Married By Midnight(13)
“I don’t quite know what to say.” She paused and decided the blunt truth was the only option. “Fine. If you must know, there was a terrible scandal about me a few years ago. For that reason, I had no hope of marriage.”
Garrett’s head drew back in surprise. “I see. May I ask what happened?”
“You may, and I will not hide the truth from you since a contract has been signed and we are to be married in less than two weeks.” She swallowed and continued. “I was very foolish and fell in love with my charming music teacher. We ran off together and I fully intended to marry him. When my father discovered our plan, he pursued us and paid my young man handsomely to give me up. My intended was very quick to accept it, which was devastating to me, for I had given up everything to be with him. I thought he felt the same way, but now I realize he was only using me to advance himself. I believe he was hoping that Father would accept our marriage and provide us with an allowance. It did not work out that way, but still he benefited.”
Anne was quiet for a moment as she remembered the agony of her heartbreak when her father informed her of her lover’s decision.
“Then what happened?” Garrett asked.
Anne dropped her gaze to her lap as she recalled the day she walked into church and the congregation fell silent. All heads turned to look at her. No one would allow her into a pew. She had no choice but to walk out, and never return.
She pulled herself out of that abyss and met Garrett’s eyes. “My father disowned me. My brother would have nothing to do with me, and my uncle only took me in to care for my elderly grandmother. The moment she was gone, I suddenly became a terrible burden to him. He is very happy to be rid of me, and I assure you I was overjoyed to leave.
“For that reason,” she continued, “your brothers’ offer was like a gift from heaven. Now I will be able to afford a house of my own and not worry about my uncle marrying me off to some lecherous old man, which I am sure he would have done.”
Garrett inclined his head. “Then I suppose it makes perfect sense that you would accept this proposition. I am pleased we could be of service to you.”
“And I am pleased I could be of service to you,” she replied. “It has all worked out rather well, if I may say so.”
He leaned back comfortably and propped a boot up on the opposite seat. “Yes, indeed. I must confess, now that I know your whole story, I feel a great weight lifted. This whole madcap plan is starting to make some strange sort of sense.”
Anne nodded. “I suppose you could say that.”
They regarded each other with a mutual look of bewilderment, then Garrett leaned to the side to see past the driver.
“I believe we are almost there. I hope Father remembers how to skate.”
“He seemed quite lucid last night,” Anne replied. “I am sure he will be fine.”
The driver pulled the sleigh to a gentle halt in front of the octagonal lake house, and the horse jingled the bells as he shook in the harness.
Garrett stood up in the sleigh and offered his hand. “Shall we?”
As Anne gazed up at his clear blue eyes and full lips, she felt an intense shiver of attraction.
His words played over in her mind: I feared she might want to lure me into a real marriage.
Working hard to suppress any curiosity about what it might be like to marry a man like this, in earnest, she placed her hand in his and hopped out of the sleigh, onto the snow.
* * *
The servants had arrived early to clear off a large square of ice for skating and to set up a table inside the lake house with hot, spiced apple cider and sandwiches.
Garrett had not seen the lake house in many years and found himself caught up in a whirlwind of childhood memories—of swimming and fishing with his brothers in the summer, of playing hide and seek in the woods in the autumn months.
Though he had left Pembroke under bitter circumstances and hadn’t looked back, he could not deny that there were at least some happy memories here. It hadn’t been all bad, but during his time away he had chosen to forget what was good about this place. It had been easier that way. What was the point in missing what one chose to leave behind?
Charlotte entered the brightly lit lake house at that moment and stomped the snow off her boots at the door.
How lovely she had become, with her golden hair and smiling eyes. She was the one person who had remained in his heart at all times—this twin sister who always understood him and shared with him a spiritual bond like no other person in the world.
Life had been easier for her, of course, because she’d been born a girl. Their father never begrudged her existence, yet while Garrett was fourth in line to a dukedom, he could never inherit. If anything happened to his three older brothers, a scandal would result to protect the true bloodline of descent from a bastard heir.