SOPHIA

"Better alone than stuck with him in Amaranth Manor. He wanted to consummate the marriage." I shuddered.

Nathan stilled. Then he looked at me. "You’ve never consummated with Jace?" He gripped my shoulders. "Truly?"

"Is that important to you?" I asked. I felt my heart dive to my toes. "If I had, would you not want me?"

"I will always want you," said Nathan. "It does not matter to me what happened before. Only that you are my present and my future." He cupped my chin and brought me forward to lightly kiss me. "But if you have not been intimate with Jace, we may be able to wipe this marriage away from your past entirely."

"We never even kissed. Honestly, Jace wasn’t all that interested in me. Not until the Hunter’s Ball. He had Penelope. Perhaps they hadn’t been true lovers until recently, but does that matter? He had an ambiguous relationship with her for the last seven years. All under the guise of her saving his life." I sighed. "I was such a fool, Nathan, to pour my time and attention into him. And all along he was the wrong man."

Nathan stroked my hair, then leaned in and kissed my forehead. "My poor little butterfly."

"I have you now," I said, snuggling against him.

"What the hell is this?" exploded a familiar female voice.

I looked up and saw the Willowmarches standing in the doorway to the living room, an embarrassed Mrs. Gap behind them.

"I’m sorry, Your Grace. They insisted."

I moved to scramble out of Nathan’s embrace, but he held me tightly and stared hard at the couple. "To what do I owe the honor?"

"We’re here for our daughter-in-law," spat Mrs. Willowmarch. "After all, she’s supposed to be grieving for her dead husband!"

Once again, I tried to pull away from Nathan, but he wasn’t having it.

"The man who died with his mistress? That husband?"

Mrs. Willowmarch went pale, then staggered backwards into her husband. Mr. Willowmarch reached out to steady her, his gaze anywhere but on us. "Now, now, dear. We mustn’t make assumptions."

"You old fool!" Mrs. Willowmarch popped back up and smacked him on the shoulder. "Do you not have eyes?"

"Do you need Sophia to plan the memorial?" asked Nathan coolly. "Or do you expect her to face the ridicule and rumor-mongering happening right now? You think Jace is a shining example of moral fortitude and marital harmony?"

I thought Mrs. Willowmarch was going to have heart attack right there. She pointed and sputtered, her face turning an alarming shade of red.

"Calm down," said Mr. Willowmarch. "Let’s talk this through."

"I will go to the Emperor!" Mrs. Willowmarch was so upset, her chest heaved as she struggled to take in air. "I will have him reprimand you, Duke Stonehart. For coveting another man’s wife."

"Go ahead," said Nathan. He stroked my hair. "Tell him. While you’re there, explain how your son stole my fiancee. I’m sure he’d also be quite interested to know why you insisted the Pagemoores marry their daughter into your family. Or should I say why the Pagemoores turned black into white and let people believe Jace was always the one she was supposed to marry."

My heart turned over in my chest. I slowly sat up and turned my gaze onto the Willowmarches. Jace’s mother was too stubborn to turn away from my ire, but her husband looked appropriately abashed. "Jace was never my intended?"

"What difference does it make?" snapped Mrs. Willowmarch. "You married him. Whatever happened before is irrelevant."

"Enough of this," admonished Mr. Willowmarch. "We need to bury our son, Adelaide. Not argue with Sophia."

Technically they were arguing with Nathan. I folded my hands on my lap. Nathan was supposed to be my fiancee? How did I become Jace’s bride? "Where’s the original marriage contract?" I asked.

"I have it," said Nathan. He turned to me. "This is another thing I wanted to tell you about, Sophia."

I patted his knee. "We have plenty of time to tell each other everything. This must be dealt with now because the Willowmarches insist."

"Your marriage contract is invalid," said Mrs. Willowmarch, still furious. "She married Jace."

"But they never consummated," said Nathan. "I’ll challenge the legality of the marriage to the Willowmarches."

"If you do that, she won’t get a penny of the estate. She won’t be a widow anymore. She’ll be secondhand goods."

"Adelaide!" Mr. Willowmarch whirled his wife around and shook her. "Why are you so stubborn? You think we’re in the winning position? You want to tell the Emperor? Why not throw ourselves into prison? Or simply put our heads in the chop?"

"He was my son!" she screamed. "My only child! And she killed him!"

I shot up from the sofa. "He killed himself. And his mistress. He had sex with Penelope Shire, but never me. She was always more his wife than I. But you knew that, and didn’t give a damn." I pointed an accusing finger at the couple. "What could my parents possibly know that would make you entangle Jace and I? He made me so miserable. And he never liked me. How dare you force us to be together!"

"We paid dearly so that our sins would remain in the dark," said Mr. Willowmarch. "If you divorced Jace you would get half of everything the Willowmarches own. As his widow, you will only get Amaranth Manor and a monthly stipend."

Nathan stood and put his arm around my waist. "Why do you think she needs anything from you? She will own everything I have, which is far more than your paltry offerings."

I lightly elbowed Nathan in his ribs. "Say less," I murmured. "I don’t want you for money or power."

"But you will have both anyway." He turned his cold gaze onto the Willowmarches, and even I got a a chill up my spine. "You don’t need to go to the Emperor. We will go. I’ll ask for an annulment. It would be as if she never married Jace Willowmarch. Then I will make her my Duchess. And you will never, ever darken our door again."