Matilda considered how likely it was that she might faint just to escape this situation. She’d never done it before. Perhaps if she held her breath a very long time she might swoon and wake up once it was all over.
Audrey Ford slipped into the space at her side and grasped her hand. “How could you toy with her feelings like this, William?”
The duke pointed to her. “Matilda was just telling me she has a betrothed. What were you thinking to involve her in such a lie?”
“What betrothed?”
“Harry Lloyd,” she whispered. “He asked to marry me.”
“When?” Captain Ford blinked, glancing at her with obvious surprise.
“A year ago,” she confessed. “He left to make his fortune and went south to Portsmouth. He said he would try to join your ship as crew.”
A muscle in the captain’s jaw twitched. “He won’t be coming back.”
It took a moment for comprehension to come, then Matilda gasped and turned her face away. Her eyes filled with tears that overflowed to spill down her cheeks. Harry was dead?
“Oh, you are a beast, William. I am ashamed you’re my brother.” Audrey threw her arm around Matilda as she sobbed as quietly as she could.
She had waited so long for news of Harry, but she hadn’t imagined she would never see him again. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest.
“There will be no savaging of Miss Winslow’s reputation through the scandal of a pretend separation,” the duke insisted, “since there is not going to be any pretense of any kind. Contracts will be drawn today. I will handle the arrangements personally.”
Matilda wiped her tears away, unable to believe they were discussing anything when her heart lay in pieces.
William’s jaw clenched when they made eye contact. “I will compensate her handsomely for the inconvenience myself, as we had already discussed.”
“I don’t want to marry you,” Matilda whispered.
“Marriage?” William frowned. “What are you talking about?”
The three Ford ladies groaned in unison.
“Grandfather, will you please explain the situation to our dear but dense elder brother,” Victoria said with a sad shake of her head. “William has, quite sadly, been too long at sea to understand his duty. We’ll resume making arrangements here while you talk.”
Matilda was a little sorry to see them go. For a moment, she’d had companions who’d understood her sorrow.
Captain Ford crossed to her side and rested his hand upon her shoulder, firm and strangely comforting at such a difficult moment.
The duke rose to his feet and pointed to William. “You alone did more damage to this young woman’s reputation, a servant in your home, than was necessary to thwart Miss Chudleigh’s infatuation with matrimony. Your father would have eventually seen the error of his ways. Miss Winslow saved your life, and potential scandal is how you repay her? I will cut you off without a penny should you act against me in this. Did you not think your sisters would not suffer for it too once word of your lie spread among the ton? Don’t think it won’t, because it will indeed get out.”
Anger filled her that the duke would be so cruel as to force them to the altar and that everyone was discussing her future with no indication she had a choice in their plans. She made to rise, but William held her still. Her soul rebelled against the idea of marrying a man she did not love or even want to be around. “I wish to withdraw.”
“Of course.” The duke soothed her, suddenly reasonable and kind as he smiled upon her. “By now my granddaughters will have had a guest room prepared for you. Please remain apart from society until you are both legally wed. ”
That was easy for Matilda to do, bu
t she shivered anyway before lifting her face to her employer. Captain Ford would not give in to his grandfather’s illogical demand they marry. Wasn’t Captain Ford wealthy in his own right? She had always assumed so. He surely would not give in to blackmail from his own grandfather. “Captain?”
His expression gave little away as he met her gaze. “You agreed, and I expect you keep to our bargain.”
She couldn’t have been more shocked than if he’d begun to sing a Christmas carol at the top of his lungs. “I agreed to pretend to be in love with you for one afternoon, not to lie and forced into marriage for the rest of my life. There is a very great difference between the two in my opinion.”
A muscle flexed in his jaw. “Grandfather, would you excuse us a moment? Miss Winslow and I need to have a discussion.”
“Certainly.” The duke wandered away, leaving Matilda and William alone in the parlor.
“I cannot take the lie back now,” he said, as serious as she’d ever seen him. “We have no choice but to marry. He owns this house; he has promised my sisters their seasons and has enhanced their dowries too. My father had too many children and wives for his income. Do not imagine my grandfather won’t strike out at us by hurting them.”