Trying to Sabotage Her Arranged Marriage by Vanessa Carvo

Author:Vanessa Carvo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Susan Hart

The next morning came too soon. Ada considered dressing like she had the previous day, but she didn’t think there would be any point to it. She’d resigned herself to her future. She did her hair simply but elegantly, and fastening a hat to her head with pins. The day was looking to be a warm one — nothing like the chill that had settled over the late spring world.

It would actually be quite pleasant at the beach, and Ada found herself actually looking forward to the trip. It had been a long time since she’d seen the waves breaking onto the shore.

“Dear Lord,” she prayed before she went downstairs to wait for Douglas. “I don’t know what is in my heart anymore. Please guide it. Please show me what I should be doing.”

She went downstairs just as Father was letting Douglas in and shaking his hand.

“Well, don’t you look nice,” Mother said, walking into the foyer.

Douglas smiled as he looked up at Ada, but she still didn’t have it in her heart to smile back. Didn’t she have any choice in the matter? Couldn’t she pick what she wanted for herself?

“Are you ready to collect all the seashells you can carry?” Douglas asked brightly.

“Oh, how wonderful,” Mother said. “If you get enough, perhaps we can make something with them. A fun project!”

“We’d better get on the road, then,” Douglas said. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Ada sighed, allowing Douglas to take her case from her and carry it for her.

The carriage was nice, and the weather so pleasant that Douglas opened the windows to allow in the breeze.

“You look different from yesterday,” he observed, studying her.

“In what way?” Ada asked innocently.

“If possible, you are even more beautiful than before,” Douglas said.

“Oh, stop,” Ada said. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”

“Do what?”

“This.” She gestured uselessly, letting her hands fall in her lap. “It’s a ways to Brighton. You don’t have to flatter me the entire ride there.”

“Do I make you uncomfortable?” Douglas asked. “If you’d like, I could ride outside, with the driver, and give you your privacy in here.”

Ada shrugged. She didn’t know what she wanted. She just didn’t want to play pretend during this entire journey. It would be nice to see the ocean, but she wished she could’ve seen it with someone she actually liked.

“Do you not consider yourself to be pretty?” Douglas asked. Ada sighed. It seemed as if her betrothed was going to insist on making conversation no matter what.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” she said, looking away from him and out her own window.

“Well, if you’ve ever wondered, let me put those questions to rest right now,” Douglas said. “Your skin is as smooth and flawless as fresh milk. Your eyes, as I told you before, are the precise shade of cornflower blue that I enjoy pinpointing out in the fields when I go collecting flowers. And your hair is like spun gold, like ripened hay, like the silk when you reveal an ear of corn inside its husk.

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