Page 164 of The Wallflower Takes All

“My mother gave up everything familiar to marry my father. Friends. Position. The whole of her former life. I watched what it cost her.”

Silence settled in the room.

“At any rate,” Gabriel said at last, “the point is academic.”

Pembroke frowned.

“I have already asked Miss Montfort to marry me.”

Both men blinked at him.

“And?” Vanover prodded.

Gabriel let out a humorless breath. “And I did an exceedingly poor job of it. She refused.”

“Quite right.”

The quiet voice came from the doorway.

Gabriel glanced up.

His father stood there, spectacles low upon his nose, his old brown coat still buttoned despite the warmth.

“How long have you been standing there?” Gabriel asked.

“Long enough to discover that my son has inherited my legal mind without inheriting a bit of my sense.”

Pembroke smiled.

Vanover folded his arms.

Gabriel sighed. “I was trying to spare her.”

“I know,” Father said.

“She would lose everything,” Gabriel continued.

His father regarded him steadily. “Would she?”

“She would lose Society. Friends. Position,” Gabriel pointed out.

Father shrugged. “She might.”

Gabriel slapped his palm to the desktop. “She would lose the life she has always known.”

Another shrug from his father. “She might.”

Gabriel frowned. Why were they all acting as if the things he was saying were of little consequence?

“But none of those things are yours to measure,” Father continued.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes.

“You keep speaking of what your mother surrendered.” His father’s voice softened. “You never speak of what she chose.”

The room fell utterly still.

“She chose me,” his father said. “And she chose you.”