the woman he loved was in a state of emotional agony… The only way he was able to ignore her and continue to walk away was by telling himself that by doing so, he was saving her from future suffering.

Even if she agreed now to never have children, he knew that in the future, that would change. Again, he would deny her, again they would fight, and that was a fight that might well and truly break her, for there would be no going back. At least this way, she still had a chance to find someone else, to raise a family of her own, to fall in love.

Not with Frederick, sadly. But he was used to not being loved. What was more, he didn’t think that he deserved it. Not anymore.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Istill cannot believe it,” Charlotte said. “Truly, I would have never—are you sure he meant what he said?”

“I would not be here if he did not,” Hannah muttered, wishing to have any conversation but this one. Not again.

“But still,” Charlotte pressed. “Things spoken in the heat of the moment can often be misunderstood or taken the wrong way. I am sure that if you spoke with him once more, he would realize?—”

“He won’t.”

“If you make him see?—”

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