Page 75 of A Virgin for the Ruthless Duke

“Don’t mind my niece. I am sure she would be grateful to marry you.”

“Auntie,” Herbert said in a warning tone.

“She is old enough to make her own choices—do not force her,” Stephen said quietly from beside his wife.

“Actually, I would love to hear her answer,” Peter said, looking up at her hopefully.

Selina took a deep breath. “My Lord, you are a wonderful man.” She swallowed. “Any woman would be happy to marry you, and I am not exempted.”

Hope shone in his eyes.

She looked away and took another deep breath, readying herself to smash that hope into pieces.

“But I do not love you.” A heavy silence followed her announcement, but she forged ahead. “Like I said, I would still like to marry you if you are interested in a marriage of convenience.”

There was a gasp of disbelief now, and it flew across the room. She summoned the courage to look at Peter. He was still on his knees, but the hope in his eyes was dead, disappointment and pain edging his weak smile.

“I thank you, My Lady, for your honesty,” he said, rising to his full height. “I am highly tempted to accept your offer, but I desire a love match, and I had hoped I had found it with you. Thank you for being honest enough to clear my delusion. I wish you the best in your endeavors.”

With that, he gave her a deep bow, then took her hand and placed a kiss on it. The gesture brought tears to her eyes. He was a gentleman through and through. It was unfortunate that she could not bring herself to fall in love with him.

With a deep bow to her family, he left the silent room, and in a few moments, she heard the front door opening and closing, signaling that he was gone—away from her life and the possibility that he might be her husband.

Maybe she should have felt a sense of loss, but instead, she felt like she had lost a chance at friendship if she needed further proof that she did not love the poor man. This was it. It was better this way.

The room was silent for a while after Peter left. She waited patiently for the dreaded questions that would come with her decision, and they didn’t disappoint.

“Well, that did not go as I imagined,” Stephen began, a perplexed look on his face. “I thought you liked Lord Sanderson. I did hear some talk about your interactions at the house party. I had high hopes of you making a grand match with him. He certainly seems intelligent enough to match you.”

“And how did you know this?” Selina asked dryly. “Do not tell me that you have taken to sending people to watch me?”

“I am a duke, Selina,” he said with that arrogant curl of his lip that seemed to have become more common in recent months.“I have my ways of getting information without resorting to underhanded tactics.”

Somehow, she knew that Martha was part of those ways. It wasn’t above her to keep sending messages to Stephen about the happenings around the family, even when he was supposed to be enjoying alone time with his wife.

Selina should have known that her brother was so used to playing a father figure for over a decade that he was less likely to drop such a role, even for a short vacation. The man was given to perfection with a predilection to being controlling.

Not that he would have needed to control Martha or instruct her to do anything. Her aunt was a natural gossip, and she was unlikely to keep quiet when Peter appeared and she saw a chance of realizing her dream of having Selina secure a good match. She was too excited to hold onto the news. Perhaps that was why she was deeply disappointed and speechless at the moment.

“I thought you had a goal to get married this Season? I had thought that the Earl was the answer to that prayer. What happened?” Stephen asked. This time, his tone was one of concern.

“I would like to know the answer to that as well,” Martha said, a note of anger in her tone. “You are more likely to end up a spinster now than secure another good match. You just had a chance at a great match. Tell me why you ruined it!”

“Because I have been lying to myself all this while. I thought I could sacrifice my heart for family and Society, but it is better this way. If I had married the Earl, I would be condemning him to life with a bitter woman because I want a love match. I have realized that it is better for me to be truthful to myself than to live a lie. If the price is spinsterhood, I will not complain. I am fairly tired of the pressure and pretense of the ton anyway.

“But finding love matches is often as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. Perhaps I am one of those ladies who is destined never to marry. Perhaps it is best that I accept my fate and save myself all the trouble. I am too exhausted now to consider continuing the hunt for a husband. I will just try and find my way in this world as an unmarried woman. I am sure it will be tough, but it has to be better than an unhappy marriage, do you not think?”

Selina caught Elizabeth’s eyes, but she had to look away because the pity in them threatened to drive her to tears.

She should have known that Elizabeth would see through her bluster to the pain she was trying so hard to conceal.

Elizabeth knew that, even beneath her logic and cynicism, she was a young girl given to daydreams and romantic fantasies but was forced to toughen up by the circumstances surrounding her. She was too soft-hearted for her own good. That was why she had allowed herself to get attached to a man who had been clear that he wanted nothing to do with marriage from the start.

Perhaps she had been so blinded by the sweet feelings of first love that she had not realized she was setting herself up for heartbreak.

Now, she was left with the task of picking up the pieces, one jagged piece at a time. Somehow, she knew—even as she gathered the pieces—that she would never be whole again and that she might never be as she once was. Giving, trusting, and loving wholeheartedly without reservation. She hated Richard for taking that part of her away.

At some point during their conversation, Diana had left the room, but Selina had been so engrossed with her emotional struggles that she had not noticed. She looked up in surprise when she heard the sound of running feet outside the drawing room.

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