Free Always by Amy Richie Page A

with the ripped hem of my nightgown. Why was I telling him such intimate things? What was wrong with me? I was sure that he couldn’t possibly care.
    “ Aunt Dora says that marriage doesn’t need love to work.” I recalled that Marcus had said the same things by the fire the night before. I didn’t agree with them, though. I had always secretly hoped that one day I would marry for love. It hadn’t seemed such a far off thing then.
    “ How did he propose?” Marcus broke into my stray thoughts.
    “ Umm,” I stuttered, “well, it wasn’t anything too fancy.” My memories took me back to the day that Edmund Harris had proposed.
    “ I spoke with your uncle, Miss Sinclair.” He stood awkwardly a few feet from where I sat.
    I only managed not to run from the room by counting my heartbeats. One, two, three, four. “Was it a…pleasant discussion?” I pressed my hands tightly together in my lap.
    “ Very,” he smiled for the first time, but it disappeared quickly. “We have decided between the two of us that marriage between us would be welcomed.”
    I felt the air whoosh in and out of my lungs, but it felt like I couldn’t get enough air. “You and Uncle Philip?” I squeaked.
    His nose wrinkled in disgust and his eyes narrowed. He quickly closed the distance between us. “No, Claudia,” he sat across from me, “you and I.”
    “ Oh,” I kept my eyes open wide. I knew if I blinked, I would cry and crying would not be an appropriate response to a marriage proposal.
    “ He just basically said that our marriage would be…good,
    ” I told Marcus, who was waiting patiently for my answer.
    “ Not very romantic, is he?”
    “ I’m glad he wasn’t,” I scoffed.
    “ I thought women liked romantic suitors.”
    I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have known what to say if he had tried.” I didn’t join in Marcus’s laughter. “Edmund is a very practical man.”
    “ I just assumed…” he let his voice trail off.
    “ Assumed what?”
    “ You’re not wealthy.”
    “ That is an easy assumption to make and you would be correct.” Of course he knew that.
    “ I wasn’t finished.” I bit the inside of my lip. “I had assumed before that since you weren’t wealthy, it must mean that you were marrying for love. Then when you told me you didn’t love each other, I was surprised.”
    “ Edmund’s mother wanted him to marry a nice quiet girl from the country; someone he can easily mold.”
    He tilted his head slightly. “Has she met you?”
    Laughter bubbled forth on my lips. “I know this is hard to believe and you better not laugh,” I warned sternly, “but normally, I don’t run through the woods with strange men.”
    “ No?”
    “ No. And I’m usually dressed quite properly and I behave quite properly.”
    “ That sounds quite boring.”
    “ And,” I continued primly, “I am even considered attractive by some.”
    “ You?” His eyes widened.
    “ Yes!”
    “ I don’t see it.”
    “ Hey,” I pushed his shoulder playfully. We both laughed at our own silliness.
    “ Okay, maybe a little,” he conceded.
    “ I wasn’t always like that, though.”
    “ Attractive?”
    “ Not what I meant,” I pretended to glare at him. “There was a time when I thought I would marry for love.”
    “ Uh-oh,” he widened his eyes.
    “ My parents married for love; and so did Aunt Dora and Uncle Philip.”
    “ So did Sylvia and David.”
    “ See? It is possible to marry for love.”
    “ Yet, you are settling for a marriage of convenience.”
    “ Perhaps if someone I loved would ask me,” I looked up at him through lowered lashes. I saw his lips clamp tight, but I forged ahead. “Like if you would ask, I’m sure I would say yes.”
    I was sitting so close to him that I was almost leaning against his shoulder. If I just moved my head a few inches, I would be touching him. He stood up so suddenly that I had to put my hand on the ground to stop myself from falling.
    “ You need to get these ideas