Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

T he next afternoon, Matthew came as planned, inviting the Egerton family for a promenade through Walton Gardens, the largest park in London.

“Beautiful weather this season,” Matthew said to Alicia’s left. His arms were twisted behind his back, and the dark colors of his coat clashed against his skin. In the beauty of spring, he stood out, like one of the marbled states lining Egerton Manor’s entry way.

Alicia held her head away from him, watching the other members of the ton walk around the paths splayed across Walton Gardens. “Yes, Your Grace,” she replied.

“I heard that Lady Tollock will be throwing an outdoor soiree toward the end of the Season,” Matthew continued, seemingly not caring about her short responses. “I’m sure every exotic thing she can get her hands on will be there.”

“I’m sure you’re right, Your Grace,” she muttered, feeling a sort of edge to her words.

Matthew leaned closer to her so that his hushed words could be heard only between them. “I would expect you to at least try and put some effort in our conversation, my lady,” he said. “The to n is watching.”

Alicia rolled her eyes. “I am well aware of the ton’s steady gaze, Your Grace.”

“Then might you convince them we are not a fraud?”

“Nothing we say today will determine our future with society,” she said, though a part of her struggled to believe her own words.

Matthew scoffed. “I didn’t take you to be so ignorant.”

“I am not ignorant,” she snapped.

“You seem to want to believe we live in a different world,” he began, “where everyone, no matter their station, might one day fall in love.” Once he finished his sentence, Matthew looked over at her, eyebrows raised and lips pressed together.

Alicia sighed. “I know you refer to what I said in the parlor,” she said. “Am I wrong?”

The duke did not reply, but instead watched some birds fly overhead.

“It does not make me a fool to want to live a life inspired by love.”

“That, my lady,” he muttered, “is where you are wrong.”

“Enlighten me, Your Grace.”

A smirk crawled up Matthew’s face. “Do you truly believe your parents met and fell in love?”

“Why should I not believe what they have told me?”

Matthew laughed. “Parents tell of happy endings and sweet exchanges to prepare their daughters for their ultimate purpose,” he explained. “To uplift their status as well as the status of their future children through a beneficial marriage.”

“If you lived with parents like my own, you would speak differently,” Alicia said, finally sure of herself. She smiled. “You would fight this marriage.”

“I understand responsibility,” he coldly said.

“You believe I don’t?”

Matthew scoffed, shaking his head. “Tell me, my lady,” he said, “what responsibility has been laid on your shoulders?”

For a moment, she grew frightened of looking like a fool in front of the duke. If they were to merely have a contract between them, she at least wanted to hold her own in a conversation. She turned, looking over her shoulder at the trailing group of chaperones following close behind. Her eyes connected with Owen’s for a moment.

“I told you before,” she said.

He met her eyes for the first time since they arrived in Walton Gardens. “Have you?”

“In the library,” Alicia replied. “I explained the pressures set upon me by my brother.”

Matthew looked away, a harshness suddenly returning to his jaw. He clenched his teeth, and said, “Of course.”

She pressed her lips together as the conversation trailed off into an uneasy silence. It was obvious that any mention of how their ‘courtship’ began triggered an intense anger from the duke.

Suddenly something wet and rough swiped against Alicia’s palm, resulting in a yelp of surprise as she jumped away. Matthew made a noise of disapproval as she backed into him, her heel pressed into the top of his foot.

“ My lady,” he seethed, an annoyed look in his eyes.

Alicia flinched. “I’m sorry, Your Grace,” she apologized, looking down towards the intruder. “It was Titus, he just surprised me.”

A shaggy wolfhound walked alongside them, his long tongue rolling out to hang from his mouth. Alicia rubbed the dog’s chin as his tail wagged enthusiastically.

“Titus,” Matthew repeated.

The wolfhound’s head tilted at the sound of his name from a stranger.

The duke seemed to struggle between remaining stoic and cracking a stiff smile. “Where on earth did he come from?” he asked, looking over his shoulder.

“He belongs to my younger sister, Penelope.” Alicia turned around to face the trio following them. She waved towards the younger girl beside Owen, who had her hand on the top of another long-haired wolfhound. The girl looked away from the onlooking eyes, seemingly embarrassed.

“They are hounds,” Alicia explained. “Penelope found them when she was thirteen, and they’ve been by her side ever since.”

Titus lazily trotted back towards his owner.

“Your father allowed such a thing?”

Turning back toward the path, Alicia continued to walk alongside the duke. “Not at first,” she said with a chuckle. “When they were puppies, they were quite hard to resist.”

Matthew scoffed. “And when they grew? Expecting a different life than what was forced upon them?”

“Well,” she began with a shrug, “they were happy.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Believe whatever you want to believe,” Alicia said. “Those hounds ensure my sister is protected and never longing for company. If it makes her smile, then what is the harm?”

Matthew shook his head. “You never fail to sound naive.”

“Do you wish to cause an argument, Your Grace?”

“I wish for nothing,” he replied. “But imagine we acted like the couple the ton believes us to be. Might make matters simpler.”

Alicia remained quiet, not wanting to continue in a conversation that insulted her.

“My lady,” he started, almost in a warning tone, “you realize that I am not the one who needs to bow down to society’s standards, right?”

“The ton still looks upon you, Your Grace.”

Matthew laughed sardonically. “Not in the way it will look upon you if you remain this way.”

“My brother is?—”

“Do not use the Lord Egerton to classify your station better than what it is,” Matthew said. “In the kindest way possible, I tell you that you are a wealthy daughter who cannot provide a better station for your husband.”

Alicia went silent, staring at the ground as they walked on.

“I will remain the duke until I die,” he continued. “The status behind my name will not be tarnished, even if I were to be caught in a… scandalous position with a lady who is not my wife.” Matthew pressed his lips together. “This betrothal will save your family from any further tarnish. And as you will wed a duke, the rest of your family will reap the rewards.”

“I understand.”

“I’m afraid you don’t,” Matthew said.

“Your Grace?”

“Half the battle,” he said, “is about convincing the ton.”

“What?”

“Jumping into a marriage does not avoid scandal, my lady. A courtship does.”

Alicia went red in the face. “This is not a courtship.”

“I thought you’d prefer this over a slimy baron, or a lord in financial ruin.”

“Not this again.”

“You should be proud,” he said. “You and your brother managed to do what no mama has. Trap me in a marriage.”

“Are you a rake?”

Matthew stopped in his tracks. As Alicia kept walking, he jogged to catch up, looking over his shoulder to see if anyone was close enough to hear. “Am I a rake ?”

Alicia raised her hands defensively. “I’m just trying to understand you, Your Grace. I don’t understand your…” she struggled to find the right words, furrowing her brow, “… resistance to being married.”

“So you insult my dignity and propriety?”

Alicia couldn’t stop the irritation from pooling within her. “Don’t act like that’s not what you’ve been doing since we met.”

“I have reason to,” Matthew snapped back. “Who are you to question my motives?”

“Seems to me that I’ll be your wife, Your Grace,” she sarcastically replied.

Matthew glared at her. “Being a wife does not mean you will suddenly know my every thought.”

“I never thought I would,” she said. “I am not naive, Your Grace.”

“But you obviously are.”

“How?”

“Your first assumption as to why I was not eager like other bachelors to be wed was because I found other ways to use my free time,” he said.

“I think that to be a fair assumption, Your Grace.”

Matthew glowered. “I think it not to be.”

“I believe,” she paused, hesitating to speak against him.

“Go ahead,” he snapped. “Tell me.”

Alicia took a deep breath. “I believe you are naive about women, Your Grace.”

“Oh, really?”

“You are naive enough to suspect every young lady to be out to trap you in a marriage,” she said with a shrug. “You are naive enough to believe that someone who had taken ill at a ball used it as a ruse to get you hooked.”

“Well, it worked for you, didn’t it?”

Alicia stopped walking once she was a few steps ahead of him.

The duke continued. “Good teaching your governess did. Taught you all the right ways to use yourself in order to further your family’s standing. To use yourself in all kinds of ways.”

“How dare you insinuate that again?” Alicia shouted, the anger rising like bile in her throat. “How dare you?”

Matthew shut his mouth as her voice rose amongst the crowded park. Nearby walkers of the ton cast a wary eye toward them, whispering amongst each other. Behind, the trio of chaperones quickened their pace to get closer, a look of worry on Owen’s face. Alicia met her mother’s eyes, who stood beside her brother, worry laced in her face. As more and more onlookers cast glances in their direction, Matthew suddenly grabbed Alicia’s hand, pulling her back toward him.

Alicia, flustered, stumbled in her path. “Your Grace?—”

Matthew leaned down toward the top of her head, and said, “there are eyes upon us, my lady.” He hooked her arm in a loop around his own, her palm against his wrist, where he held his arm for her, tucked neatly against his side. The action pulled them closer to the other. “Despite all the things we want to say to the other,” he said through the corner of his mouth, “we must refrain when the ton is so curious to hear what we have to say.”

Alicia let him pull her along the path as the anger simmered. “You’re right,” she muttered.

A quiet spread between them, only the birdsong and other conversations filling the space.

“You never answered me before,” Alicia said.

“And what would that be?”

She swallowed. “If you find no comfort in marriage due to… pleasures… elsewhere.”

An amused smirk slipped onto Matthew’s lips. “No, my lady.”

“No, what?”

Matthew turned away, as though he had decided to speak no more.

“We are going to be wed,” Alicia said.

“I know.”

“Spending a lifetime in one’s home might implore you to talk with one another,” Alicia continued.

“I am not an unsocialized recluse, my lady.”

Alicia groaned with irritation. “Why must you jump to such assumptions? I never said such a thing.”

Matthew remained silent, his grip stiff around her arm. He struggled to formulate words as they neared a gazebo buried in a thicket of trees. “There are more important things for a man than physical pleasures.”

Alica frowned. “Like what?”

“Succession.”

“How do you intend to do that without a marriage?”

“Building a life for those coming after you has nothing to do with marriage. For some it might, but not here. Not for me, and not for—” Matthew cut himself off. He turned, looking ahead once more. “Not for me, my lady.”

Curiosity nipped at Alicia’s toes. She wanted nothing more than to pry, to learn something new about the angry and cold duke. There was obviously something being left unsaid, but their marriage could reveal secrets if she played her cards right. “What will this be, Your Grace?” she asked as they walked through the entrance of a gazebo that overlooked Walton Gardens.

“Hm?”

“Our marriage,” she said. “What will it be to you?”

“A contract.”

Alicia looked down at her feet.

“What did you expect me to say?” he said, almost exasperatedly, as though it was not what he truly wanted. “You think I share a sliver of my thoughts, and that our relationship has changed? We walk here today in order to trick the ton. If you want to walk away unscathed as the Duchess of Garvey, with your family name secured alongside mine, and your debts and misdoings settled, you must accept that this is a business matter, and it will never be more than that. Not for me.”

Something struck a chord within him. He held her gaze now with an intensity that could’ve made her bow. “Be glad you caught a perfect victim, my lady,” he said. “You will be secured for life. I get nothing more than an extra mouth to feed.”

Alicia froze in her path. Matthew got yanked backwards, their arms still tucked neatly together against his side. He pulled his arm away from her in response, his eyebrows furrowed in irritation. They stood at the center of the gazebo, the afternoon sunlight not reaching them from beneath it. Tucked from view, the chaperoning group seemed to have fallen behind, still on one of the garden’s many pathways.

Alicia breathed deeply. “How many times must I say this to you?”

“My lady?—”

“No,” Alicia said. “Now you will listen to me. You know nothing of that night, of my actions within that ball. You have accused me and my family of our goal to be trapping a man in a loveless marriage. All you know of my name is that of my father, and the mistakes he made in his last days. Every other moment of his life was spent doing nothing other than loving his family. That is all I know, Your Grace. And it is all I look for in my future.”

“Wait—”

She raised her hand to stop him. “I’m not finished. You are not the only one who has lost something in this union. This is not what I wanted, Your Grace. Owen has been pressuring me since the moment my father passed to find a husband. Not in the way my parents used to urge.

“He needed a man of wealth, a man of title. I needed someone good. I needed someone who loved me. It is what my parents have always wanted for me. It is what I wanted for myself.” Alicia took a step closer to him, looking as though she was trying to reason with a wild animal. “You say other things are important, like succession. I am sacrificing this for my sister. If I have to give up my happiness, I will give it up for her.”

“Alicia.”

A stunned silence spread between them once more as they locked eyes. Alicia’s breathing got heavy, whether she meant for it to or not. She searched his dark gaze, seeing something other than the cold sternness he usually displayed. Though she could not pinpoint it, Matthew’s lips parted ever so slightly, and his gaze lowered before snapping back up to meet her own.

Matthew was the first to break their stare. He nodded at her. “I will not mention it again.”

“It–it’s all right.”

The duke met her gaze. “Why were you there?” he asked. “In the library.”

“Owen,” she began, forgetting herself. She closed her eyes and breathed, “the marquess has been struggling to repair what my father left behind. This Season is supposed to be the one that saves us. The pressure has been… heavy on my shoulders. The library was a moment of quiet within it all.”

A look of understanding crossed the duke’s face. He crossed his arms behind his back, gazing at her.

“How could I have known you’d seek the same solace?” she enquired.

“You are right,” he said, almost as if he didn’t want to admit it.

Alicia looked back at him, curious to see if he would remain open for the rest of their promenade.

The duke glanced at her as chattering voices carried into the gazebo. He went cold, stiffly raising his arm to gesture towards the exit, where the trio of chaperones approached. “This way, my lady,” he said curtly.

Alicia didn’t bother to try and talk to him anymore. There was a wall between them, one too tall to climb. The London spring breeze would not be taking the tension away, not on that day.