Page 56 of My Ruthless Duke

“I… We did talk. I admit that I have been unfair to him and blamed him for all the bad things that happened to me. But I forgive him.” Mary tried her earrings on. “How do you feel about the issues with your family?”

“You mean the unpleasantness with my cousin?” Cordelia said with a somber tone. “I am glad that it was all over.”

“Dorian finished with the trials last week, did he not?” Mary asked gently.

For the entirety of last week, Dorian had been in and out of the estate. He had been obligated to split his time between London and home as he had to attend Matthew’s trials and give his statements. Cordelia had been tempted to go, but secretly, she had been relieved that her husband had been able to handle those issues for her. She did not know what she would have done if she had to face Matthew again. So many years of friendship were just thrown away like nothing.

“He did, and Matthew was sentenced to exile to…” Cordelia answered simply. “I think either North Holland or the West Indies.”

“Are you… all right?”

“It is for the best.” Cordelia forced a smile. “It is as it ought to be. I am just happy that we can all move forward and closethat chapter of unsavory darkness. Now we can focus on much happier things like your union! Though, it will be strange not hearing Georgie running around the house and seeing you every day.”

Mary surprised her by throwing her arms around her and holding her tightly. “I never thought I would be so lucky to have a sister like you. I am going to miss you, and I promise to come to visit all the time!”

“You better notdareto come to visit me!” Cordelia laughed. “Not for a good long while anyway!”

Mary nodded. “All right, I will wait until after the honeymoon, at the very least.”

“You shall have to come back to collect Georgie anyway!” Cordelia continued. They were going to be keeping him here during the period of the honeymoon so that the newlyweds could have some proper time together.

“I still think that I am going to end up caving and cutting the honeymoon short because I will miss him so much. This will be the first time I have ever been away from him; do you know that?”

“He is going to be but a carriage ride away, never fear.”

“With you? Never,” Mary teased as they linked arms with one another. “Do I look all right?”

“More than all right! Mr. Hislop is not going to know what to do with you.” Cordelia winked as they headed downstairs, where the sounds of conversation and distant music greeted them. Mary had chosen to be married at the estate. The lanes had beentransformed beautifully with every color flower imaginable from Cordelia’s own garden. She had taken great care to make it a veritable floral wonderland for her and Patrick to be married. She had even managed to decorate an archway with the flowers for them to stand under. It was certainly pretty enough to be a painting, and she hoped that the artist they had commissioned for the event was going to capture their image quickly enough.

Mary and Cordelia stood at the end of the long aisle with all their friends and loved ones seated in rows to either side. Slowly, Mary released Cordelia and walked up the aisle, and Cordelia trailed behind her at a respectable distance before taking her own seat next to her husband. She had been incredibly honored to be asked to accompany her sister.

Rhysand and Penelope stood proudly watching from the front of the aisles. Patrick’s younger sister, Lydia, and her husband, Phillip, smiled as Mary moved toward her future husband.

The happy couple stood facing one another, the priest reciting the familiar words and having them repeat their vows, even if Patrick stumbled over the words in quite an adorable fashion.

“He had better make her happy,” Dorian muttered under his breath so softly that Cordelia almost did not hear him.

“Oh, hush now, they love one another very much,” Cordelia silenced him with an eye roll.

“And if he mistreats her?”

“You know that he will not. Do not fret, my dear husband, you will not make the same mistakes twice with her. You are not the same man that you had been before, and we both know that to be true, do we not?”

Dorian nodded somewhat reluctantly.

“And besides, you are thrilled to spend more time with your nephew, are you not?”

“He has insisted upon riding lessons every day for the next fortnight,” Dorian groused.

“And what if he has? Presuming that he does not tire of it, there is certainly no harm.” Cordelia sighed. “And then, when this is all over with and he is taken to his new home, we both know that you shall miss them both dearly.”

Dorian did not answer, though he shifted his weight anxiously from one foot to the other with a curt nod. It was more difficult for him than he wished to admit, the thought that his sister might be out and vulnerable again, but he could not hold too tightly to what he loved.

“Then, I shall have you all to myself, shall I not?” Cordelia whispered just low enough for him to hear.

The tips of Dorian’s ears reddened and he did not answer that either.

Most of all, Lavinia had moved back to her London home for good. She had been true to her word, and she had not had so much as a single drop to drink since that night that they had dumped everything. She was thriving again, so much more the mother she had grown up with instead of the dramatic mess that she had become. With the amends she was making to her reputation, Lavinia hoped to be back in the good social graces of thetonwith proper standing… no more making a fool of herself because of how her heart ached.

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