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The duke er flared And frustration And not a snes He’d had no one "You didn’t marry her"

"I’ve asked her every day for the lion’s share of that ti didn’t see the truth in that look They loved each other "She won’t say yes"

King turned to Agnes "Why in hell not?"

The duke put up his hands "Perhaps you will understand it"

Agnes ignored his father "I’ a duchess," King said

"It is, rather," she said

And in her words, he heard Sophie, in her slippers, nose to nose with hi the aristocracy and hiether too reliant on your title and fortune, which you have co to trap you into e?

Agnes explained "I don’t want the whole world thinking I trapped hi he’s saddled with me for some idiotic reason I don’t want the aristocracy in our business"

"Hang the aristocracy, Nessie," his father said, going to her

"Easier said than done," Agnes replied, lifting her hand to his face, stroking his cheek "I don’t wish to marry you I wish to love you And that will just have to be enough"

The words crashed over him He stilled "What did you say?"

I didn’t wish to marry you I only wished to love you

I don’t wish for you to be saddled with me

"Aloysius?"

How e That she wouldn’t go through with it

How er had a choice?

He’d made a terrible mistake

He looked to his father "But Lorna You drove her away You didn’t wish me to marry for love"

"I drove her away because she was after your money Your title" His father took a deep breath, and said, "I never expected it to go the way it did I never intended the girl’s death I never intended your desertion" Lyne drank deep before looking into his glass "You had the anger of youth and I had the io," he said to the ained you’d be so" He trailed off

Agnes finished the sentence "so like hi to listen"

King watched his father, finally seeing the cracks in the great Duke of Lyne Recognizing them, the way they broke the cool, unmoved façade, and ht Lady Sophie to anger ave you what you wished Because it is easier to be the man you wish me to be than the nes "But I don’t think she’s after your title"

Agnes s much more valuable"

I only wished to love you

And he’d packed her in a carriage and sent her away

He looked to his father "I married her"

His father nodded "I spoke to the father today He toldabout Haven and a lake?"

"It was a fishpond"

"Either way He said he forced the e"