*****
"It is a distinctly human act to marry."
*****
"I fear that we always end up like this... We may never get anything done." Evelina chuckled as she looked at Anthony as he kissed her bare stomach.
He kissed over the scars from the cuts or the leeches. He peppered kisses to each of them. He softly rubbed her sides, looking up at his wife.
"I believe it was a given, when I married such a beautiful woman." He smirked, moving to hover over her, kissing her lips.
"Mmm..." Evelina hummed, smiling into the kiss.
*****
"Animals require no contracts or dowries."
*****
James sat in the chair, alone in the room as he looked at the mirror, then back to the floor. He stood up, when the door opened, seeing a servant walk in with a letter. He scanned the letter, before rushing off to the chapel.
*****
"The hen and the rooster make no vows."
*****
Kate sat at the vanity in the empty room, before looking at the door when a servant arrived with a letter on a tray. She stood up, taking the letter and reading it. She rushed off to head to the chapel after reading it.
James walked into the chapel, seeing it empty. He walked toward the front pews, before turning at the sound of footsteps. It was Kate.
"You sent word for me?" He asked, looking at her as she stopped, a couple of feet from the entrance.
"I thought you sent word for me." Kate furrowed her brows.
They both turned at the sound of footsteps, seeing Edwina walking into the chapel with Elijah following behind her.
"I have made my decision." She told the two of them, keeping her hands in front of her. "I thought it best you both hear it from me--"
"Edwina, we should speak in private." Kate spoke up in a rushed tone.
"I cannot marry you, Lord Hanover." Edwina continued, looking at James as she ignored her sister's comment. "You cannot provide me with what it is that I want. What it is that I deserve. What everyone deserves. I may not know exactly what true love feels like, but I certainly know what it is not. It is not deception, or wandering eyes... or a role to be fulfilled. I cannot marry you because I cannot betray myself. You will never meet my eyes in the same manner that you met my sister's on that altar today. You will never... You will never look at me the same way." Edwina sighed, walking up to James, before turning to Kate. "You say you have spent your life trying to give me everything I lacked, but really, you simply gave me everything you really wanted for yourself... as though my life were not my own. I did not ask for any of it, Kate. So, today, I can be sure that what I leave behind is not my loss... It is yours. Your dream, your plan, your feelings that I had merely borrowed. Today, you have lost your power, while I have made up my own mind. And that is victory enough for me." Edwina said as Kate and James sighed.
YOU ARE READING
Midnight Rain:
FanfictionHe was the ninth Viscount Bridgerton and also a former "capital R rake." She was the thirteenth surviving child of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland and Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She also happened to be a shelter princess...
