A Duke and A Damsel

A Duke and A Damsel--Chapter 20

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A Duke and A Damsel

Chapter 20

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Emma stood there, bewildered, not quite sure if she had heard Sebastian correctly and not quite sure how to respond. Whatever she had expected to come out of this outing, it wasn't this. She never anticipated that today would be the day she would be proposed to when she had left the house this morning. Her mind was in a muddle.

The proposal had been what she assumed a perfect proposal would be like. The day was bright and sunny, the birds were chirping cheerfully, and she and Sebastian were secluded behind some majestic trees next to the lake. 

Sebastian had done everything the way she assumed a prospective fiancé would do. He'd gone down on one knee, said the appropriate romantic lines, and made her feel as if she was the only girl in the world who mattered to him. And he was the perfect man too. Handsome, intelligent, successful. Any woman would be ecstatic in her situation. So why didn't she feel like jumping up and down in joy and immediately saying yes? And why did she wish that it was someone else bent down on one knee in front of her instead of the dashing Captain Sharpe?

Because she didn't love him. 

It was as simple as that. And though he claimed to love her, she didn't see how it was possible. He hadn't known her nearly long enough to do so. She had thought he was exactly what she wanted, but he wasn't. She had thought that she could fall in love with him, but she couldn't. She couldn't imagine spending the rest of her life with him.

This was the answer to her family's predicament, but Emma couldn't bring herself to say yes. She didn't want to be trapped in a loveless marriage forever. It wouldn't be fair to either of them, and he would come to resent her. She would just have to keep looking. 

Just as she was on the verge of turning him down, she heard a rustle in the bushes and a loud thump on the ground. Then, before she could utter even an exclamation of surprise, a greatly disheveled Blake was standing right next to her, looking at her with an expression she'd never seen before.

“You have to say no, Emma,” he said, slightly breathlessly. “You can't marry Captain Sharpe.” 

He made a face, while Emma stood completely still, further in shock.

“Especially after that completely not genuine declaration of love that he just gave you. The line was actually quite good, though only Shakespeare says things like that, but the delivery was quite awful. It sounded entirely too rehearsed. If I had said it, I would have put so much more feeling into it.” 

Emma finally regained her composure and frowned. 

“If you must know, the delivery was perfect,” she began, though she secretly agreed with Blake. “And you will not tell me what I can and cannot do or who I can and cannot marry. I will marry whomever I please, I don't need your permission for that. And how dare you interrupt a private proposal? And what were you doing in those damned bushes in the first place?”