The Duke's Bed Warmer-Chapter 31: Mine??

Alina was pacing in his room when he came in that night, still thinking about Audrey’s conversation with the ladies of the castle.

He closed the door and began to unbutton his coat.

"Your father is doing better," he said. "The physician sent word this afternoon. The fever hasn’t returned."

She stopped mid-step and looked at him. For a moment, the whispers, the humiliation, and the uncertainty faded away.

"Thank you," she said. "I should have said it earlier, but...thank you...for everything you did and for what you’re still doing."

He did not answer. She expected him to go to bed like always, but instead, he sat at his desk and opened a book to read. She glanced at him, surprised, then started pacing again.

She could feel him watching her. The book was open, his eyes were on the page but his attention was on her. The silence stretched between them, taut and heavy.

"Why are you so frustrated?" he asked.

She stopped.

"What?"

"You’ve been pacing for god knows how long," he said. "Tell me what is making you so restless?"

She could have lied and said she was just worried about her father but she was tired of pretending that everything was okay, when it wasn’t.

"Are you going to marry me off?" she asked.

He went still.

"I’m asking you again. After you marry Audrey... will you find me a husband like you found for Rosilyn? Or are you going to keep me here as your mistress?"

He looked as if he had misunderstood her words.

"I need you to answer me," she said. "I can’t wait anymore. I can’t take the whispers and the speculation of the women in this castle who are deciding my future while I stand in the corridor and listen. I need to know what is going to happen to me."

"Who told you this?" He asked, calmly.

"As I said, the women of this castle," she replied. "They never fail to remind me what I am. Humiliating me is their favourite pastime. And today I got to hear them discuss my future over tea." She stepped closer. "So I’m asking you...tell me...what happens to me when you marry her?"

He stood up and walked towards her.

"What do you want?" he asked. "You asked me once to let you go. Do you still want that? Or do you want to stay here...with me?"

"I know you care about me," She smiled bitterly. "You can deny it all you want. You can hide behind the contract. You can say I’m property, that I’m nothing, that there was some other reason for you to help my father but I know what I saw."

He neither denies nor stops her.

"But I won’t sacrifice my self-respect for you," Her voice broke. "I won’t be the woman you keep while you marry someone else. I won’t be the bed warmer who gets married off to a stranger just because it’s the norm. I won’t accept it. I will do everything I can to escape before any of it happens."

He laughed in disbelief and stepped closer. She instinctively stepped back until her back hit the wall.

"You think you can leave?" he whispered. "Without my permission?"

He didn’t touch her, but the space between them felt charged.

"You are wrong. You can’t go anywhere unless I let you. You are mine, Alina. You have been mine since the night you arrived...and you will remain mine until I decide otherwise."

Her breath faltered.

Mine!

The word shouldn’t have affected her but it did. She composed herself immediately.

She shook her head, trying to compose herself.

"What do I have to do?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What do I have to do for you to let me go? What do you want from me? What do I have to give you, so that when you marry her...I can walk away peacefully?"

For the first time, he looked caught off guard.

"I didn’t expect that," he said quietly. "I thought I treated you well. I didn’t realize you disliked me so much that you’ve been thinking about your escape already."

"This isn’t about liking or disliking you."

"Then what is it about?"

She pushed herself away from the wall and moved past him, putting distance between them. Her hands were shaking; she clasped them behind her back.

"I’m neither a princess nor a duchess. I don’t have a family that will protect me, or a title that makes me someone important. I have nothing," she looked into his eyes.

"And when you marry Audrey, I will be even less than nothing, because the only reason people here tolerate me is your attention... which will then belong to someone else."

Her voice softened.

"So I have to think about myself. Because no one else will. Not you. Not her."

Silence hung between them.

"Fine," he said, at last. "I had no intention of keeping you after the marriage either. You will be married off just like the others. There’s a minor lord in the eastern territories who needs a wife. I think you’ll be good there." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The words hit her one after another. Something inside her broke down, but she didn’t let it show. She was stronger than that. She smiled.

"No," she said.

He frowned.

"No?"

"I won’t be married off. I won’t be given to some man in the eastern territories like a parcel being shipped. You can’t force me. You may own my body, my time but you do not own my consent. And when the time comes, you will see what happens."

A slow smile tugged at his lips.

"Are you....challenging me?"

"If that’s how you want to see it. I will make sure you are the one who lets me go when the time comes."

"You really think that can happen?" he asked, amused.

"I don’t think," she replied. "I know it will happen."

She then turned and walked to the bed.

"Fine. Do whatever you want," he said. "We’ll see who wins."

She didn’t reply. She just lay on the bed and closed her eyes, her heartbeat still uneven and her thoughts louder than ever.

For the first time since she arrived at Ravenmoor, she had drawn a line, and she had no intention of stepping back.