Chapter 18
MARIANNE
“He truly is in love with you,” Evelyn said after the group had settled in the drawing room, and the men had gone into the parlor to have an after-dinner sherry.
“Do not be silly,” Marianne said. “You know it is all pretend.”
“It does not look pretend to me,” Charlotte said. “He continued to steal glances at you all evening long.”
Marianne bit her lip, unsure of what to say.
She had noticed that Lucien was looking at her time and again, but she hadn’t wanted to make assumptions.
After all, she had been placed beside Henry and was supposed to look after him.
Most likely, he just wanted to assure himself that she was not making a mess of it all.
However, when she related this to her sisters, they both shook their heads.
“He looks at you not the way a man looks at someone he has a business arrangement with, but the way a man looks at a woman he is madly in love with. He has been mooning over you, believe me.”
“He is trying to make it look believable that we are leg-shackled,” she replied. “And he is doing a very good job of it, given your reactions.”
“Trust me,” Evelyn said. “This was real. This is real. This is not for show. Everybody could tell.”
“No,” Marianne said. “Stop saying such things. The two of us will part ways soon enough.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Charlotte said. “And the way you’re looking after Henry? You look like you’re taking to the little boy, aren’t you? You adore him, to tell the truth.”
“He’s a lovely little boy. But he, too, is part of the arrangement. I am to be a loving aunt or a friend to him, nothing more.”
“I am unsure if the boy will understand that,” Evelyn said, her tone sounding a little judgmental now. “It isn’t right to insert yourself into his life only to disappear.”
“I am not inserting myself into his life in any manner or form. Nothing beyond what his father and I agreed, and he understands very well that I’m not his mother.”
Her sisters exchanged a look, but before anything else could be said, her aunt entered the room.
The rest of the evening passed in a blur. The men eventually joined them in the drawing room, and they all played several rounds of cards together before she and Lucien departed with Henry, who had been looked after by a maid so the adults could engage in entertainment.
By the time they made it into the carriage, Henry was asleep on Lucien’s shoulder. They rode in silence for a little while, but then Lucien broke it.
“We did very well, I think. Gideon certainly believed that we were madly in love.”
She looked up. Should she tell him that her sisters had said the same? But that would make it strange, wouldn’t it? Her sisters already knew that this was all pretend. So bringing up what they had said would only make things stranger still.
“That is good,” she said. “And we shall have to pretend again at this ball. Do you suppose we will have to dance together?”
He looked at her, eyebrows drawn together. “You sound worried about dancing with me. Is it because you dislike the idea so much, or because you think I might step on your feet?”
“Neither,” she said. “But I am not a skilled dancer, so if anyone will be stepping on anyone’s feet, it shall be me on yours.”
“Well,” he said, “Henry often likes to stand on my feet, and I will dance him around the room. So do not worry. I am quite used to people stepping on my feet.”
“I dare say my feet are rather larger, and I am much heavier than Henry.”
“You think me a weakling?” he said and chuckled. “I can manage. Besides, a dance or two shall be all we shall have to do. A little conversation, a little beaming at one another, and everybody shall believe that we are quite mad about each other. And it will be good, too.”
There was something in his tone that gave her pause. “What do you mean?”
“You have not read the scandal sheets of late?”
She shook her head. “No, I do not consume such nonsense. Half the things that are written there are lies, and the other half gossip.”
“Well, there are lies about us, I will tell you that. There are doubts that our marriage is real because we have not been seen out and about together just yet. Because we did not go on a proper honeymoon.”
She groaned. “Is that so? What are they saying?”
“They are writing about your time at the convent and how odd it is that you and I should’ve married so quickly after you left there.
They are wondering what the reason was, if there was some sort of impropriety.
I have read rumors that I supposedly compromised you and left you in an unfortunate condition. ”
This made her laugh. “An unfortunate condition? Me? They do not know me at all, do they? I have seen many a girl in an unfortunate position at the convent. I would never allow myself to be put into such a situation.”
“Good. And I assure you, I am not the sort of man who would leave a young girl in such a condition.”
His tone told her that he had somehow taken offense to her insinuating that he might, although she hadn’t meant that at all.
Why did he have to be so odd at times? Sometimes he was warm and kind, and she even believed that he cared for her, and then he turned cold.
If her sisters could see him now, they would not think that he was so madly in love with her.
“I said no such thing. I implied no such thing.”
“Of course not,” he replied, looking out the window with Henry still sleeping on his shoulder. “I beg your pardon. I did not mean to sound abrupt. In any case, that is what people are saying about us.”
“Well, then we shall just have to prove them otherwise,” Marianne shrugged. “I will not have gossip, and Canterbury tales taint what we are trying to do.”
“Good,” Lucien replied. “We shall have to pretend for an evening to genuinely like each other,” he said. “Do you think you can manage that?”
“I might’ve told you that I’m not made for the stage, but I think I can pretend for one evening,” said Marianne. The air between them had changed. It had cooled to an uncomfortable degree.
The rest of the journey was conducted in silence, and when they returned to the house, Lucien took his son up to bed while Marianne took herself up to her chamber and rang the bell for Juliet.
“Well, how was it?” Juliet asked as she helped her friend change.
“It was most bizarre. At first, he was so charming and kind that my sisters were convinced that he genuinely loved me, but then, in the carriage, we had a conversation that took an uncomfortable turn. He thought that I had implied that he might have left me with child.”
“With child?” Juliet said, crinkling her nose.
“The scandal sheets are apparently implying that this may have been the case and that is why I went into the convent and why we so quickly married.”
“Pray, are you telling me that the scandal sheets are telling a story saying that you and Lucien were lovers, he left you with child, you had to go to the convent, but then he brought you out of it to marry you after all? So you should be with child right now?” Juliet straightened up, her expression shocked.
“I do not know. I have not read the scandal sheets, but it is what he implied. In any case, he took offense after I said I am not the sort of girl who would end up in that position. He thought that I had implied that he might be the one who might leave a girl in such a condition, when I had said no such thing.” She sighed.
“You sound awfully vexed for somebody who has merely entered into an arrangement with him and nothing more.”
Juliet helped Marianne undo her hair and then brushed out her curls.
“I do not know what to make of him. One moment I think he actually likes me, and the next he acts as though I bother him.”
“That is what I heard his first wife felt like, too,” Juliet told her.
Marianne let out a groan. “Juliet, please. I do not need more details about Lucien from below stairs.”
“Very well, I shall not share any with you, but I must say that what I have heard sounds similar to what you have told me. That he can be very changeable and that his previous wife struggled with that as well.”
Could this be true? Was this why he didn’t want to talk about her? Because their marriage had been a bad one?
“Who told you this?” Marianne asked, despite having told herself that she didn’t want to know anymore.
“Her previous lady’s maid, who is now a housemaid.
She has designs on the housekeeper position that Mrs. Greaves is holding very tightly onto.
At any rate, she said that the previous Lady Wexford was often at her wits’ end with her husband.
It is a good thing that you do not genuinely care for him.
Otherwise, you might find yourself in that same position.
” Juliet tipped her head to one side. “You do not care for him, correct?”
“I already told you. It is an arrangement, and it will end soon enough. Now I am very tired. I wish to go to bed and not think about this any further.”
“Very well. I shall stop harassing you about it. I simply want to make sure that you keep in mind what I have said, that you do not allow yourself to be charmed and let it ruin all of your future plans.”
“I am glad you are here,” Marianne said with a smile.
Juliet had always been outspoken, and she knew that with her friend at her side, she was not going to allow her heart to lead her in a direction she didn’t want to go in.
Especially if the stories Juliet had just told about the previous Lady Wexford were true.