CHAPTER TWOAs the hours ticked by, Verena slowly composed herself.
‘I must think of something, I cannot simply resign myself to this fate.’
She tossed and turned on top of her silk eiderdown, her hair a mass of tangles, undried tears on her cheeks.
‘How wretched I will be if I am forced into a marriage against my will. No, I will not marry a man I do not love! I only wish I could remember why the Duke’s name is so familiar to me, yet I cannot recall his face – ’
The past few months had been more than enough to convince of her what a life without love would hold.
She had never known her father to be so distant with her. Only occasionally did he afford her the kind of affection they had previously shared when it had been just the two of them at Rosslyn Hall.
‘Since my stepmother has ar
