Page 7 of Bound By the Duke

That was the statement Aurelia had been waiting for, the reason why they could not wait to marry her off. The fact that she was still a spinster could also delay her younger sister’s debut.

Yet, she could not see the sense in choosing the Duke of Whitmore. No one had seen him in years. Most people didn’t even know what he looked like.

“Nora’s perfectly capable of making her own trouble,” she muttered with a soft sigh.

“I heard that,” a small voice retorted playfully from the hallway.

Aurelia turned at the sound and spotted the two faces peeking through the doorway. Nora and Louis. The double trouble. Her partners in crime.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, their brown eyes wide with curiosity. Nora gave her a look that said,Run,while Louis made a serious face before drawing a finger across his throat.

Aurelia almost smiled despite her predicament. But she quickly masked it with a cough before her parents realized that she still found something amusing to giggle at.

They probably would not care if they had caught a glimpse of her smile anyway.

“Aurelia,” her mother said, “I know this is sudden. But this is your chance to secure your future. Think of what it means to be a duchess.”

Aurelia looked down at her hands.

A duchess.

Her fingers curled as that particular word echoed in her mind.

“A duchess with a husband who hides from the world?” she mumbled. “A man people say keeps his child locked in a tower?”

“That’s just silly gossip,” Lady Scovell stated, waving a dismissive hand.

Lord Scovell let out a deep sigh and cleared his throat. “You’ll meet him soon. He’s agreed to meet at least once before the wedding.”

Wedding.

All of it was happening fast. Worse, it felt so real. And that reality made something sink low in her stomach.

Aurelia pulled Sir Whiskerton to her chest before slowly rising from her seat. Without looking at her parents, she muttered, “Then I guess there’s nothing more to say, is there?”

“You might not see it now, but this is for the best,” her mother replied in a softer tone.

“For the best…” Aurelia repeated, her voice barely audible.

Maybe they believed that. Maybe, in their own way, her parents thought they were doing what was right.

She nodded and, without another word, turned around and made her way out of the room.

But as she climbed up the stairs to her bedroom, her heart still felt heavy, and every step felt harder than the last.

She had always wondered how it would feel when her life was no longer her own. Now, she knew.

And one thought kept echoing in her mind, over and over again.

I don’t even know what he looks like.

Aurelia barely had time to close her bedroom door before it was pushed open again. Without turning to check who the intruders were, she groaned, “Don’t interrogate me.”

However, she knew that the twins, who rushed into her room like a storm and chaos mixed together, were going to do the exact opposite.

“Well?” Nora was the first to speak, her eyes wide with curiosity. “Is it true?”

“Iswhattrue?” Aurelia returned flatly, pulling off her shoes.