Page 59 of His Arranged Duchess
Before the conversation could move on, there was a little commotion in the hallway. Shortly after, Uncle Cassian and Aunt Emily came into the breakfast room, both talking and laughing at each other.
“Ah, Margaret, let me congratulate you on your new purchase!” Cassian said, laughing. He paused, glancing guiltily at Frances. “You have told her, haven’t you?”
“Yes, but only just, you wretch,” Mama huffed. She and Cassian began to talk animatedly, and that left Frances free to turn to Aunt Emily.
“I wonder, could I talk to you about something?” Frances asked timidly. “In private?”
Aunt Emily tilted her head thoughtfully. Sunlight glinted off her spectacles. “Of course you can, dear. Here, let’s go into the morning-room next door.”
Frances followed her aunt into the neat, bright little room and closed the door behind them. There was a moment of silence.
“I imagine it’s come as quite a shock, learning that your mother plans to leave London,” Aunt Emily said at last, her voice quiet.
Frances bit her lip, glancing away. “Yes, it is, rather. Perhaps it was selfish, but I always imagined she’d be right there, by my side, ready to guide me through whatever lay ahead.”
“It isn’t selfish. It’s a sign that you love your mother.”
“I want her to be happy, of course I do, but…” Frances trailed off, swallowing.
Aunt Emily took a step closer, scanning Frances’s face thoughtfully.
“Something is worrying you,” she said at last, making it more of a statement than anything else. “You can talk to me, Frances, you know you can.”
Frances briefly closed her eyes. “It’s about… about the secret.”
There was no need to clarify whatsecretthat was. It was the Great Secret, the one they were all conscious of all the time, the one that lived at the back of Frances’s mind, no matter what she was doing.
“I am afraid… I am afraid that Lord Easton has found out.”
Aunt Emily’s eyes sharpened. “What? Why would you think that?”
“He recited a poem at a… a gathering I attended. I have no idea if he knew I was there or not, but it was about me. It named me. Just my first name, and there are plenty of girls named Frances in the world, I suppose. But it talked about a woman who lived a lie, and was something she was not. It made me uneasy.”
Aunt Emily thought this over for a moment, rubbing her chin.
“If he learns the secret, he will certainly make trouble for you,” she murmured. “But perhaps he is just being unkind.”
“Perhaps. But if it comes out, I’ll be shamed, won’t I? Duchess or not?”
Her aunt said nothing, which was an answer in itself.
Frances continued, “To avoid scandal, I am afraid that Lucien will want to annul our marriage.”
Aunt Emily flinched. “Annul? Oh, heavens, darling, you mustn’t think that. Annulments are not so easy to get, not even for a man of the duke’s stature. Once a marriage is consummated…” she paused, glancing at Frances. Whatever she saw there made her pale. “Oh, Frances. You aren’t telling me…”
“I wanted to get to know him first! I didn’t want to rush into anything, and he didn’t want to make me.”
She sniffed. “I should hope not. Well, I can understand that, at least. Cassian and I… enough of that, actually. But this does put you in a more precarious position, to be sure. Even so, I’m sure that the duke is a proper gentleman, and would not break things off over a trifling little scandal.”
Frances turned to face her aunt. “Do you think that itisa trifling little scandal?”
Aunt Emily’s shoulders sagged.
“No,” she admitted. “No, it is not.”
Frances crossed the room to the sofa, sinking down with her back to the door, facing the empty hearth.
“I’m just so tired,” she whispered. “I’m tired of living in fear, of hiding who I truly am. I’m tired of paying for the mistakes ofothers. I’m tired of constantly,constantlyliving in terror that all will be exposed and my life as I know it will end. I’d have nothing, and no one.”
