She shook her head. Not this. She had not thought this. With Max, how could she? “Not marriage. I—I . . . Camden doesn’t intend to marry.” Will especially knew this.
“Plans change,” Will bit off tersely.
“No.” She looked at Max. “Tell him.”
Max stared at her for a long moment before facing Will again. “I shall start the process of acquiring a special license.”
Her lungs swelled with a ragged breath.
Will nodded once. “And I shall go explain to my mother why Aurelia is not going to have the monstrous church wedding she always dreamed of.” He sent Aurelia a chagrined look. “That shall be your cross to bear, sister.”
Aurelia’s thoughts spun. Her eyes traveled over the three of them. “Has everyone in this room gone mad?”
Will sighed. Violet rubbed her shoulder in that comforting manner of hers and murmured her name like she was a child who failed to understand. Which wouldn’t be an unfair estimate. She did not understand. She didn’t understand why she and Max must marry when no one beyond the four of them need ever know what transpired in this room.
“Would you give us a few moments alone?” Max asked.
Will looked ready to object, but Violet approached his side and took his hand. “A few minutes won’t do any harm.”
At the door, Will sent them each a warning look that seemed to say: Keep your clothes on.
When the door clicked shut behind them, Aurelia spun on Max, the words spilling from her in a burning rush, “You don’t have to—”
“Don’t I?” he retorted.
“I most assuredly won’t force you.”
“You don’t have to force me, Aurelia. It’s what we must do. I realize that. Don’t you?”
She stared at him for a long moment. “Who knows this even happened? My brother and Violet? Maybe he tells my mother. Perhaps. We don’t even know—”
“It’s enough that they know. I respect them. It’s important they respect me. I am only sorry . . . for you. This marriage . . . it can’t be what you had dreamed for yourself, Aurelia. I am sorry for that.”
That’s right. She recalled again that he had warned her. He wasn’t made for marriage. “I’ll be fine,” she promised, but in that moment she wasn’t certain if she was promising this to him or herself.
“Why are you doing this?” she whispered miserably, giving him another chance, hoping desperately he would say it wasn’t just because of her family. That it was more than that. That marriage to her held some appeal.
“Do you truly think I would not wed you? After your brother discovered us in such a compromising position?”
It shouldn’t hurt, but it did. Her opinion bore little significance to him—she bore little—even though it was she he would be marrying and not Will.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he added, sounding so very sanctimonious she wanted to lash out and hit something.
“And you’re all about doing the right thing,” she muttered, trying to hide her hurt feelings. Why did he have to be so noble?
“I don’t know what you’re so upset about.”
“Oh, I should be grateful I suppose. I’ve snared the ever elusive Viscount Camden.”
He nodded fiercely, dragging a hand through his hair and sending the dark locks flying in every direction. “You’ve already proclaimed you need a husband. What difference does it make—”