Chapter 4 #2
The three of them stopped and looked at her. Her mother and father were still smiling, the Duke was frowning… and she saw a warning flash behind his eyes. That alone angered her, and she very nearly gave the game away.
“Mother, Father, if it is not too much to ask, might I have a word alone with my future husband?” She gave a smile and fluttered her eyelashes. “Just a moment, if it pleases you.”
“Concerning?” her father asked.
“Nothing to worry about, just…” She looked flatly at the Duke so he would understand. “Semantics. There is one or two things I was hoping to ask him about, before we told you of our plans. I would like to now.” A beat. “Alone.”
Her mother and father looked confused, but so happy were they with the situation that they did not argue. They made the Duke promise to wait until they were allowed back in before having that drink, and then they shuffled out of the room, beaming the whole while.
Helena was the one to close the door behind them. And once she did, she turned back to find the Duke watching her. And, as she had come to expect, he was grinning wickedly.
Yes, very pleased with himself.
“What is the matter with you!” she snapped.
It was not her intention to turn toward anger. But the weight of the past hour had been sitting heavily on her, building slowly such that she could hardly stand it anymore. And seeing the Duke’s smug grin, feeling that she was being taken advantage of and made to look like a fool, it all came out.
“Is this funny to you?” She waved her hands in the air. “Is this some sort of joke? Because this is my life! And I don’t appreciate you using it for… for… for whatever it is that you have planned!”
“Planned?” He frowned and tilted his head. “What might I possibly have planned?”
“I do not know!” she cried, her anger still very much front and center. “But you have come in here with your lies that I am just expected to go along with. Nothing I can do about it now. And you still have not told me why.”
“Just as you have not thanked me,” he said.
She blinked in surprise. “Thanked you? Why would I—”
“You seem to think that this is something I want.” The humor was gone from his face and his tone, replaced by a seriousness that had her leaning back, even considering a step back because it was a most intense thing to be on the receiving end of.
“That I plotted these events, all so I would find myself married to you.” He scoffed. “Are you really that self-centered?”
“I… no. I just thought—”
“No, you did not think,” he spoke over her.
“If you had, you might have realized that I have helped you. Beyond what you likely deserve. Believe me when I tell you this, Lady Helena—marriage to you is not something I planned for this evening. It is merely a situation that I have found myself in and taken advantage of.”
“But why?” she pressed, still not understanding. “You do not know me. You could have walked away and left me to my fate. Why did you help me?”
He shrugged. “Perhaps I am simply that generous.”
She scoffed. “And you expect me to believe that.”
“I do not care what you believe. I married you for good reason. A necessary reason, at that. Would you have been my first choice of bride?” He looked her over slowly, his lips twitching.
It made her feel uncomfortable, and on instinct, she crossed her arms to shield herself.
“No, I do not think so. But here we are.”
It still made no sense to her. And she had the good sense to realize that the Duke wasn’t about to elaborate and clear up the confusion.
He needed to marry me for reasons he does not wish to reveal. But what could they possibly be? Surely nothing worse than my own?
She knew nothing about the man, and thus she had no idea what to expect. Could she trust him? Was this another trap? And why had she not listened to her father and behaved for once!
“What now?” she asked finally, allowing her shoulders to slump with defeat because that was where she was. “What happens next?”
“Simple,” he said, his smile returning. “We will marry quickly to bury the scandal, at which point you and I will play the role of devoted lovers—a happily married couple, we will appear to all who see us.”
She snorted. “Somehow, I doubt that will be the case.”
“In public, it will be,” he said. “Behind closed doors, as I told you already, this will be a marriage of convenience. We will continue in this way for several months, at least until the ton grows bored of gossip, at which point you and I will go our separate ways.”
“What does that mean? Separate ways where?”
“It means that we will not live together until the end of our days,” he replied with a derisive chuckle.
“Better for both of us, I dare say. Our separation will not be common knowledge, of course, and we will remain married in name. But you will live separate from me, and it will be as if…” His smile grew, and he flashed his eyes.
“As if we never met. Which I can’t help but feel suits you perfectly well. ”
She stared at him in disbelief. “You… Are you sure you did not plan this?”
“I’ve always been quick on my feet,” he said with a dismissive shrug. “And look at it this way. Perhaps one day all this will provide some inspiration for one of your little stories. Won’t that be nice?”
Nice was not the word Helena had thought to use.
But what could she do? What could she say? Nothing was the answer to both of those questions. This marriage was happening now, and like it or not, she was forced to go through with it.
Her only hope was that the Duke’s words were true and that this marriage, one of convenience only, had an end date for her to look forward to.
Not a happy ending by any stretch of the imagination, but Helena had never been that breed of storyteller who believed happy endings were mandatory in life.
And she had never believed that she deserved such things. A truer story, she had never known.