A Model Marriage by Jo Ann Ferguson

Author:Jo Ann Ferguson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504009119
Publisher: Open Road Distribution

Antonia climbed the stairs slowly. Her head urged her to turn and run; her heart begged her to keep going. She listened to neither, only to the sound of Mignon’s tears that had been scorched into her memory. She had thought Mignon would be her ally in this, the one who would be most understanding.

It had not been so.

Mignon had burst into their bedroom, her eyes blazing like Papa’s. “How can this be true?” she had cried.

Antonia had tried to soothe her. “I am sure you have heard much that is exaggerated.”

“Papa tells me you will not marry the duke.”

“That is true.”

Mignon’s eyes filled with tears. “I have never seen anyone so selfish in my life. Antonia, how could you do this to me?”

“To you?”

“If you do nothing to rectify this smirch upon our family’s reputation, you will ruin any chance I have to become Lady Carrier.” She grasped Antonia’s hands and bowed her head to press her brow against their fingers. “Please do not be so shortsighted.”

“Lord Carrier has a tendre for you. He asked you to be his wife. He would not—”

Mignon shook her head but did not look up. “Antonia, you have heard him speak so frequently of how proud he is of his family’s long history. He lauds his ancestors who let power and fortune pass them by because they would not tarnish their names in some plot or another. He would never marry a woman whose family is less flawless than his.”

Antonia sighed as she drew her fingers away from her sister’s. She wanted to argue that love would make the baron blind to this bumble broth, but she knew Mignon was correct. Lord Carrier was a proud man, too proud in her estimation, but that was neither here nor there when she knew he would set aside his betrothal with Mignon before sullying the Carrier name.

“He would be marrying you, not me.”

“That matters not.”

“So you would have me marry Patrick Fairchild so you can marry the man you love?”

Mignon shrugged her shoulders. “Why are you acting like a wounded bird, dragging your broken wing around the house, when you must want to marry him?”

“I have told him I do not wish to be his wife.” She sighed. “I have told him that today and when he last asked me to marry him.”

“He asked you before Lord Carrier asked—?” Her knuckles against her abruptly bleached lips silenced her.

Mignon had not spoken to her in the four days since, but it had been Lord Carrier’s grim-faced arrival at the house and the raised voices in the study that had distressed Antonia more than anything else. The baron was ready to break his betrothal to Mignon, for, as her sister had warned, the man was proud of his unblemished family history.

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