Louise
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- Parts 41
"You are my sister," Louise said.
"We share blood," Lucy replied. "That does not change who we are."
Cast out by the family who called her mother a mistake and her own existence a burden, Louise has nothing left to lose, until Sebastian Warrington risks everything to prove her wrong.
"And yet you stood by," she said, her voice catching, "while my people were spoken of as though they were nothing. I stood outside your father's study three nights ago. I heard what he said, and I heard you answer him. I heard him call people like me chattel and I heard you argue with him for the better part of an hour."
Sebastian's grip on her hand tightened. "You spoke well," Louise continued. "You said all the right things," Louise whispered. "But I have spent my whole life listening to men say the right things when they believe no one is listening, only to change their principles when those principles become inconvenient."
Her voice trembled.
"So tell me, Sebastian. If I am truly the woman you claim to love, what happens the next time your father asks you to choose between me and your name?"
Sebastian did not pull away. "I choose you."
Louise looked up. "You cannot say that so easily."
"I am not saying it easily." His voice was quiet, but there was no hesitation in it.
"I have spent years allowing duty, reputation, and expectation to dictate every important decision in my life. I told myself that sacrifice was honourable simply because it was expected of me." He shook his head. "But I will not sacrifice you."
Louise's eyes filled with tears. "What if it costs you your title?"
"Then it costs me my title."
"What if your father turns against you?"
"Then I will live with his anger."
"What if society turns against you?"
Sebastian gave a faint, humourless smile. "Then society may do what it pleases."
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