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“Yes, Katherine. Of course.” Robert nodded. “When they married, they absolutely despised each other. Could barely bear to stand at the altar together, as it meant being in the same room for more than two minutes. And now, look at them.”

Thomas scoffed.

“No, seriously. Look at them, they are right there.” Robert gestured back towards the ballroom, that impish grin still playing on his lips.

Thomas turned in surprise and curiosity to see what his friend was pointing at.

At the east side of the ballroom, he could see a couple sitting together, sharing a table, glasses of punch in their hands as they whispered things to each other, leaning close, smiles on their faces. They looked happy. More than happy, they looked in absolute bliss, as if the rest of the world didn’t exist around them.

“Are we sure that isn’t a mistress?” Thomas asked drily.

Robert snorted, waving his hand for the flask. “Thomas, please. Would a nobleman ever bring a mistress to such an event? No, those are for secret town apartments and meetings in private rooms where no eyes can watch.Thatis his wife. The one that almost slapped him at their wedding.”

Thomas looked at the couple a bit longer, his mind wandering.

What was the point of it all? Marriage, even the lovely kind, was pointless, in his eyes.

At best, one of you ends up dead first and the other is left to wait until they can join the other.

As he finished that thought, Katherine threw her head back and laughed heartily at something her husband had said.

He blinked, shaking himself out of his trance. “Doesn’t mean we will have the same fate, Robert. I am not even attracted to her, and she isn’t attracted to me.”

It was fortunate that his friend could not see inside his head, where visions to the contrary played out in titillating scenes, his hands still itching to feel the curves of her waist again.

“Thomas… a man would have to be dead and buried not to be attracted to her.Look at her.” Robert gestured towards Sophia, who was licking the crumbs from her lips with such enthusiasm that Thomas’s mind could not help but wander afresh, to places it should not.

Her dark hair, always fashioned in a loose chignon that showed little regard for societal standards, had been silky to the touch. Her eyes had shone fleetingly with something that wasn’t hatred when he had held her, and up close, he had noted the freckles that dotted her nose and cheeks. Not unseemly, as some in Society thought, but… oddly tempting, like they were inviting him to stop and count the constellations.

“Well, tomorrow, I will be the marital equivalent of dead and buried, in a lifeless marriage with a lifeless marriage bed. So, my point remains.”

Thomas sipped the brandy again, avoiding looking at Robert, knowing he would be frowning at the remark.

Indeed, I doubt we shall have a wedding night at all. I might as well ride straight from the church to a monastery.

He cast one last glance at his future wife, watching as she licked the last of the apple tart off her fingers.

Despite himself, he could not help thinking,What a pity.

CHAPTER 8

“And do you, Lady Sophia, take this man, the Duke of Heathcote, to be your lawfully wedded husband, from this moment and for every moment forward until the end of your days?”

“I do.”

“Then by the power invested in me by God and the Crown, I now pronounce you?—”

“Lady Sophia.” Thomas’s voice shook her awake.

She was still in her wedding gown of duck-egg blue, her back sore from sitting at an awkward angle, positioning her body as far from him as possible in the carriage. Her feet ached too, her shoes too small.

Had she been asleep or merely lost in thought? She couldn’t tell, her entire being already exhausted from the three weeks of sleepless nights that had preceded her wedding.

“Sit in a more befitting manner,” he continued in a cool tone. “We are nearly there.”

She realized her situation now. The wedding was already over and had not been a nightmare at all. It barely lasted an hour; it felt more like a technicality than anything else. That was it. She was now a wife.Hiswife.

She shook her head and rubbed her forehead. “You are too loud,” she mumbled. “Andyoushould refer to me in a more befitting manner.”