Ever since you met the infamous Duke of Hastings in Lady Danbury's ball you've despised him; too proud and arrogant, looking at you over his shoulder as if you were nothing more than a stone in the road

Well, that was until a drunk Nigel Berbrooke tried to kiss you? Doing something unspeakable to you? You couldn't know, you just knew that he was hugging you a lot when he shouldn't and that he was repeating your name one and another time

You punched lord Berbrooke, of course, but Simon still came into the room dispossed to defend your honour even though you didn't need more defense than your fists... Advantages of growing up after three brothers and before four siblings more

You see, this was your third season in society; always being pretty but not as pretty as Miss Cressida Cowper, for example. Or always kind but not as kind as another marriageable lady. And Simon was tired; tired of the misses and their mamas behind him and the tittle, so he didn't find anyone better than the little sister of his best friend to play illusions with the ton

This was the plan, you two would pretend you were courting, that way you would have enough male attention to get married to a good man and he wouldn't have women trailing after him with every step he took

You managed to turn into friends and from friends, into lovers. So; after kissing on a garden and after an angry Anthony caught you two, you married. Maybe not in the context you would've wanted it, but you two were content with it —or that's what you wanted to believe—

After the wedding your mother came to talk to you; to give you "the talk" basically. You didn't really got anything she told you, but you knew the marital act had to feel good on both parts or alone and that with it, the children came

On the travel to Clevedon, Simon's castle belonging to his duchy you stopped at a tavern due of the travel being one day and a half long, so you and Simon decided it was better this way, maybe not the best idea but also not the worse

After a declaration —because yes, you knew you loved each other but you didn't told each other until tonight— you were on the bed; sweaty and breathless, dazed in that lavender haze that intimacy was, with Simon beside you. The both of you looking at the wooden ceiling trying to catch a breath with a smile on your faces