Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 116547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116547 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
“I cannot.”
“Then you are—”
“I am in love with her!” I hollered beyond the point of containment. “And as a man who barged into a ball despite being stabbed, as a man who rode into a storm still with fever, you better than anyone else should understand that I simply cannot walk away from her. Do you not think everything you have said has not crossed my mind as well? Do you not think I tried to distance myself? I did. And failed. And in that failure, I realized my love for her was worth risking my life, my sanity, even my reputation, the same as you did.” I took a deep breath. “Nothing you say or do has power over me, Your Grace. Only she does now.”
He stared at me for a moment and merely turned around, slamming the door behind him.
Once he was gone, I stood back at the edge of my bed, clasping my own hands to calm myself.
But once more I could not help but wish…wish marrying her did not cause this much pain and trouble. That, as he said, I could give her all she needed in society along with my heart.
Verity
“Do you know what you have done?” he asked me upon entering the carriage, but I did not look at him. “Verity!”
“Are you worried people shall gossip about me? Thanks to your wife, they already do!” I shouted back to him.
“Do not blame Aphrodite—”
“Why, because she is your wife? Because you love her and wish to protect her? Fine. Then do not blame Theodore. He has done nothing wrong. He never did anything wrong. He tried to stay away, and I went to him time and time again. It was I who used my condition to convince Lady Monthermer to allow us moments to speak.” It was even I who led him to my room that night. But I could not say that.
“What has taken over your mind!” he yelled at me.
“How many more times do I have to say I love him before you believe me?”
He exhaled through his nose and closed his eyes. I thought he must have needed to count because of how long it took him to open them again. “Very well, I believe you.”
“Now allow me to marry him.”
“I will not.”
I wished to kick him!
“Very well, I will keep going to see him despite your disapproval—”
“Verity!”
“Shall you lock me in my room like—”
“Do not say it,” he snapped. “I will not allow you to use the pain of the past to guilt me and keep me from ensuring your future.”
“If it is my future, I should be allowed to decide it.”
“That is not how society works.”
“Damn society then!”
“You have gone mad.”
“No, it is you who makes me so.” I huffed, turning to look out the window, and as I watched the town go past, I could not help the pain I felt from his refusals. “Why does your love matter more than mine?”
“Because mine is within the acceptable bounds.”
“Then extend your bounds!”
“What has happened to you?” He gasped, not understanding, despite all I had said. “I feel as if the sister I have always known has vanished before my very eyes, and in her place is a whole new person who acts without thought or reason.”
I turned away from him. As I’d thought, he would never yield.
I feared I would be forced to choose between my most cherished brother and my most beloved. Reaching for my neck, I held on to the pendant Theodore had given me. It hurt deeply, but I knew my choice.
I would not let anyone stop me.
I would go to Theodore once more, and next time, I would not leave.
29
Verity
“Of all the people she could have chosen, she chose him?” said the maid as she entered the kitchen with her bucket. “If I was her, I would look to do much better.”
“You ought to be grateful if anyone chooses you, Mary, with a face like that.” Another maid giggled as she folded the dough.
“What is wrong with my face? At least my hair is not balding in the back, you—”
“Enough!” the new cook, who happened to be named Mrs. Cook, snapped at them. “Good heaven, geese and goose, you would think we did not have any work left with the way you both chatter on. Mary, go fetch the butter I asked for, and Suzy, go deliver hot water to the footmen at once.”
I listened to them grumble, still fighting, before stepping out of the pantry, which had a secret passageway into the kitchen. The older woman turned back to me and gave me a stern look. Mrs. Cook had once been a maid here. However, Aphrodite had given her a promotion upon learning she was much better at preparing meals than the last cook.
“Lady Verity, you are putting me out,” she said worriedly.