My Last Duchess, стр. 34

“Lady Woolhastings was greatly offended, particularly, I think, by the question of whether she had false teeth,” Hugo said.“I can’t blame her for that.”

“I expect that Edith is sensitive about her age. She is certainly a woman who is trying to stop the clock. I don’t say thisto put you off, Hugo, but did you observe her hair, or rather lack of it?”

“What hair?” Hugo was aware of a leaden misery in his stomach that he hadn’t felt in years. The moment he saw Ophelia walkingbeside Lord Melton, he was swamped by a surge of possessiveness so acute he wanted to throttle the man.

“Edith’s wig,” his sister said. “Your fiancée’s wig.”

“What about it?” Ophelia’s hair had escaped in silken curls that he longed to tame. Why hadn’t he remained in her house andrefused to leave in the morning? In retrospect, walking away had been the most stupid action of his life.

“Edith shaves her head, one must assume,” his sister said. “Her hat was pinned to her wig, and at one point the wind blewit to the side and I caught sight of bare skull.”

His stomach churned. “I planned to marry a woman whom I wouldn’t bed. You agreed!”

“We were wrong,” Louisa said flatly. “Your supposed fiancée may claim not to have a false tooth—though based on her ratherstartling rage at the question, I would bet a guinea that she has at least one. That’s neither here nor there. She isn’t theright person to mother your children.”

“Because she doesn’t like rats? No one likes rats.”

“She’ll make you bitter,” his sister said. “Another woman who doesn’t love you, and whom you cannot love? We were idiots tothink that was a possibility, Hugo. Can you see her at Lindow Castle? Do you think she’ll tolerate the way Fitzy screams atall hours?”

“Peacocks do scream.”

“She’ll gild his beak and serve him for New Year’s dinner,” Louisa said. “The stuffed alligator in the drawing room? Dispatchedto the attics. The armor in the entry? The dust heap.” She hesitated. “Me?”

“She daren’t ask you to leave,” Hugo stated.

“She won’t ask, but I’ll leave.” Louisa said it easily, without bitterness. “I can’t live with the woman, and I do have myown estate, if you recall.”

“No!” The word felt as if it was punched from his chest.

He was at a crossroads. One way was . . . No. He couldn’t even visualize it, which didn’t say much for a happy future.

The other way held Ophelia, who had refused him, but looked at him with her eyes brimming with emotion. After Lady Woolhastings’sprofound rudeness, Phee walked away up the slope, her hair practically on fire with righteous indignation.

Yet his fiancée would likely be surprised to hear that she had insulted Ophelia, since all she offered—to her mind—were soundobservations drawn from a thorough grounding in “polite” society.

“What am I going to do?” The words ripped from his chest. “I can’t marry her, Louisa.”

“True.” His sister came over and kissed his cheek. “I was just waiting for you to catch up to the truth. Edith’s chance ofbeing a duchess was over when she told Betsy not to eat another piece of buttered toast.”

“It’s a cock-up,” Hugo said.

It helped to acknowledge that truth.

No matter what happened with Ophelia, he wouldn’t inflict Edith on his children. That would be as stupid a marriage as histo Yvette.

“Christ,” he said bleakly, thrusting his hand through his hair. “I have balls-all luck with women.”

“I’d say the opposite,” his sister retorted. “Marie was a darling. Ophelia is far more interesting, perhaps because we’reall of an age now. Marie never had a chance to become interesting.”

“But Ophelia—”

“Don’t tell me again that you made up your mind for her that she’d be better off without you. You have moments when I think the title has addled your brains, and this is one of them.Your job is to grovel at her feet and beg her for marriage. Do you hear me?”

He rubbed his shoulder absentmindedly because her poking actually hurt. “What if she won’t have me?”

“Then you change her mind. You wait until she has a good look at the better parts of you. You invite her to the castle fora visit and you don’t consign her to the last carriage, but keep her at your side.”

“I didn’t—”

“Yes, you did,” Louisa said. “You went off in the first carriage with that bald woman to whom you’d supposedly offered yourhand, a few days after being refused by Ophelia . . . You could scarcely have been more offensive, Hugo. I’m not the mostsensitive of beings, but even I would have trouble countenancing that insult.”

“It wasn’t meant as an insult.”

“Your intent is unimportant. I saw her eyes and you hurt her. Now, you learn from that mistake and don’t make it again.”

“I’ll have to talk to Lady Woolhastings.”

“Tomorrow at the dinner party,” his sister said briskly. “I can help, Hugo. It would be best if we could convince her thatbeing Duchess of Lindow would diminish her countenance.”

“I can’t imagine how, given that she decided to be duchess without a proposal,” he said.

“Don’t underestimate me,” she said, grinning at him.

“I never do,” he promised. Then he wound an arm around her shoulder. “If Ophelia marries me, you’ll stay, won’t you?”

“If she wants me.”

“I won’t take her.”

Louisa hooted. “You don’t have her, you arrogant fool! Now I need a restorative sleep because tomorrow morning I promised we would take the children to theTower.”

“We?” Hugo asked.

His sister just rolled her eyes.