Page 28 of The Duke’s Replacement Bride (The Wild Brides #6)

T he invitation arrived the very next day.

It was delivered at breakfast. Caroline accepted it and examined it as if she was looking at something she didn’t quite recognize, but Levi could guess at what she was holding. “Is that it?” he asked her. “Have you been blessed with an invitation to the legendary event?”

“Oh, yes, we’ve got the invitation.” Caroline held it up for him to see.

Their names were calligraphed on cream-colored paper, and if Levi wasn’t mistaken, it looked as if someone had taken the trouble to make sure to leave an ink splotch beside Caroline’s name.

The sight of it irked him—it was as if she wanted to make sure Caroline knew that she wasn’t worth a lot of effort.

“Are we going to go?” he asked her.

“I’m interested,” she said. “I don’t think it behooves us to stay home from an event such as this.”

There was something in her face that he didn’t like.

She seemed a bit cold—a bit distant, as if she wasn’t sure about talking to him about what was on her mind.

He wanted to question her, to get her to elaborate on what she thought about the upcoming party, but he didn’t know how to pose the question to her, so he said nothing at all.

She rose from the table. “Will you excuse me? I have to go through my things and find a suitable gown for this party,” she said. “I don’t want to be caught off-guard. I know that Modesty will have an eye on my every move and will be judging me, waiting for me to make a mistake.”

“Caroline, wait.”

She turned to look at him, eyebrows raised.

He couldn’t stop himself. “Is everything all right? You don’t seem quite yourself at the moment—is something amiss? You know, we don’t have to attend this party if—if you don’t wish to do that. We can certainly stay at home.”

“We cannot stay at home,” she countered.

“Just because she’s invited us, you feel as if we are required to attend?”

“It’s not for her sake that I say this, Levi. I’m sure you can see that. I don’t care who she has at her party. I am not trying to ensure that it’s a success. I don’t care about that. But if we don’t go…”

“Then what? Then everyone will believe the rumors about our marriage are true?”

“The rumors are true,” Caroline snapped.

Levi’s head jerked up in response. “What do you mean?” he asked. “Why would you say that? Those vile rumors aren’t true at all.”

“Which part? The part where you specifically chose to marry me because my sister left you? That part is true,” she said. “And you and I both know it, Levi. We’ve spoken of it many times.”

“All right—yes, that is technically what happened,” he allowed. “But the implications are all wrong. It makes it sound as though I’m unhappy in our marriage, or as if I would prefer to be married to Prudence over you, which I’ve told you isn’t the case.”

“I know that’s what you said.”

“You don’t believe me?”

She sighed. “No, of course I believe you,” she said quietly.

“That’s not it. It’s just that…well, every time I hear these rumors, every time I tell myself that they’re baseless, I confront the knowledge that they really aren’t at all.

The implications are wrong, as you said, but the facts are correct.

People might be assuming that we care less for one another than…

” She looked away, as if she couldn’t face him while she spoke her next words. “Than we actually do.”

“Caroline, why are you saying that as if you aren’t sure about it? That is what people are assuming. Everyone is thinking that you and I have some resentment between us, some division that simply isn’t there. You know the way I feel about you.”

“I don’t need you to explain yourself to me,” Caroline said quietly.

“Whatever you and I are to each other—it isn’t the point.

The point is that the gossips, the people who make up these rumors—they might not have it all right, but they have enough of it right.

Enough that when you look me in the eye and tell me you don’t really think it’s necessary that we go to this ball… ”

“That isn’t even what I said. I only said we didn’t have to go if you didn’t want to.

And I only said that because you were acting as if you didn’t want to go.

You don’t seem happy or excited about it, and every time you mention Modesty, it’s as if you’ve been sucking on a lemon.

I just want you to consider that no one is forcing your hand, that’s all.

I want you to feel free to turn down this invitation if it doesn’t appeal to you. Is that really such a bad thing?”

“I want you to understand how difficult this is for me.” She sighed. “I wouldn’t even be able to have this conversation with you if my family had come to the dinner table today.”

“But they aren’t here. So, tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking that, no matter what we do, no matter how hard we fight it, we are never going to be able to get away from the bare facts of this.

We are never going to be able to escape the conditions under which we married.

I just feel as though it’s going to follow us around for the rest of our lives, that’s all.

I wish there was something we could do to prevent that from happening, but I don’t feel like it’s possible. ”

“And I think you’re wrong,” Levi said firmly. “I think, as time goes by, that people will come to realize just how functional our marriage really is.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “I think you’re right,” she said. “I think our marriage is incredibly functional. And I think that, if we aren’t careful, that is exactly what people will see. That is all we can hope for them to see.”

“Caroline…I don’t understand why you’re angry,” he admitted.

“I suppose you wouldn’t. I’m going to my room now.

When I think of the fact that I thought to ask you to use this occasion to display our feelings for one another…

that was a foolish notion from the very start.

I see that now. There was never any chance that you would display any meaningful emotion for me in public, and I don’t know why I allowed myself to believe otherwise.

Thank you for agreeing to attend the ball with me, though. I know it’s the most I can ask of you.”

She was gone from the room quickly, before he had time to offer her another word.

Levi sat back in his chair, questioning what had just happened. He had thought everything was fine—even cheerful—between the two of them. He had been happy enough to see the invitation to the ball arrive, knowing that they would attend together. He had even been looking forward to that.

He’d imagined an evening with her willingly on the dance floor, spinning in his arms, warm and pliant against him. He had imagined a thousand little moments in which he might kiss her and had wondered if he would take advantage of any of them. Perhaps more than one of them.

And then, as if from nowhere, that had been pulled out from under him. He could see that she wasn’t happy at the prospect of attending the ball at all, that she didn’t want to go, and yet she’d reacted so poorly to the suggestion that they just stay at home that he had no idea what to make of it.

He rose from the table, leaving his half-finished plate behind him, and went up to the library to be by himself and to think. But to his surprise, he wasn’t alone.

Prudence and Bridget were both there, and they looked up at him upon his arrival. “Oh,” Prudence said. “Good day, Levi. I’m sorry. Did you want us to go?”

“You can stay if you’d like. I won’t be here long.” He’d grown used to having them in the house, and it was no longer an inconvenience to run into them everywhere he went. He felt able to go about his business without paying them too much mind.

But maybe Prudence was aware that something was troubling him. She gave him a long look, then shook her head. “No, we’ll go,” she said. “Come, Bridget. We can go to the conservatory. You’d like to practice your music again, wouldn’t you?”

“Do you think I need more practice?” Bridget fretted.

“I thought I was getting better. Oh, I don’t know if I shall ever be ready to play before a suitor!

And that’s if Aunt Constance ever permits me to rejoin society!

I can’t believe you and I are being forced to sit out the rest of the season, Prudence—it’s all so unfair! ”

“I’m more than happy to sit it out,” Prudence said firmly. “I’ve had enough of marital arrangements to last me a good long while.” Then she seemed to remember who was in the room with her. “No offense intended, Your Grace,” she added quickly.

“Oh, none taken,” he assured her. “I think it’s right for both of us that you and I never made it to the altar. And I don’t mean any offense by it either.”

Prudence smiled at him. “I’m glad you’re married to my sister,” she said. “You’re a very good man, and Caroline deserves the best.”

“I agree. She does.” He just wished he felt as sure as Prudence seemed to be that he was what Caroline wanted. After this morning at the breakfast table, doubts were beginning to creep in.

There was only one thing he could do. He was just going to have to make the absolute most of the upcoming ball.

There was every possibility she was merely nervous at the thought of spending the evening in front of Modesty, who had always been difficult and never kind.

She needed to know she would have someone by her side at this event.

He’d frightened her, most likely, by suggesting that maybe they shouldn’t attend, because she did want to go.

He needed to show her that she had his support through and through. And that was exactly what he would do.

The ladies left the library, headed, no doubt, for the conservatory.

Now Levi was determined to spend the day right where he was.

Though he had grown used to having Prudence and Bridget around the place and even enjoyed their company, the idea of listening to Bridget pound away at the pianoforte when he was already feeling under stress was more than he was willing to tolerate.

He pulled a book off the shelf, shut the door behind the ladies, and sat down to try to read.

But even though he turned the pages, the words meant nothing. He couldn’t get them to register in his mind, for some reason. He couldn’t focus.

All he could seem to think about was Caroline. The way she had looked at him over breakfast, as if her trust in him—so carefully won—had cracked.

That wasn’t something he’d ever dreamed could matter to him as much as it did in this moment. But right now, against all odds, he felt as if his world had shattered, and he didn’t quite know what to do.

That ball really can’t come soon enough , he thought. I need the chance to prove to Caroline that I am on her side, and that no matter what the ton may have to say about it, the two of us have every chance to build a future together.