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“Not yet, but soon to be,” Charlotte added. “She will soon be a duchess.”

Eleanor felt more nervous about becoming a duchess than about marrying Gabriel. She sat down with Charlotte at the large table, and even though she didn’t know the women sitting beside and across from her, she felt immediately accepted.

“There is no more important time than now for you, Eleanor,” Harriet stated. “You are to be married, and your life will change irrevocably, but that does not mean you must change. Or perhaps it means change is exactly what you need.”

“We have only just sat down together,” Penny pointed out. “You should not scare her with such strong words.”

“I was only saying,” Harriet countered.

“There is no pressure to join us,” Augusta stepped in. “If you feel you need a place where you can speak your mind with no judgment, then we come together regularly at my residence to talk about the things we are told women shouldn’t talk about.”

“Time will show that we had it wrong all along,” Cordelia murmured.

Sarah smiled. “We have as much right to talk and think about what we want to as men do.”

Eleanor couldn’t help but smile, not so much at the words as at the young woman’s enthusiasm. When Eleanor looked across at Charlotte, she found a warm smile.

They didn’t need to say a word to each other to communicate. Eleanor was glad to have welcomed the women into what would soon be her residence. She didn’t know whether she would join the secret book club, but it was there should she need it, and that brought her comfort.

Eleanor wasn’t sure if she fell into either camp. Was she a woman who wouldn’t let marriage change her or would she need to change when she was married?

Eleanor picked up her teacup and drank from it. She urged the women to help themselves to the numerous cakes, including lemon slices, that the duke had provided for them.

Her situation could be far worse.

I haven’t changed in the last two weeks, and I don’t need to. I never wanted to fall in love, and I haven’t. And Gabriel doesn’t love me, and I can’t expect him to. I must not want anything more than I have.

CHAPTER 26

Gabriel stood at the front of the chapel, the modest building filled, and Gabriel knew that they could have filled it five times over with the number of people who wanted to observe the wedding of the year.

“How are you feeling, my boy?” Richard asked, his voice tinged with a little giddiness.

“I am fine, Uncle,” Gabriel replied.

He had no nerves on his wedding day. He knew what he was doing and why, and he had a woman who was far better than anyone he’d ever expected. From a young age, there was an expectation that he would marry and start a family to carry on the bloodline. If it ever happened, he wanted someone not for love, but for duty.

He had not found that woman. Instead, he had found Eleanor, a woman he had fallen for and whom he wanted to love for the rest of his life. That was a dangerous thought. To love was to open the heart to loss. Could he face that risk? Did he deserve her love? He felt a pull toward Eleanor, and the feelings scared him. His father had shown Gabriel what he could become if he wasn’t careful. He couldn’t fall into that pit of despair.

“Thank you for showing up for me, Uncle. Especially at such short notice,” Gabriel said.

“I know that you would have had Nathaniel here if he could attend, especially with it being his sister’s wedding, and I am honored to step in.”

“I am heartened to have some family with me on this day.”

Richard reached out and patted Gabriel on the shoulder.

“In some ways, I feel like I have betrayed Nathaniel,” Gabriel admitted. He wouldn’t be so vulnerable with anyone else. His uncle would not relay anything Gabriel told him.

“You must explain why you think that, but I know there has been no betrayal in you marrying his sister.”

“Nathaniel entrusted her safety and Season to me. If he wanted this to happen, he would have arranged it himself. The thought surely must have crossed his mind. That can only mean that he didn’t believe the idea was a good one.”

Richard patted his nephew’s shoulder again. “Just because someone didn’t say something doesn’t mean that they don’t think it is a good idea. You have spoken before about not becoming like your father, not loving someone so completely that it might destroy you if you lost them, and he would have known that, but things have changed.”

“How so?” Gabriel asked.

Gabriel looked at his uncle and frowned in amusement. Then he shook his head when Richard said nothing.