Page 12 of Married to the Forbidden Duke
Her reputation, it was true, was equally besmirched, but she hadn’t cared much for that. Thanks to her limp, she had few prospects as it was.
“I think that’s everything we need to discuss,” the Duke said, finally turning his attention back to her. His ice-blue eyes were cold and distant, for all they were beautiful. She hated admitting that any part of him wasbeautiful, but there it was—he was handsome. Anyone with eyes could see that much.
Only, underneath that fair hair and Roman good looks concealed a black soul.
“I will post an announcement at once,” her uncle nodded soberly. “In every newspaper, so there can be no missing the event.”
The Duke gave a thin smile at this but made no comment. Alice returned his stare, examining him as openly and defiantly as he examined her.
She would not bow to his impudence.
“Is there anything you would like to add, Miss Ravenshire?” he asked, but although his words were polite, there was a challenge in his expression, a silent warning. He knew that she had no desire to marry him, and he was not really giving her the floor to vent her woes—no matter what she said, the marriage would still go ahead.
“I think you are despicable,” she muttered. “And I hope you regret this ill-fated marriage.”
“Alice!” her aunt hissed, fingers digging into her arm painfully.
But to her surprise, the Duke merely tipped his head back and laughed. “No doubt I shall. In fact, I think that extremely likely.”
He rose and offered her his hand, and although she still sensed that quiet anger about him, there was a certain level of… was thatamusementin his eyes now?
Her rage amused him!
He carried no remorse for what he had done, or he could never have looked at her with such twinkling patience, such an expectation that she would snub him and that he would find it deeply amusing.
She gripped the arm of the chair, using it to lever herself up to her feet. “You may think you have the best of me, but in committing the rest of your life to me, you have made a grave error.”
“And yet we are to be married anyway.” He took her free hand and brought it to his lips. “You are a firework, and no mistake, Miss Ravenshire, but I hope you will come to view our union with equanimity, even if you cannot view it with a kindly eye. After all, it is not merely my life you are condemning.”
He pressed his lips to the back of her hand, and she jerked violently. No one had kissed her bare skin before—during her London Season, she had always been wearing gloves. Always, in public, the model of propriety.
His mouth was soft and warm against her skin, and she felt her heart give an odd leap. When he looked at her, too, it was with a sense of puzzlement, as though he had expected the experience to be equally as unpleasant as she had, but found it was not.
“Goodbye, Miss Ravenshire,” he murmured, dropping her hand and allowing her uncle to show him to the door.
Alice dropped back into her chair, leg twinging, and looking after him.
Her aunt looked at her with a mixture of exasperation and pity. “If you had not behaved in such a rash way, you would not be in this position now. Really, Alice, if you could hold your tongue. He is a Duke, and you would do well to remember that.”
“He killed my parents,” she whispered, turning to her aunt, the tears finally forming. “How can he not see how terrible that is? What right does he have to escape with his life and happiness intact when I have suffered all these years.”
“Oh, my dear.” Her aunt stroked her finger across Alice’s cheek sympathetically. “What makes you think he has kept his happiness all these years? There is a shadow to him.”
Alice had seen no shadow. She’d seen his mockery, his determination, his implicit expectation that he would be obeyed. That wasnota man suffering for his choices.
“You could do a lot worse,” her aunt continued. “And considering what you risked when you went to London—without our consent, I might add—I think you have gotten off very lightly.”
“Married to a murderer?”
“It was anaccident, Alice. A terrible, terrible accident, the consequences of which he will have to bear for the rest of his life. And he has spent the past few years attempting to make amends. Consider all the ways he has changed.”
Alice closed her eyes. Even if that was true, it didn’t change the fact that he had ended lives. Other men—men who were not peers of the realm—would have suffered terrible things in exchange. All he had done was pay a fine and endure some talk until it passed.
“I don’t know if I can ever forgive him,” she whispered.
“For the sake of your marriage,” her aunt replied, “I hope you try.”
CHAPTER SIX
