Page 18 of A Bride for the Devilish Duke
“And do you intend to bless his proposal of marriage?” Emma asked.
Duncan did not answer immediately.
“Such a lovely garden. I should come here before breakfast more often. So very peaceful.”
“Papa…” Emma interrupted. “Do you intend to give your blessing?”
“Would you like me to give it?” he asked, looking at Emma sharply.
Emma opened her mouth to reply and realized that she couldn't.
I must recover my wits. I will not let a man tangle them like a cat playing with wool! I must not. I have too many responsibilities to my family to indulge in romance. Not that the Duke intends romance. He is too cold and too… too brutal!
“Of course not! I am not some cattle to be disposed of at the whim of a man. If Damien believes that courtship consists of his making demands, he will see that he has miscalculated,” she said, tone measured.
“Damien?” Duncan arched a suspicious brow. “I see how things are. Tell me, and be truthful. Did you instigate this rumor that I have heard swirling these past months, the gossip that you and he are already courting?”
Emma stared at him. She had not thought that her father would ever ask her that question. Because he was firmly against gossipand did not listen to rumors—that was the preserve of Charles and Rosie. But she could not lie.
“Yes,” she said quietly, suddenly abashed. “I did not want a suitor. To be courted. I thought that if a man as feared as the Duke of Redmane were alleged to be courting me, then none would dare approach.”
“But you did not think that your little rumor would reach his ears or that he would react this way?” Duncan asked.
“No, Papa. I did not,” Emma whispered.
He patted her hand again. “It feels an overreaction on Redmane's part nonetheless. I do not know what he is thinking. But I cannot overlook the offer. I am sorry, Emma, but I never imagined that I would be able to marry you off to a Duke. Nor any of my daughters, for that matter. Yet here is an opportunity that would benefit us greatly. I cannot refuse it.”
“Even if I told you that he has already clarified that it would only be a marriage in name?” Emma asked.
Duncan looked at her quizzically.
“Damien... TheDukehas told me that while we would maintain the expected appearance of husband and wife publicly, in private, we would live separate lives. I will be free to come and go with whom I please, provided it does not damage the illusion of marriage,” Emma recalled the words.
Duncan seemed to think for a moment.
“Well, that seems to coincide nicely with your wishes, does it not?”
Emma stepped back from him in shock.
“Whatever would make you say that?” Emma demanded.
“I am not so old that I am blind to your reluctance to marry. I do not know if it is born out of concern for me and your brother and sisters, your feeling of duty towards us... or something else entirely. But a marriage in name only would mean that you are as free as you are now and free of unwanted suitors. You would be more free than you are now, in fact.”
He paused at a stone bench beneath a yew hedge that towered above and cast a deep shade. Sitting, he patted the seat next to him. But Emma remained standing. She folded her arms and stepped away, looking down into the dark waters of a pond on the other side of the path. Her reflection stared back.
“How would I be more free?” she murmured, “I already feel the jaws of the trap closing on me.”
“Do not exaggerate, Emma,” Duncan chided gently, “as a Duchess, you would have wealth, power, and influence. The foundations of true freedom. And that brings me to the first letter I opened this morning, which, unlike yourself, you have not asked me about.”
Emma turned to look at her father, bracing herself. She knew him well enough to recognize the tone of his voice. This would not be good news.
“The first letter was from Silas Sutherland,Mr. Silas Sutherland,” Duncan said bitterly.
He emphasized Sutherland's title, deliberately omitting Silas Sutherland's title of knight. Emma went to her father, sat down next to him, and took his hand.
That evil man! That assaulter of women! That snake who puts such terror into my heart.
“He regrets to inform us that due to the current economic conditions, he must increase our rent here at what we have called Montrose Hall, which he still refers to as Sedgefield,” Duncan said, mouth twisting as though around an unpleasant taste.
