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“Look at her!” Scarlett rolled her eyes. “With all that embroidery on her, the heavens can only think that the Duke of Ashton means for his bride to outshine the sun!”

Lady Wellington laughed and shook her head, while the Dowager Duchess looked on smilingly in approval.

“You young ladies will have your turn soon,” Lady Wellington told them with a twinkle in her eyes. “The right gentleman will come—you will see.”

Evie saw a light flush creep up her best friend’s cheeks at those words. A most suitable match, a happy marriage—were these not the very things that made a young woman’s heart flutter?

However, these were rarer than a white crow for a young woman of theton.

“Oh, I do hope you are right, Lady Wellington!” Scarlett quipped cheerfully, her eyes shining. “Heavens only know when these gentlemen will present themselves!”

“Oh, they will soon enough, I assure you.” The Dowager Countess chuckled. “One only needs patience…”

And a whole lot of luck!Evie inwardly added.

The scene in her chambers was the very picture of feminine joy and hope—a young lady surrounded by the love and laughter of her family and friends as she got ready for her wedding.

How could they know that this was a marriage of convenience? That this was a ploy to save her reputation and keep the Earl of Sidmouth from getting his greedy hands on her dowry?

Or that she was the bride that Daniel himself had chosen simply because Society dictated that he marry even when he had no desire to?

They were simply two people caught up in their own circumstances and found marriage to each other to be the most convenient solution to their problems.

But still, surrounded by her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess, and her two closest friends, perhaps Evie couldpretend for a while that this was indeed a love match and that she was walking with excitement to the man she was going to marry.

One must have hope for the future, she thought to herself as she tried to bolster her courage. After all, as long as there is hope, all things can be endured and made possible…

Amongst the conditions stipulated in the special license that Daniel acquired was that they could be married in a small, private ceremony in the gardens of Ashton Hall and not in the highly fashionable St. George’s, Hanover Square, where anyone may look in on them.

For this, she was grateful. It truly would have been quite hard to maintain one’s composure with everyone in thetonlooking in and speculating about their marriage.

Especially when the groom looked so foreboding that one might have mistakenly thought that he was attending his own execution instead of a supposedly joyous event like his wedding.

However, when she walked down the aisle on her grandmother’s arm, her hands clutching the bouquet of flowers a little too hard, she saw something flash in his eyes. Saw his lips curl just the slightest bit into a genuine smile.

For Evie, that had been more than enough to give her the courage to take the last few steps to reach him.

“Take care of our Evie, Your Grace,” her grandmother told him with a soft smile as she handed him her hand. “I shall entrust her happiness to you now.”

“I shall spare no effort on that matter, My Lady,” he replied solemnly as Evie looked at him in slight surprise.

She had not expected him to even respond to that, which caused her to inwardly sigh. Was he not taking things too far by making such vows?

But her grandmother simply smiled and nodded. “Good.”

The rest of the ceremony passed by in a blur. The words spoken by the minister seemed to be nothing more than a buzz in Evie’s head as she struggled to maintain the dignity of a woman about to become the Duchess of Ashton.

Fortunately for Evie—and she had Daniel to thank for that—there was no one else in the gardens with them, save for her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess, Scarlett, Phoebe, and Daniel’s two other closest friends, the Dukes of Sinclair and Wolverton.

“Your Grace, you may now kiss your bride.”

As soon as those words were spoken, Evie felt a slight tremor running through her—not out of fear, but a sense of excitement. A thread of longing wove through her, and she hoped that it did not look too obvious as she turned her gaze to her husband.

Husband.

The word settled in her, warm and comforting—two words that could hardly be used to refer to Daniel.

She felt his arm reach out for her, gathering her close to him. His other hand gently tilted her chin up.