A Bottle of Betrayal for the Forgotten Duchess by Emma Linfield

Author:Emma Linfield
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2020-01-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

M arriage? Ethel thought. He’s going to be married. To that pretty, young Lady.

It shouldn’t have been a revelation. Ethel had always known that nobles married other nobles. Dashing princes didn’t really marry uncommonly pretty and pious serving girls. They married beautiful princesses. That was the way of the world.

I was a fool for letting myself feel anything for Austin, Lord Kingshill.

But somehow, hearing Her Grace speak to Austin about marriage filled Ethel’s blood with frost and fire. Even though Ethel knew, logically, that she had no right to think about Austin like she was, she couldn’t prevent the thoughts that swept into her mind like the petals of apple blossoms dancing in a river.

“He’s going to marry her,” Ethel said softly.

She walked through the gardens, alone save for the few gardeners and a couple of kitchen boys dutifully plucking sprigs of rosemary from the winter-bitten earth.

When Ethel was upset, she’d always found solace in walking along the river and listening to its soft, murmuring current. The estate had no river, but Ethel hoped the garden, wild and magnificent, might have a similar effect. As she paused by the water garden, her heart ached. It was too hard to force away the thoughts of Austin sitting beside her.

It’s ridiculous, she thought. Utterly ridiculous. It isn’t as if he was ever mine.

But it hurt like he had been.

Ethel halted abruptly and stifled a gasp. A strange sensation crept over her and prickled her spine. She’d fallen in love with him, hadn’t she? Or if not love, it was a warm, delightful infatuation. Whatever it was, it had turned her into some empty-headed girl, who dreamed about having the unobtainable.

Her eyes burned, and Ethel raised a hand to force back her tears before they could fall. “Absurd,” she muttered. “It’s absolutely absurd, and anyone would tell me so.”

That wasn’t entirely true, though. Emma would have gasped and grabbed Ethel’s hands, while assuring her that fairy tales could happen. In Emma’s world, princes really could marry serving girls.

But that’s not the real world, Ethel thought. In the real world, the handsome Marquess marries the beautiful Lady, and they live happily ever after. And the apothecary doesn’t feel distressed that the Marquess chose someone else. The apothecary accepted that she never had a chance at winning a nobleman’s heart.

A thin layer of ice covered the surface of the water, and Ethel was filled with the sudden urge to crack the ice. She crouched and reached out with trembling fingers. The ice burned her fingertips, and she held her hand there, letting the cold seep into her skin. It was steadying.

Why does it hurt?

Ethel kept returning to the same question, over and over. She’d always prided herself on being a reasonable, mature woman. It didn’t make sense for her to care so deeply who Austin married.

Maybe if I tell myself it’s illogical enough, I’ll stop caring, Ethel thought.

She drew her hand back and resumed her walk. She’d left so quickly that she hadn’t even thought to fetch her basket.

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