Page 13 of Her Bear of a Duke

Dorothy's friends had adored the retelling that she had given them about her meeting with the Duke. She had not told them about their other, clandestine meeting, but that was only because she did not know how. Thy thought she was too afraid to even speak to a man, which had always been true, and she did not think they would have even believed her if she did tell them.

Not only that, but it was the exact situation that Emma had found herself in the year before, and she had been less fortunate than Dorothy. She had been seen, and though the subsequent marriage that followed had been good, and they had truly fallen for one another, it had been a terrifying ordeal and it did not seem fair for Dorothy to tell Emma that she had done the same thing as her without the subsequent loss of reputation.

But they would have to know soon enough. They did not keep secrets from one another, and Dorothy did not wish to be the first one to do so.

"Something is wrong," Cecilia commented, looking directly at her. "You cannot hide it from me. What is it?"

"The wedding," she lied. "It is daunting, and I do not know what I shall do about it."

"Well, there is nothing that can be done," Emma said gently. "Either you do it, and you marry the Duke, or you do not. It may be that you dislike either option, but that does not mean you do not have any."

Dorothy sighed. She wished that those were not her choices.

"In any case," Cecilia continued, "I can see that it is more than your wedding. You were at peace with what was to come a few days ago. Something has changed."

With a deep breath to steady herself, Dorothy cleared her throat. She did not want to lie to her friends, and so she would have to be truthful whether she was ashamed of what she had done or not.

"You see, at the ball, I made a terrible mistake. After speaking with my parents, I spent some time in the gardens. I was hoping for some time alone, so that I could be among the flowers andsteady my nerves, but out from the shadows came the strangest man."

Emma shook her head with a smile, clearly knowing precisely what she was about to say.

"He was an enormous man, dressed as a bear of all things, but he was kind to me and I suppose that was all I had needed. I have been in need of that for a long time. It was more than that, though. I will soon have no choice but to submit to a man that I do not know, and the thought of that terrified me. I wanted to do something bold and defiant, something that I never would otherwise have done. It was foolish of me, but I… Well, I kissed the stranger."

Beatrice gasped, but Cecilia and Emma looked at her with pride. It was true; she had been shocking and daring, but that was precisely the sort of thing that her friends would have wanted for her.

There was a reason that her father considered them bad influences, after all.

"What if he tells others?" Beatrice asked. "What would become of you? If you are not yet married, your betrothed will surely change his mind, and if by then you are married, he could just as easily annul it. What will you do?"

"I do not believe he will say anything."

"But he is a man. They tend to gloat."

"Not this one. It would not help his reputation, I know that much."

"But you do not know that," Emma said gently.

"I do. It would be unwise for a gentleman to speak ill of his own wife, and so while possible I do not believe it will happen."

Silence fell as they tried to comprehend what she had told them. The chances of them meeting when they did had been so slim, and yet it had happened and now everything had changed. She had met her husband twice, and she had quite liked what she had seen, but that did not mean that everything would work well in the end. She hardly knew him at all, and she wished that she had an opportunity to know him better before they married.

"Do you plan to discuss this with him?" Emma asked.

"I shall have to, I suppose, though I do not know what I will say to him. What can I say?"

"You could compliment his kisses, if he is deserving," Cecilia suggested, grinning. "Truly, Dot, I never thought you could be capable of something like this. Even I am not that bad."

Her friend was laughing, but Dorothy did not find the humor in it. She was positively mortified by what she had done, and theidea of someone else having witnessed them and now planning to ruin her made her feel unwell.

"In any case," Dorothy continued, "I do not think it matters. He is yet to propose himself, as he gave the ring to my father to give me, and today he refused to sign the marriage contract."

"Does that mean he does not wish to marry you?" Beatrice asked.

"I do not know. It is possible, but he has asked me to promenade with him tomorrow. Perhaps he will decide then?"

"I will assume it is for your sake," Emma nodded. "So that you can decide for yourself whether or not this match is what you want… this is what you want, is it not?"

"It is. I might as well take a husband of my father's choosing if I cannot find a husband of my own. I am grateful for this, truly I am. It was a terrible mistake for me to do what I did. I should have been grateful."

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