CHAPTER THREEFor some time after her talk with the Dowager, Celina wanted only to be alone with her thoughts. What she had heard and what she had said in reply was so momentous, that she could not bear anyone else’s company.
“I want you to marry my son.”
That was what the Dowager Countess had said and for a moment Celina’s heart had leapt. After all this time he wanted her and had asked his mother to make the proposal for him.
But then her delicious haze had cleared and she had realised that he knew nothing about this idea. It was not he who wanted her, but the Dowager, anxious to see him settle down.
“Ma’am, please stop and think,” she had said when she could control her sick disappointment. “He will never allow you to choose his wife.”
“He will never choose one for himself if I don’
