Page 2 of His Arranged Duchess
“I, Nicholas Harvey…”
Frances bit her lower lip so hard she tasted copper.
I don’t want to marry him. This is all a mistake. But it’s too late now, isn’t it? I can’t cause a scandal. Iama scandal. My very existence is a scandal. Mama approves of the match. Uncle Cass thinks that it is what I want.
Nobody is coming to help me.
Beside her, Nicholas finished his vows. He let out a sigh of ... relief? Or resignation? She couldn’t tell. The rector turned to her and gave an encouraging smile.
“Repeat after me, Miss Knight. I, Frances Knight, take thee, Nicholas Harvey, as my lawfully wedded husband.”
The room seemed to swim around her. Frances’s mouth suddenly seemed to be full of wool, dry as a bone.
“I… I…” she stammered. The rector frowned, glancing up at Nicholas as if for an explanation.
Nicholas turned slightly towards her.
“Come on, girl, out with it,” he whispered, barely louder than a breath.“Can’t we just get this over without any theatrics or hysterics?”
“I don’t feel well,” Frances murmured.
Nicholas rolled his eyes.
“Oh, for Heaven’s sake. Are you going to faint?”
“No.”
“Then would youpleaserepeat after the rector? People are starting to whisper. It’s mortifying.”
Nobody was coming to help her. It was too late. Her chance to avoid the marriage had come and gone. Swallowing thickly, Frances fixed her gaze on a point somewhere above the rector’s head.
“I, Frances Knight, take thee…”
“I’m afraid she can’t take anyone, rector.”
An unfamiliar male voice boomed out in the silence, echoing off the walls of the cavernous church. A ripple of whispers flowed through the congregation.
Frances and Nicholas spun around in unison.
A man was walking up the aisle towards them. Slowly, at a leisurely pace, as though he had all the time in the world.
“What is the meaning of this?” Nicholas snarled. “Who are you? Get out!”
The man ignored him, instead fixing a pair of cool gray eyes on Frances.
“You can’t marry him, Miss. You’re already mine.”
CHAPTER 2
Lucien had never particularly enjoyed making scenes. Some people seemed to thrive on it, but privately, he disliked the attention. One could be oneself without the eyes of a crowd.
However, in this case, there was really no choice. As soon as Gray had told him that the woman he was supposedly contracted to was already engaged and on the point of marriage, he had decided he would not marry her. It seemed unfair. Gray had nodded and bowed politely and shuffled away.
That isn’t the end of it,Lucien had thought at the time, and he was right. Only yesterday, Gray had presented him with various correspondences and pieces of gossip which, when taken together, made a rather convincing case to say that Miss Knight and Lord Easton, the man she was to marry, were not in love at all.
In fact, Lord Easton had been rather open about needing to marry a rich woman. Miss Knight had a sizeable dowry andhad had such a terrible first Season--and an opera-singer as a mother--that it was considered likely she would not make much of a match at all.
Even if shewasa baron’s daughter.
