Page 72 of Her Cursed Duke
Prudence swallowed thickly, pondering on his words for a moment before moving to the door of the carriage. “Get in here, you insane man!” she shouted.
Quickly, Aiden dismounted his horse and walked to the carriage, climbing inside reluctantly. He had barely sat down when Prudence began to scold him.
“Have you taken leave of your senses? Why would you just stand in the middle of the road? What if we hadn’t slowed down? And you were in the rain, too! What if you get sick? What on earth were you thinking?”
“I thought I love you too much to let you leave me. It wasn’t right to hurt you, much less to let you take the pain along with you. Prudence… I heard you rode a horse to come and see my godmother earlier today.”
Prudence blinked, a little slighted by the odd direction the conversation had taken.“Yes… it was quicker. I was worried about her and you… I was worried you’d be alone, unsure if she was all right, and I thought… I wanted to be by your side.”
“You don’t like horses, yet you rode one all the way to my castle because you worried for me, and I let my fears get the best of me. Instead of appreciating your kindness, I was harsh and I hurt you. I’m sorry. I don’t think I can ever explain just how sorry Iam. I want to fix what I broke between us, and I’d like to suggest a means for you to get your revenge.”
Surprised and curious, Prudence folded her arms and sat back. “I’m listening.”
“Marry me.”
“What—”
“Shh, darling. Let them be,” Silas whispered to Agnes, pressing a finger to his lips.
Agnes pursed her lips and continued to glare at the ridiculous man before her younger sister.
“How on earth does marrying you help me get my revenge?” Prudence breathed, blushing deeply.
“If you marry me, we’ll be together forever, and I promise to show you every single day of our lives just how much I love you. I will never stop proving myself to you, Prudence. So, what do you say?”
Her heart was ready to beat out of her chest. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, couldn’t imagine that this was how things had turned out in the end.
And what he was promising…
She had an idea of what it would look like, having already experienced the sort of man Aiden was when he was “courting” her. If they were to marry, he would be more.
More caring. More loving. Much sweeter than he had been.And he would be hers because he loved her, too. And that, more than anything else, was a good enough reason to accept his offer.
“All right, Aiden. I suppose that is the best thing to do. I’ll marry you. As long as you give me and my sister your word that you will do everything you’ve said. I do not want to ever feel unloved ever again.”
Aiden placed a hand over his heart and glanced between Prudence and Agnes.“I promise, Prudence. As long as you’re by my side, you will never remember the feeling of not being loved.”
He held out a hand to her, and she wasted no time putting hers in it, allowing him to pull her into his arms.“Thank you,” he whispered to her softly. “Thank you for giving me another chance.”
She snuggled closer to him. “Thank you for coming after me.”
“Oh, it looks like the rain has cleared up,” Silas noted with a smile. He turned to his wife. “Where to, now?”
In turn, Agnes turned to Prudence, leaving the choice to her.
Prudence squeezed Aiden’s hand—her breath stuttering when he fixed his gaze on her, nothing but love and adoration in his eyes—and said,“Home. We’ve got good news to share.”
Epilogue
“No one told me planning a wedding would be this hard.”
Agnes chuckled, flipping through the papers containing the wedding details they had already settled on as she replied, “No one informed me either. But like the greatest of life’s lessons, the experience was an excellent teacher.” She glanced at the small pile of papers that she hadn’t gone through yet and pointed out, “You’re nearly done, anyway. Think of it like this. It’s a necessary hurdle you must overcome to truly claim your beloved as yours.”
Prudence blushed intensely, trying not to fall back into the habit of missing Aiden whenever he was mentioned or she thought about him—which was pretty much all the time.
“When you put it that way—”
“I cannot believe you would do this to me, Prudence. When I said go forth and live, I didn’t mean that you should return less than two hours later with a husband. Now I will have another lovey-dovey couple in my home until God knows when,” Martha complained, wagging a finger at Agnes. “I blame you. You brought this disease with you. Fix this.”
