Page 33 of The Duke’s Hidden Runaway Bride

She had written to him from the road: that she lived, that she was returning, and where she might be found. She had not managed more.

His voice filled the house before the parlour door opened.

Ophelia turned to find Josiah James standing in the doorway with his hat crushed between his hands.

For a moment neither spoke.

He had aged. In two months, his heavy, handsome face had gone grey and seamed. His eyes were red.

“Ophelia.”

The sight of her seemed to break something in him, and suddenly tears were streaming down his cheeks.

He crossed the room and caught her in his arms, holding her so tightly it hurt.

“My girl. My girl. I thought you dead.”

Ophelia wept against his shoulder.

Whatever he had done, he was her father and he loved her. The love was real, and that was the tragedy of it: he loved her enough to want the very best for her, but the best he could find had been a cage.

Then the embrace loosened, and Josiah began to repair his composure.

“It is not too late.” He held her by the shoulders and looked into her face. “Thank God you are alive. The rest can be mended. You were ill; that will be the account of it, a brain fever, perhaps. You were taken care of by your godmother. No one need know more.”

“Papa...”

“Markham will still have you. He has said as much. He has been patient beyond what any man could be expected to bear. Once you are married, the talk will die and you will be safe.”

“No.”

She said it quietly.

Josiah stared at her.

Ophelia stepped out of his hands.

“No, Papa. I will not marry him. I was not ill, and I knew what I was doing when I left. I came back to tell you so to your face.”

“You do not understand what is at stake.”

“I understand very well. I know he means to bring a suit against you.”

Her father’s expression changed.

“How?”

“It does not matter. I came because I will not leave you to face him alone. But I will not be talked, shamed, or bullied into that marriage.”

“You will destroy us both.”

“I am trying to prevent that.”

“The settlements stand. He has the law behind him.”

“He has weapons in the law. That does not give him the right to my life.”

Josiah began with anger. When anger failed, he appealed to duty, then to gratitude, then to her mother’s memory, then to the ruin that waited for them both if she persisted. Ophelia heard each argument in its turn and remained where she was.