Chapter 37
“The solicitor is here with the annulment papers,” Peter said.
“You have only to sign them, Leonard, and you will be free of this mess I’ve gotten you into.
And you will have my most profound apologies for having ever done this to you in the first place, brother.
I know how thoughtless I was. It has been an awakening for me, I assure you, to see you marry on my behalf. You should never have had to do it.”
The solicitor came into the room, papers in hand, and set them down on the desk.
He retreated and stood with his back against the wall.
“Your Grace, if you would like to review these now, I can certainly take them away with me when I go,” he said.
“If you need more time with them, I can come back tomorrow. Either way, these proceedings will not take long, now that we’ve begun.
The whole thing can be finished in a matter of days.
I’m sure you are more than eager to see it come to a close. ”
Leonard looked up from the glass of scotch in his hand at the papers on the desk, but he made no move to touch them. “She signed the papers, then?” he asked, ignoring the solicitor and looking instead at his brother, who had taken the empty seat in the room.
“Oh, yes, she was happy to do it,” Peter said. “It was easy to persuade her.”
The smile on Peter’s face was kind, but it was hardly the jubilant expression Leonard would have expected from a man who was about to marry.
An unpleasant bitterness stirred within him.
Peter was going to take Prudence away, and he wasn’t even excited about it.
He didn’t even appreciate what he was going to have.
I have no right to be bitter. I’m the one who left Prudence, not the other way around.
“It’s not uncommon for ladies to agree quickly to annulments in situations like these,” the solicitor put in though he had not been asked for his opinion.
“When a lady knows what awaits her, it’s common for her to embrace it and to want to move ahead quickly.
It’s no great shock that she was ready to go ahead without delay, Your Grace.
Though if you need more time, again, you ought to feel free to take it.
From a practical standpoint, there is no rush here. ”
Leonard felt nauseous. “I suppose, then, that she never cared who she was married to,” he said.
“She never cared that it was me. She will be more than happy to be married to you in my stead, Peter. It’s for the best, then.
” At least he was discovering all this now.
At least he was learning now that he had meant nothing to her before he’d had the chance to fall any deeper in love with her.
He had to admit that he had not expected her to agree to the annulment so quickly.
He had thought she might delay or even argue. She was no stranger to argument.
Apparently not. Apparently she couldn’t sign the papers fast enough. She was ready to be rid of him. That was obvious. He reached for the papers.
But Peter was shaking his head. “No,” he said. “She isn’t going to be married to me.”
“What do you mean?” Leonard pulled his hand back. He looked from Peter to the solicitor. “Once the annulment is official, she’ll be at liberty to do as she likes, isn’t that true?”
“That’s right,” the solicitor said. “Both you and the Duchess will be free to remarry once the papers have been signed and processed.”
“And I thought that was the point of all of this,” Leonard said.
“I thought the whole reason you wanted to pursue this annulment was so that you and she could marry. Now, you tell me that it isn’t going to happen?
” His eyes narrowed. “Do not tell me now that you’ve changed your mind about it, Peter.
That you’ve turned on her yet again. When you came back, I believed you had changed your ways.
I thought you were going to be different.
If I found out you had talked Prudence and myself into an annulment based on the offer of a marriage that you never intended to follow through on, that would prove to me that you are exactly who I believed you to be.
I would be beyond disappointed in you, brother.
I don’t know how you and I would ever make peace with one another after something like that. ”
“That isn’t what’s happening,” Peter objected. “I haven’t betrayed anyone.”
“And yet you’re telling me that you won’t be marrying Prudence after all?”
“I offered her a marriage,” Peter said. “Just as we discussed. But she doesn’t want to marry me.”
Leonard sucked in a breath. “She doesn’t?” The words seemed to reverberate in his ear like a gong. “How can you be sure?”
“She refused. She said that she would never marry again unless it was for love which she doubted she would ever find.” Peter sighed.
“And fair enough, really. Prudence and I are not in love and never would be. I like her plenty, but that sort of connection doesn’t exist between the two of us.
If that’s what she’s seeking, we would never be a fit for each other.
I have to respect the way she seems to know her own mind about it. ”
Leonard felt deeply disturbed by his brother’s words. “If that’s the way she feels, then why would she accept the annulment in the first place? What purpose could it have if she doesn’t mean to remarry? Did she answer that?”
The solicitor cleared his throat as if to remind the brothers of his presence.
Leonard ignored him. He had chosen to come along and wait here rather than dropping off the papers and returning to pick them up, so now he was going to have to accept that he might hear some conversation he would find a little awkward.
“She’s a good woman, Leonard,” Peter said softly. “She has a kind heart.”
“I know that,” Leonard replied. “She is my wife, after all.” It hit him with a pang that this was probably one of the very last times he would be able to say those words. If they signed these annulment papers, she would be his wife no longer. The marriage would be over.
Suddenly the papers on his desk seemed to him like a poisonous viper—like a threat. He pushed them to the far edge of the desk.
The solicitor raised an eyebrow. “Those do still need your signature, Your Grace,” he said. “I can’t take them back unsigned.”
“You may go,” Leonard barked. “Call on me tomorrow if you wish. I’ll have them ready by then.”
“As you say, Your Grace.” The solicitor turned and left without another word. He was moving rather quickly, and Leonard couldn’t help thinking he looked relieved to be told to go.
Well, that’s just fine. There was no reason for him to be hanging around here in the first place unless he was also eager for my annulment to be completed. It’s hard to fathom how everyone can be so invested in something I never wanted for myself, but they do seem to be!
He turned back to his brother. “Why are you telling me what sort of woman my wife is?” he asked. “Do you think I don’t know?”
“She wants you to be happy,” Peter told him. “Just as I do. She doesn’t want to see you forced into a marriage that isn’t what you want.”
“Is that what she actually said?” That was hard to believe. Prudence had made no secret of the fact that she believed the two of them could find happiness in their marriage, that she didn’t think it was hopeless. So why would she have suddenly changed her tune?
Well, maybe because I walked out on her and then sent my brother to her, telling her I was ready to pursue an annulment.
He closed his eyes. Of course, that would have looked dreadful from Prudence’s perspective. How could she have helped but to think that he was miserable and that he wished the marriage had never happened?
“Essentially, yes, that is what she said,” Peter responded.
“She asked me why I was so determined to see your marriage annulled. She’s no fool, and she knows it isn’t because I was so in love with her that I was simply desperate to marry her.
I told her that my reasoning was born of my desire to see my brother happy.
That you shouldn’t have been forced into a marriage based on the choices that she and I made. ”
“And that was when she agreed to this,” Leonard said quietly. “After you had explained that to her. After you’d told her that your sole purpose in all this was to rescue me from the situation you thought you had forced me into and to see me happy.”
“That’s right.”
“Not because she wanted to be married to you instead.”
“She doesn’t want that at all,” Peter said.
“And now that I’ve spoken to her, I have to say, I don’t think I want it either.
Don’t mistake me, she’s a delightful person and would make a wonderful wife.
But she made a good point when I asked her about it, a point that made me realize just how hasty I was being in what I was asking her for. ”
“What was that?”
“She said that I deserve to find love,” Peter explained.
“Love?” Leonard repeated, feeling as though he couldn’t quite keep up with the conversation they were having.
“Love means a great deal to Prudence. Well, I’m sure you know that,” Peter said quickly. “I’m sure the two of you have discussed it.”
“I do know,” Leonard said. “Go on.”
“She said I shouldn’t give up hope that I might find love someday in the future with Lady Rosamund”
“Lady Rosamund?”
“The lady I love,” Peter said.
“This is the first I’m hearing of any love of yours!”
“That’s where I was the whole time I was gone,” Peter explained.
“After your wedding—well, slightly before—I went into seclusion, and I realized that I was in love. I’ve spent the past few months writing letters to Lady Rosamund, trying to win her affections to no avail.
I’m afraid she can only see me as the rake I once was.
I meant to stop pursuing her and take refuge in an alliance with Prudence, but Prudence feels I shouldn’t give up.
She seems to think one should never give up on love. ”
She does think that. A pang of guilt hit Leonard. Prudence would never have given up on the two of them. She would never have allowed Leonard to walk away if the choice had been hers.
Perhaps the choice should have been hers. Perhaps we would still be together.
She had signed this annulment paper—but she had done so believing that it was what Leonard wanted. She had done it believing that she was doing him a kindness, giving him a chance at happiness when it had been taken from him.
And suddenly Leonard knew that the most important message Prudence had given him was not the annulment. It was the words she had spoken to him through his brother.
We can never give up on love.
“I have to go and speak to her,” he said, picking up the papers at last. “I won’t sign this document. Not yet. Not until I’m sure that it’s what she wants from me.”
“I had a feeling you might say that,” Peter replied. “My carriage is still ready. We can go now if you’d like.”
Leonard grabbed his cloak. “Then what are we waiting for?” he asked. “Take me to Desford Manor. I have to win my wife back.”