She bit her tongue. She had to after his little "gift" to her. "I am not 'some women,' Emrys," she managed to bite out before sinking her teeth firmly back into her tongue to silence herself. Perhaps the care he seemed to take with his words should inspire some sympathy for him, but no care with his words was keeping him from ruining her wedding night with words no bride wanted to hear. Of course, he'd been with married women. Perhaps that was better than him ruining some young thing, but the words still soured as they rolled into her mind. Angelica was many things, had done many things she could regret, but she had never been unfaithful. Her horrid excuse for a husband had been dead nearly a decade before she shook off the claim he had to her. Marriage meant something, not love and silly things girls dreamed of, but it was a contract just the same. Lesser women gave into their feelings, lesser women jeopardized the future of their children for the thrill of romance; better women endured, at least until they had done what was required of them and gave their husbands children of unquestionable origin. Perhaps men, at least the Selwyn brothers, found that devotion impossible, but Angelica had never been weak enough to behave like a man.
"I am not optimistic, I am capable of reason. Do you think I would ever jeopardize my children, or you, for that matter, because of my feelings? Because you won't love me, I should pretend a cad foolish enough to approach me will?" Something that could be venom, tears, or a good hex caught in her throat. Why did he continue to underestimate her? Continue to assume the worst of her? Where in the bloody hell was the man that could spend the day in bed with her and speak of nothing and make it everything? What had gone wrong - before the baby, before his courtship - that made them strangers anew? "The only thing making me lonely, or miserable is your insistence to speak to me like I am some common whore." It would have shocked her to say such a thing out loud, but outrage overcame breeding at the worst of times. "I am not other women. I am not like your other women. I am your wife. Yours. Stop pushing me away to assuage your guilt. I do not deserve that."
"I am not optimistic, I am capable of reason. Do you think I would ever jeopardize my children, or you, for that matter, because of my feelings? Because you won't love me, I should pretend a cad foolish enough to approach me will?" Something that could be venom, tears, or a good hex caught in her throat. Why did he continue to underestimate her? Continue to assume the worst of her? Where in the bloody hell was the man that could spend the day in bed with her and speak of nothing and make it everything? What had gone wrong - before the baby, before his courtship - that made them strangers anew? "The only thing making me lonely, or miserable is your insistence to speak to me like I am some common whore." It would have shocked her to say such a thing out loud, but outrage overcame breeding at the worst of times. "I am not other women. I am not like your other women. I am your wife. Yours. Stop pushing me away to assuage your guilt. I do not deserve that."
![[Image: NpMgQU7.png]](https://i.imgur.com/NpMgQU7.png)