All the Things You Never Knew - By Angealica Hewley Page 0,42
yourself. His Grace couldn’t have forced you to.”
“Well,” he tugged at his cravat again and cleared his throat. “He’s a duke, and you know it’s not good to decline–”
“No explanation needed,” Rose said with a sighed. “Let’s space out for a few months. I don’t think marriage is a good idea at the moment.”
“But I don’t–”
“Please, or I’ll jilt you all together,” she answered, irritated that she didn’t think before she spoke.
“You–”–he seem about to burst but stopped himself– “Now that’s a little overdoing don’t you think?” he said more calmly.
“I see it the right thing to do, m’lord,” she answered, and with a wicked smile added, “And you can gain all the pleasures you want. I will not deny you of your satisfaction. Just don’t go digging in the wrong place.”
“I guess I like that,” the marquess said after a moment of consideration, rubbing his hands together with a smile curved on his face.
Rose can see it now with the look on his face that he is not one that she can put her trust or faith into–or rather spend the rest of her life with.
“An agreement then, is it not?” she asked just to clarify things.
“Fine,” he said. “But you have to promise not to be a fallen woman on our wedding night.”
Not to be a fallen woman?
Rose almost laughed at his lordship’s absurd demand. He has the right to go fuck around but she can’t? So unfair–not that she had planned to do such a thing, mind you. She can surely keep her virtue intact until their wedding night, except there’s not going to be a wedding–not with him anyway.
Yesterday she had decided that she would make herself happy. She would marry and choose the one she loves. Her father is going to be disappointed, but she wants to–she has to. She spent the whole night lacking sleep thinking about her future. She had waited a whole decade for a moment she had been denied, and over a person she can never have and who would never truly accept her for whatever reason. But she would make it work.
Besides, Leon had tried to tell her something, and that something sparks a little something that she can’t define in herself. If only he wasn’t so much of an idiot as to make himself drunk before confronting her. She had been angry, yes, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t listen. Well, on second thought, she might not have if he was sober so that’s out of the way. She would listen now if he decided to tell her again.
“So how long are the few months that we’re holding the wedding off?” Lord Lansing asked her quite ecstatically. “Five? Seven? A year?”
Rose hadn’t yet decided on that. “Half a year?” she replied with a shrug.
“Fine with me,” Lord Lansing answered cheerfully. “Not that I don’t want to marry you, that is,” he added quickly as if to not make her doubt him from his excitement.
She knows he was pleased with her proposal; she was too.
“You may leave now, my lord,” she said as politely as she could to not make it sound like such a rude remark. “I will call upon you if I think otherwise.”
“My pleasure then, Lady Rose,” he said, standing up to give her another formal bow. “Until we meet again.”
Rose allowed him a kiss on the hand, and then led him off with a dismissal wave.
“Nice day to you, m’lord.”
She waited until he had left and jump up on her feet in joy.
She did it!
She had the advantage and she took it! Now she’s able to do everything she wishes, well, maybe not everything, but she’s free from the marquess to do what she needed to for a while.
Next in her scheme, find Leon and make him speak! She has the perfect plan to make that work.
“Is that his lordship that just went out?” came Susannah through the door into the sitting room where Rose was beaming. “Is everything okay?”
“Oh, Susy!” Rose exclaimed at the sight of Lady Susannah and rush up to hug her. “I have a plan, Susy. A brilliant one.”
“If it’s about his lordship, then don’t tell me,” said Susannah. “It would make me sick.”
“No, silly,” she laughs. “I’m not marrying him anymore.”
“What?” Susannah just stared at her blankly. “Are you sure?”
Rose gave her a wicked smile and asked, “Susy, what do you think about writing apologetic letters to announce the end of my engagement to Marcus?”