A Marriage Most Inconvenient (Inconvenient Matches Book #1)

Chapter 1: Vera

Vera mutely stared in abject horror at the man in front of her as he sputtered a lame apology as he- dear Lord, the embarrassment- jilted her. Telling her that he no longer wished to continue their dalliance. Dismissing her as if she were his mistress. Or a common doxy! Oh, the insult was almost too much to bear!

After she had traveled in the dead of the goddamned night to come see him!

Her Grace, Minerva Catherine Montgomery, Duchess of Rothbury, was being dismissed! By the second son of a Baron, no less! Bad enough she had earned the ire of the ton by virtue of who she was; the daughter to an American, whose fortune had been made by doing business, the untitled woman who had snatched away their beloved Duke. A Duke whom they had marked for their blue-blooded daughters, she would surely be the laughingstock of the town after this! The minute her lover announced his marriage, the tongues would start wagging and if they never spared one of their own, they would happily rip her to shreds.

Dear God, why won't you focus some of your retribution on my husband, who drove me to take a lover in the first place?! She thought ruefully. God, characteristically, stayed silent though Vera suspected he was having a good laugh at her expense.

'Your Grace...Please understand. I love her, I cannot bear to be unfaithful to her.' Her traitorous beau simpered.

Ah! As if to add insult to injury, he loved her! The sheer gall! Vera felt her gloved hands shake with indignation. If he thought this appeal to her romantic nature would save him her fury, he was in for a rude awakening! To have the gall to fall in love when they had an explicit understanding between them!

'Richard, this could have been a bloody letter!' She snapped, standing up from her seat in his sitting room, trying her best to imitate her husband's ducal composure and his legendary ire. Not that she had seen much of it to imitate, but the way Richard was cowering reassured her that she was having a measure of success. 'Instead, you let me embarrass myself! And wasted my bloody time by having me come to your home!'

He winced once again but she continued her enraged tirade.

'Which, now! Is to be your marital home!' She was seething as she reached into her reticule and produced a meaningful sum and resisted the urge to toss it at him. She took a fortifying breath and began to pace.

Alright, her pride had taken a fantastic beating tonight and she was lashing out. They had no vows to hold each other to and she had not yet become quite so jaded as to think of love as a game of fools. Her dalliance would have ended someday, so why not today? She had no romantic inclination toward the man, even though they had been lovers for the better part of two years, she had no feelings of jealousy or animosity. If she begrudged her former paramour his grandiose notions of romance and marriage, she would be no better than the Duke. She hadn't sunk so low just yet! So really, it was a matter of principle!

Take that, you deplorable excuse of a husband! I shall not lose my reverence for love, even in the face of this horrid situation!

She could not possibly be angry at someone who loved and harbored hopes for the future, for a happy marriage. Not when she had secretly harbored them herself not too long ago. She winced at the memory of the last time she had seen her husband nearly six years ago, when he had thoroughly disillusioned her of her romantic notions.

This is what marriage to a future Duke looks like, my Lady Wife. There are no walks in the gardens, no nights spent in each other's arms, and no bloody romance. I would like for you to harbor no such expectations from me. I will return to London, you have leave of all my estates with the exception of Sunfield Manor, where I retire after parliament. Do with them what you wish, you will want for nothing. I make no limitations on your pin money, for the money we have will only be because your dowry gave us enough to rescue the estates my father left in ruin. We are no more than two strangers forced into a contract, I intend to act as such. Do not expect me to change my ways just because we have spoken some meaningless vows to one another.