Page 13 of Captured By the Cold Duke
“You’re not helping, Sam,” Cassandra said, frowning at her old friend. “We’re trying to cheer Cherie up, not make her feel worse.”
“It’s fine,” Cherie said, sighing. “Nothing will cheer me up. She might as well be honest about the marriage state.”
At that moment, Minerva burst through the door of Cherie’s bedroom, looking distinctly ruffled. “The servants have just told me that your cook never implemented my dinner plan!” she cried. “The meal I had planned for you will now be something else entirely! I can’t imagine what has gotten into them, defying my orders like that…”
In the mirror of the vanity, Cherie and Cassandra’s eyes met, and they both stifled a smile. Minerva was the worst person at planning events that any of them had ever met, and Cassandra had specifically instructed her staff to never let her arrange anything at Vaston Manor. Apparently, the staff had done well.
Cherie sighed again. “If I weren’t getting married and leaving to live with the Duke of Wheaton, we would have been able to live here together as sisters,” she said to Cassandra. “I have never had a sister, and I was so looking forward to it.”
“Sisters can be overrated,” Cassandra said with a rueful laugh. “Although don’t tell Helen I said that.”
“I dearly love my sister,” Minerva added, “but she can be a pain. She’s so painfully shy she makes even me feel like a social butterfly!”
“It would have been nice to live together,” Cassandra said, smiling warmly at Cherie and fluffing the end of her wedding gown. “But instead, you will be living in a grand house of your own. You will have a staff to manage, and responsibilities, and a grand estate in the country of which you are the mistress. It will be wonderful, Cherie. You’ll see.”
“And then soon, you’ll have children,” Minerva said.
Cherie swallowed and then smiled tightly. “You’re right. It will be well, even if it wasn’t what I wanted.”
But inside, her heart felt heavy. She had not told her friends what the duke had told her about how theirs would be an unconventional marriage; that they would not live together as man and wife but be married only in name. She was too ashamed of having failed so completely at making the match they’d set out for when they’d decided to team up together to find each other husbands.
“It’s going to be wonderful, just you wait and see,” Cassandra said, squeezing her shoulder. “You and the duke might not love each other now, but Aidan assures me he is a good man. And you will grow to love and respect one another. That is a solid foundation for a long and happy marriage.”
Cherie thought of the coldness the duke had displayed so far and had to suppress a shudder. Instead, she forced herself to nod in agreement.
“You are right. Now, we should make haste, before I’m late to my own wedding.”
She stood, and her friends gathered around her. “Well, we did it,” Minerva said, forcing a smile. “We married another one of us! And it might not be a love match, but it is a perfectly respectable one.”
“More than respectable!” Cassandra said. “The duke is handsome, rich, and kind.”
Samantha justharrumphed, and Cherie couldn’t help but laugh.
“You each have gotten me through this difficult time, in your own unique ways,” she murmured. “And I will be grateful to you forever.”
And, holding hands with Cassandra and Minerva, Cherie made her way out the door and towards her wedding.
The wedding was a small, private affair, held at the church closest to Vaston Manor. Throughout the whole ceremony, Cherie felt as if she couldn’t breathe. It was warm inside, and her stays were tighter than she usually liked them.
That, or she was simply nervous.
Everything had proceeded so quickly. Only a week had gone by since her brother had returned from Italy and made her see reason, and now, she was standing at the altar with the Duke of Wheaton, repeating the vows back to the rector, and then he was pronouncing them husband and wife.
As the audience politely clapped, Cherie and the duke turned to look at one another. She felt sick and dizzy, and the duke looked stoney-faced. She had always found him handsome, eversince she was a little girl. He was tall and blue-eyed, with dimples when he smiled, and brown hair that was long and luxurious. But the hard look that had graced his face ever since she’d seen him outside the Carleton Inn in had rendered him less handsome. Or really, he looked the same, but the coldness in him was so off-putting that it was impossible to find him handsome.
That, or he resents me for forcing him to marry me through my foolish actions. The thought twisted her stomach with guilt, but only for a second.
If he didn’t want to be forced to marry me, he could have just said so. I was happy to release him at any moment.
However, he surprised her by taking her hand. “Now that we are married,” he murmured, “I would like for you to call me by my Christian name. Thomas.”
Cherie blinked, taken aback by the sudden and intimate request. For a moment, she felt touched, and even considered accepting his request. But then she remembered that they were married and that she would never, as long as she lived, know what it felt like to fall in love.
“I don’t believe that will be necessary, Your Grace,” she said coolly. She then removed her hand from his, turned and began to walk down the aisle. If any of the guests thought this odd, she didn’t care. The duke hurried to catch up with her and took her arm in his, but when she glanced at him, his face was once more stoney.
The wedding breakfast, at least, was delicious. This was thanks to her sister-in-law directing the cooks to ignore Lady Minerva’s instructions, and for that, she was grateful. If she couldn’t enjoy her new marriage, then she could at least enjoy eating as much good food as was humanly possible—and drinking perhaps a little bit more champagne than was strictly acceptable for a young lady.
I’m not a young lady anymore.I’m a married lady. Which means I can do whatever I want.
