She Fled Her Wedding — Then Found the Duke Escaping on the Same Train
Chapter 14
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They sat in Annora's bedroom, where the large wardrobe still contained the wedding dress."Do you want to stay?" Rowena asked."I don't know.""Do you want to go?""Yes.""Then there seems to be rather more information than you are admitting."Annora stood and moved to the window. "I am not a child, Rowena. People do give things up for one another.""Has he asked you to?""No.""Does he know you are considering it?""No."Her sister waited."His mother is older than Papa," Annora said. "He has responsibilities here. I cannot expect him to carry on exactly as though he had never met me.""Four months in Italy does not prevent him from having responsibilities in England.""You make it sound so easy.""I have been married 12 years. I know how often a sacrifice is presented afterwards as a bill nobody remembers agreeing to pay."Annora turned. Rowena was no longer smiling."I wanted to live near the sea once," her sister said, "before the children. Lucius thought London more practical. So did I, after I had explained it to myself often enough. Then, for several years, whenever he was thoughtless, I remembered the house we never took. He could not understand why I was angry about an empty jug or a late arrival. Sometimes neither could I.""You never told me.""It wasn't an interesting story. We had to have it out eventually. There was a great deal less dignity involved than I should have preferred."Annora sat beside her. "Are you happy?""Yes. That doesn't mean I wish you to repeat every stupid thing I did on the way."Piers came that afternoon. He had brought no broken toys to mend, no book to quarrel over. He asked to walk in the garden, and the solemnity of his voice told Annora what he intended before they reached the end of the path.He had imagined it differently all morning. Now he could see her hands closing tightly around one another, and fear made him reach for the speech he knew."I believe we could make one another very comfortable," he began.Annora stopped walking. He heard the sentence a moment after she did. It was what he had said when he proposed the first time. For an instant, he could have laughed, apologized, started again. Then he saw tears in her eyes, and his own face closed with a miserable defensiveness."That came out badly.""Yes.""You know I care for you.""I thought I did, Piers. I am wearing the blue dress your mother likes. I have agreed to join a committee I know nothing about. I have written to Rowena that I may not go to Italy, and you are telling me how comfortable we shall be."