“Why not?”
“I-I find you very – frightening – and also entirely self-centred.”
“Self-centred?” the Marquis questioned.
“Certainly! You decided to marry Caroline because it suited you for reasons of which she was well aware. But she was not consulted in the matter and you just assumed she would be as delighted as the Duchess was.”
She knew as she spoke that she had scored in a way which the Marquis had not expected and after a moment he replied,
“I suppose, now I think about it, it was somewhat arbitrary!”
“It was quite unforgivable that Caroline should be treated as a chattel to be handed over to you by her parents without her having a chance to express her views about it.”
She paused before she conceded,
“Actually whatever you did, she would have disagreed, but that is beside the
