Page 7 of The Duchess' Ultimatum
“We shall.” He took her hand, she held his weight, and together they made their way from the small antechamber and into the church.
Behind her composed expression, Penelope was well and truly panicking as her father led her. She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to be doing this. She hardly noticed the church, the people who had come to see her, or much of anything. Able to focus only on the negative… that was until she saw her soon-to-be husband for the first time.
The church and the people in it vanished when she saw him standing at the end of the aisle. The music dimmed. Her stomach unknotted. Even her father, his hand on her arm, faded as she focused on His Grace…
He was taller than she expected. Thickset, powerful, demanding of her attention. Tousled black hair. Green eyes that were like deep pools, almost black themselves. A sharp, severe face with tight lips pressed together into a scowl that sent a shiver up her spine. She repressed her flinch at that scowl, alarmed by the expression.
But then their eyes met and she wasn’t so sure.
Those eyes, they held her, pulling her toward him. He wasn’t looking at her but through her, as if he could see what she was thinking and how she felt. The fear vanished, replaced by an understanding that he and she shared the same reservations as one another. For the first time, Penelope wondered if this marriage might not be so bad… that her husband might not be the beast she imagined.
“He’s handsome, yes?” her father whispered out the corner of his mouth.
He was that too. Penelope gave her head a shake, heart pounding, but unable to deny what her father said. Dark and intimidating, there was no denying it. But that darkness was alluring in a way that Penelope could not describe just as she did not understand. She hated that it had come to this yet felt a slight slither of gratitude because she could see in her husband more than what people said.
There is something about him… an edge… hidden and guarded… but guarded from what?
Then those green eyes narrowed. The duke turned his back on her and the illusion was shattered.
The rest of the ceremony was a strange affair by Penelope’s estimate. It felt as if she was watching from afar, unable to control her body or do anything but what she was told.
She stood beside the duke who did not look at her once. She listened to the minister as he proceeded with the ceremony. Sheglanced sideways at the duke, noting how determined he was not to see her. The minutes dragged but somehow also rushed. Before long, they were being announced as man and wife. And when they were, she was offered little more than a nod from her husband as if in confirmation.
As to what happened next?I can hardly recall.
People pulled her into hugs and kisses. Congratulations were given. Laughter was had. And all the while, she tried to find her husband who had since removed himself from the front of the church.
She had no desire to be here, to be married, to spend her life with a man who she did not know and did not want to know. And from the little she could see of His Grace, he felt the exact same way about her.
Her brows pulled into a frown.Truly, a most auspicious start.
By the time Penelope arrived at Blackfort Estate, she knew beyond a doubt that this marriage would be everything she had expected. That was to say, not one to be envied, much less delighted in.
Her husband had not spoken a single word to her at the wedding breakfast, held at her father’s home which thankfully was only an hour away by carriage. He spent most of it outside, avoidingthe crowds, acting as if this day had nothing to do with him. And when it came time to leave, she was informed not by her husband but Albina’s husband, Joseph.
“Seriously?” Penelope had gaped when he told her that the duke was waiting for her in the carriage outside. “He’s… he is not even going to tell me himself?”
“He is tired, is all,” Joseph assured her, the sympathy evident on his face. “Please, Penelope, do not read too much into this.”
She snorted. “Read into what? My husband refuses to so much as speak to me. Perhaps I should be thrilled?”
The ride back to her new home was much the same.
The duke sat away from her, his large body turned to face the window, not so much as glancing in her direction when she climbed in. The atmosphere in the carriage was heavy and filled with tension and not once did Penelope think about breaking it.
If he does not want to speak with me, then I do not want to speak with him!
She spent much of the ride watching him, trying to deduce who this man was. It was the way he sat in shadows that caught her attention, as if they formed around his body naturally; as if he somehow created them from nothing. But when she saw his eyes, he did not look at her with malice or intimidation. Rather,it was a type of sadness that she could not fathom for one so menacing.
Penelope might have been angry for how he treated her, but she decided against that also. If anything, she should have been thrilled. He wanted nothing from this marriage, and she was willing to give it. A true marriage of convenience, and that was how it would stay.
However, it was when they arrived at the estate that something changed.
Yes, Penelope was happy to be ignored. And yes, she was happy to tell herself that this was the best she could hope for. But when the duke walked ahead of her into their home, throwing back the doors and then walking sedately inside, that she came to realize this simply would not do.
To be treated with apathy is one thing. But to be treated as if I do not exist! No… I deserve better than that. And my so-called husband needs to know it.
“Excuse me!” Penelope said… shouted, as that was the only way her husband might notice her.
