Loved by a Duke (The Heart of a Duke #4)(68)

The older man opened his mouth to speak, when Daisy spoke, her question carrying up to his ears. “Have you changed your mind?”

He blinked.

The vicar promptly closed his mouth.

Auric swung his attention to Daisy.

“For if you did, if you realized you do not love me,” I love you in every way a man can love a woman. She continued on a rush, her cheeks red. “If you realized that, then I’d set you free so you can find the woman whose heart you’d have.”

Ah, God, she was far more honorable and good than he ever could be. Even loving him as she did, she would still set him away. Then, with the decisions he’d made in life, he’d long proven himself selfish and self-serving.

The vicar removed his spectacles and made a show of cleaning them, making a concerted effort to studiously ignore the bridegroom and bride-to-be’s exchange.

“How can you not know I love you?” he asked her softly.

She sucked in an audible breath. “I—”

He lowered his brow close to hers. “I’ve known you nearly all my life, and yet I failed to see that which was truly before me. I was incomplete in ways I didn’t know until I opened my eyes and at last saw you.” Just like that, the protective walls he’d constructed about his heart, the protective veneer of icy duke, lifted, as this truth freed him.

Her lips parted.

“Shall we proceed?” the vicar said politely, and their gazes swung as one to the smiling servant of God. As though he feared the couple would alter their decision to wed, he launched into verse. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, to join together this Man and this Woman in Holy Matrimony; which is an honorable estate, instituted of God…”

His reservations and fears lifted. For there, with Daisy in her blue satin skirts patterned in delicate daisies, Auric knew the bond between them was too great, their love strong enough that they would not be destroyed by the past.

“…and therefore is not by any to be enterprised, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly, to satisfy men’s carnal lusts and appetites, like brute beasts that have no understanding; but reverently, discreetly…” The vicar’s words cut across Auric’s silent musings. His verses a taunting reminder of the lies and futility in his deliberately na?ve hopes for him and Daisy. He studied her openly. Her gaze fixed forward on the vicar, a wistful expression on her face.

Feeling his stare on her person, Daisy looked at him questioningly.

“Therefore, if any man can show any just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter forever hold his peace…”

“I don’t see why I can’t join your conversation…” Daisy’s child’s voice filled the corners of his memories.

The room echoed with the distant remembered sound of Lionel’s laughter. “Come, Daisy girl, stop prattling on, let Auric speak.” Auric opened his mouth to be the sole, sensible voice of protest, but then the ghost of his closest friend slipped from the room and the ceremony continued.





Chapter 17

Through the years, Daisy had all but forgotten what it was to dine at a lively, energized table. There had been a time when the dining room had peeled with laughter, hers and Lionel’s, while her mother moaned and lamented her hopelessly ill-behaved children. Since her father’s passing, breaking her fast and all other meals for that matter had been something of a solitary experience. When her mother was not indisposed, she was otherwise laconic and selfishly the weight of her mother’s misery had become so much that Daisy had deliberately avoided partaking in those meals.

This meal should be different. A wedding feast was supposed to be a celebratory affair and yet it wasn’t. For all the joy of this day, her wedding day to Auric, his admission of love, and the promise of their future together, there was something quite humbling and painful in this breakfast with Auric, Marcus, and these other outside observers to her family’s private grief.

Feeling a stare upon her person, she glanced up from her plate and found her uncle Charles and the current Marquess of Roxbury studying her with regretful expressions. She quickly returned her attention to her untouched dish. She’d long ago accepted that the curious stares and the whispers would forever be part of her life. Daisy and her mother and, when he’d been living, father had become something of an oddity. After all, it was not every day that a nobleman was knifed to death by a stranger in the street. Or, at least that was what she’d pieced together from whispers she’d once heard between her parents.

Such crimes didn’t happen to members of polite Society. Or that was what the ton erroneously believed. Daisy however, had learned the truth. Dark, ugly things happened to all people. Being born of wealth and status did not make one immune to pain. Regardless of station or lot in life, you ached and bled and cried. In short, you suffered.

Daisy picked up her fork and shoved around the untouched eggs on her dish. She made the mistake of glancing over in time to catch Marcus’ concerned stare. Her fork slipped from her fingers and clattered noisily upon her plate. She’d come to detest those pitying looks and regretful words whispered about her and her shattered family. She hid her hands under the table, folding them in her lap, fixing her attention back to the fare of eggs and cold ham and salmon upon her plate. Couldn’t this day be different? Couldn’t this small collection of guests smile and celebrate the way she wished? Perhaps it spoke to Daisy’s selfishness for on this day, the day she’d bound herself to Auric, she’d bury the memories of Lionel and loss and that long ago, dark night.