Page 20 of The Unwanted Duchess

“We could get married.”

CHAPTER 7

In all of it, what surprised Samantha the most was the lack of friendship between the two brothers.

No matter what life had thrown at her and Diana, they had always had each other. They had always been each other’s best friend and closest ally. It simply did not make any sense at all that the Duke and his brother could hate each other so much.

Perhaps, however, it was simply easier to think about that than it was to look at the Duke, who was clearly still waiting for her response.

“Well?” he asked. “What do you think about that?”

“No.”

“Did you even think about it?”

“There is no need to. I do not want that, not for myself nor for you.”

“It is the only way to handle this matter, Lady Samantha.”

“Why? Why does your brother hate you so much that he would leave you with no other option but to marry someone like me?”

“You wouldn’t… understand.”

He seemed to wince as he said it, given that she had only just lectured him for the way he saw her as less intelligent than himself.

“But it is true that he hates you?”

“It would appear so, yes.”

“And you hate him in return?”

“I do not know. I can understand his anger, given what happened, but again, it is not something that you would understand, and that is not to say that you are not intelligent enough to. Rather, you clearly have a lot of love for your sister, and so you couldn’t see yourself turning on her.”

“I perhaps could if she did something terrible enough to warrant it.”

She said it, but she did not truly believe it. After all, she owed everything to Diana and all that she had sacrificed for her.

“So, for example, if you were the one to have married the Duke,” he began, “your sister would have been happy for you in the same way you were for her. My brother would not be like that. He would cause as many issues as possible until the match was destroyed.”

She did not dare tell him that shewassupposed to marry the Duke, and that rather than supporting it, Diana technically stole him for herself because that is not truly why she did it, but it would not be possible to explain it to him.

Not to a man that seemed to think of advantageous moves as the only way forward.

“Then I suppose I can see why you dislike him,” she nodded.

“And you can see why we must marry?”

“No,” she replied. “It does not matter what threat I am under. I do not wish to marry. It is not your fault; it is simply a fact.”

“You are impossible,” he groaned. “Why can you not simply thank me for trying to save your reputation and agree?”

“Because I do not care about my reputation, and I do not love you. I only wish to marry for love, not because some man is blackmailing me into it.”

Suddenly, he began to laugh. She hated it. It was as though she was merely five years old and had proclaimed that she would become a princess, even though she was a commoner and had no real prospects for marriage at all, not to mention the plague.

“What is so funny?”

“The way you seem to think there is any other way out of this, Lady Samantha. If you do not marry me, you will be ruined, believe me.”

---