Page 26 of An Arranged Marriage with a Mad Marquess
This last point was given with an air of finality, and Patrina gave up. It was clear that Lucy did not want to discuss the subject, and it was hard to blame her. Being married to a madman was bad, but working for a madman was worse. Or were they both the same? Patrina could not decide.
There wasn’t much else to do but go to bed. The roaring fire was dying down, and there was no firewood to keep it going. The room would cool shockingly fast once the fire was gone, so Lucy and Patrina dived into bed and lay there, waiting for the cold sheets to warm up.
“I can’t decide whether I want him to be mad or not,” Patrina said. With the dying fire, only the flickering candle on Lucy’s side of the bed illuminated the room. “If he’s a wretch and I hate him, then it would be better if I find myself widowed in a few years. Is that an awful thing to say?”
“I think it’s an honest thing to say, milady. But maybe don’t repeat it to anyone but me.”
Patrina chuckled. “Very wise. I suppose I’m afraid that Iwilllike him, only to lose him to madness and ultimately death in the next few years. I never thought of that, you know. What if Ilikehim?”
Lucy sighed. “We won’t know until it happens, will we?”
“I suspect you want to go to sleep, Lucy, and you want the conversation to stop.”
“Indeed I do.”
Without waiting for a response, Lucy rolled over and blew out the candle, plunging the room into darkness.
Patrina knew already that she wasn’t going to sleep well that night.
