The Perfect Arrangement (The Not So Saintly Sisters #4) - Annabelle Anders Page 0,38

fall in love with a person in such a short time? But if he’d lied about the very foundation of their relationship…

She stepped away from her mother and allowed Christian to lead her outside and back into the carriage. He was as handsome as ever, his chestnut hair brushed and smooth, his eyes honest and clear. He was the same gentleman to whom she’d taken vows with a week before. He was the same gentleman who knew her body intimately. And yet…

Was he who she imagined him to be? Visions of him fighting off the boar, and at the blacksmith’s, hovering over her, inside of her—like a vivid dream, they flashed through her mind.

The footman closed the carriage door behind them, and Lillian sat silently on the bench as the vehicle lurched into motion. He’d grown tense beside her. She positively hated confrontations. But surely, he had not expected such an important issue to remain unchallenged. It was the very reason she’d accepted his proposal.

She took a deep breath and turned toward him. “If you are not dying, then why did you need me to marry you so quickly?”

Chapter 11

A Misunderstanding

His eyes flew open wide. “But I never told you I was dying! Why would you think such a thing? Is that why you have continually asked me if I am unwell? I’m perfectly healthy.”

“You told me you were dying!” Lillian’s head swam. What was happening? Part of her was ecstatic to learn that he wasn’t suffering from some fatal affliction but the other part of her felt betrayed and… used.

And more confused than she’d been in her entire life.

But it was this betrayed part of her that was fit to be tied in that moment. “You lied to me!”

“I never told you I was dying!” Christian faced her now, one arm along the bench of the seat, the other in the air, as though to emphasize his innocence.

“It is the reason for the ad! Do you take me for a fool? Why else—? What of all that business concerning your sister? And making an heir!” she sputtered. “I don’t understand. Why would you lie to me?”

“Lillian.” He pushed his spectacles higher onto his nose with one hand and reached out to pat her leg with the other. “Please, my love, settle down.”

How dare he call her my love? She drew away from him, pressing her body against the side of the carriage.

But he refused to be cowed. “I never told you I was dying,” he repeated. “I told you that I was going to die! You must realize I wouldn’t lie about something so important. I would never.” His shoulders dropped as he stared at her and he looked… sad. “I… would never.”

Lillian turned away from him and stared out the window. She did not want to think that she had made him sad when it was he who had betrayed her.

He was making no sense at all. He had to realize that knowing one was dying and knowing that one was going to die most certainly held the same meaning.

Didn’t they? But…

If one was dying, then one was physically deteriorating to the point of death. If one was going to die, then the same was not necessarily true.

She turned back to face him. “Are you dying or not?” And then she corrected herself. “Are you going to die soon? And if so, you’d better have a very good explanation for it.”

The coach pulled to a stop in front of Master’s House and one of the outriders opened the door for them with a flourish.

“Drive around until I say otherwise.” His voice was clipped as he spoke to the footman.

Lillian had never heard him sound so angry, or was this him sounding frustrated? She wasn’t sure. The time they had spent together had been spent in a cocoon—a closed off world of sensuality. It had been the thing of fairytales. They had only disagreed about a few insignificant things, and those disagreements could hardly qualify as arguments.

The carriage lurched back into motion and Christian inhaled deeply.

“I am going to die, but I do not know when.”

Lilian shook her head. He’d yet to make any sense whatsoever. “How do you know this? Why? And how are you going to die? Have you done something illegal and expect to be caught and hanged? Have you harmed another, and someone wants revenge? Are you in danger?” But it was impossible for her to imagine any of these explanations, not if he was