Page 27 of A Bride for the Icy Duke
Samuel raised a brow. “Checked already, have you?”
“And what if I have?”
As always, Samuel made himself at home, sinking into an armchair and lacing his fingers across his chest. “I walked here, as it happens. Where is that delightful young wife of yours?”
Alexander narrowed his eyes at his infuriating friend. “Out.”
“Out where? Inthisweather?”
It took all his considerable might to prevent himself from grinding his teeth. Yes, she was out in this weather, and he had been unable to dissuade her. “As you see.”
Samuel watched him with unaccustomed somberness. “So that’s it, then?”
“That’s what?”
“Never mind.” He shook his head. “I came to inform you that Miss Eliza and I are…” He paused lazily. “Well, let us say we are pretending to have anarrangement.”
Alexander laid down his pen. Although not all his mind disengaged from Lydia, this new information distracted him sufficiently. “Pretending?” he asked, brow arching. “Is Eliza one of my wife’s friends?”
“She is. And yes, Rayment.” Samuel fixed him with a stern glare. “Pretending.”
Alexander didn’t believe him for a moment, but he decided against questioning it. “Well, then,” he replied. “I wish you luck.”
“Hopefully, it will be a short-term arrangement,” Samuel went on. “But I wanted you to know about it before someone else happened to mention it in passing.”
“A short-term arrangement?” Alexander swirled his drink. “And it is merely to placate your respective parents, I hazard?”
“If she has my interest, she may garner the interest of other eligible gentlemen,” Samuel said vaguely, not seeming to notice anything odd about his words.
“I imagine there is a great potential for courting in this society,” Alexander added with as much sobriety as he could manage.
“Precisely. It seemed the most logical conclusion.”
“And the lady herself?”
“Pardon?”
“What of her?” Alexander considered his old friend for a moment. It wasn’t like Samuel to be so oblivious, but then again, he had rarely been involved in female matters. “Does she enter into the arrangement eagerly?”
“It washersuggestion,” Samuel clarified.
“Ah.” Alexander thought back to what little he knew of Miss Eliza. She had black hair and a lively temperament, and during the occasion he had specifically noted her, it had largely been in the context of noticing his wife.
Out of habit, he once again glanced at the window. Surely she ought to be back by now. Had the servants found her?
“You look distracted,” Samuel pushed. “Tell me, why are you in here working when you could be spending time with your lovely wife?”
“Because,” Alexander replied icily, “she is not to be my wife for much longer.”
“Mm.” Samuel let silence grow between them, and Alexander pulled a letter toward him, scanning the words even though the letters jumbled in his brain. All he could see was the expression on Lydia’s face as she had grinned at him, defiant and bright in the snow.
All it would take was a second, then something terrible could happen.
“You know,” Samuel began, as though roused from a great contemplation, “it would be a shame to remove her from a community in which she is so beloved.”
“Hmm?” Once again, Alexander wrenched his thoughts away from accidents and blood and prone bodies. “What are you saying?”
His old friend gave an impatient sigh. “Must you end the marriage. Are you intending to marry another?”
