Page 18 of Bound By the Duke

She didn’t know how to tell her mother that she didn’t like lilies. She didn’t know how to stop her father from measuring her groom’s worth by the cost of the carriages. She didn’t know how to tell her sisters that she didn’t care what shade of ivory the ribbons were, because none of them made this feel more real.

And she especially didn’t know how to tell Nora that she didn’t want hers and the duke’s initials to be stitched on the napkins in gold.

“They’ll look so pretty next to the tea sets,” Nora was saying as she pulled out a page from her sketchbook. “Look! See, Aurelia? We can use this design for the breakfast table on the morning after.”

Aurelia looked, paused, then gave a small smile. “That’s lovely, Nora.”

Nora immediately beamed.

Thatwas exactly the problem. Aurelia couldn’t say no to Nora’s face when it glowed like that. Couldn’t say no to her mother when her voice sharpened in a way that said,Don’t argue.Couldn’t say no to anyone in this room, not when she had spent her whole life trying to make them proud.

So she nodded, agreed, and tried not to flinch when someone made the most absurd suggestion ever.

“I still think the harpist is too much,” Celia opined, pouring herself tea. “One harp sounds lovely. Three is excessive. What is this, an opera?”

“It’s a wedding,” Lady Scovell snapped. “Of a duchess.Aurelia is to marry into one of the oldest families in the realm. Everything must be flawless.”

Celia rolled her eyes. “Perfection is the death of romance.”

Lady Scovell ignored her entirely. She and her eldest daughter had a way of bickering and bantering.

She turned back to Aurelia, the sweet and obedient daughter who would do anything she said. “Darling, what do you think? Lilies or roses?”

Aurelia’s throat tightened at that question. Everyone was staring at her. She knew her mother wanted lilies, while her sisters preferred roses.

When she opened her mouth, nothing came out. It was a tough decision to make because she wanted to please them all.

She tried speaking again, but someone else beat her to it.

“I say roses.”

All heads turned toward that voice. It was Louis, standing in the doorway with one eyebrow raised and sleeves rolled to the elbows. He looked like he had come from fencing or another one of his favorite activities.

“Lilies smell like coffins,” he added.

Nora beamed from where she stood. It was as though the twins shared the same brain cells.

“Do you ever enter a room politely?” Lady Scovell huffed.

“No, but I leave them quickly,” Louis replied, then crossed toward the sitting room and stopped beside Aurelia. “May I borrow the bride for a moment?” He stared intently at his father.

“Is it urgent?” Lord Scovell asked, frowning.

“I think so.”

“More urgent than choosing a flower arrangement?” Celia asked incredulously, setting her teacup on the table.

Louis paused to cast a look around the room. “I would argue that most things are.”

He pulled at Aurelia’s hand, and before anyone could stop them, she was already rising from her seat.

The moment she did, she felt it.Relief. The kind that came from taking off a tight corset.

The library at Banfield House was the only place in the manor untouched by wedding chaos.

Aurelia stepped inside and breathed in the smell of sandalwood polish, before passing through the towering shelves that reached toward a coffered ceiling.

She inhaled deeply again, smiling softly.