Lady Priscilla’s Shameful Secret. Christine Merrill

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СКАЧАТЬ instantaneous as she’d expected. But the size of him was simply too intimidating, and time was not likely to change it. ‘You are no better than he is, if you care so little about how I come to you.’

      ‘But I am hoping that you might come to think of me as the lesser of two, or more, evils,’ he said, still without smiling. ‘The devil you know, rather than the devil you don’t. Personally, once I am set upon a course, I do not intend to take no for an answer. And I am set on having you.’

      She stared back, planning her next move. If he would not let her cry off, then she would have to work harder to give him a distaste of her. She smiled back at him, with a suddenness and brilliance he would know was false. ‘I am happy to be given the opportunity for such an advantageous match.’

      He snorted. ‘Are you, really? You did not look it a moment ago.’ He was examining her again. ‘But I believe the last half of the statement. This will be an advantageous match. From your side, at least’

      She bit back a furious retort. He was correct, after all. It was simply rude of him to mention the fact.

      ‘I am recently come to the title, of course,’ he said, with humbleness that was as false as her smile. ‘I did not expect it. The old duke’s heir died within the same year as his father, my father already having passed …’

      ‘It matters not to me how you came to be a duke,’ she said, still half-hoping her bluntness would put him off. ‘It only matters that you are one at the time of offering. Beyond that, I have little interest in you.’ She tried to look eager at the notion of such a prestigious match. Perhaps he would not want a title hunter.

      He was staring at her again, thoughtfully. ‘Considering your pedigree, it should be advantageous to the man involved as well. You are young, beautiful and well born. Why are you not married already, I wonder? For how could any man resist such a sweet and amenable nature?’

      ‘Perhaps I was waiting for you, your Grace.’ She dropped her smile, making no effort to hide her contempt.

      ‘Or perhaps the rumours I hear are true and you have dishonoured yourself.’

      ‘Who …?’ The word had escaped before she could marshal a denial. But she had experienced a moment’s uncontrollable fear that, somewhere Dru had been that she had not, the ugly truth of it all had escaped and that now her happily married sister was laughing at her expense.

      ‘Who told me? Why, you did, just now.’ He was smiling in triumph. ‘It is commonly known that the younger daughter of the Earl of Benbridge no longer goes about in society because of the presence of the elder. But I assumed there would be more to it than that. And I was correct.’

      Success at last, though it came with a sick feeling in her stomach and the wish that it had come any way but this. She had finally managed to ruin everything. Father would be furious if this opportunity slipped through her fingers. It would serve him right, for pushing this upon her. ‘You have guessed correctly, your Grace. And now I assume that this interview is at an end.’ She gestured towards the door.

      ‘On the contrary,’ he replied. ‘You have much more to tell me before I depart from here. Does the sad state of your reputation have anything to do with your family’s willingness that we might meet alone?’

      ‘There is no reason that we should not,’ she replied. ‘He expects that you will offer for me, not rape me on the divan in the lounge.’

      If her frankness startled him, it did not show. ‘And what if I did?’

      ‘Then I would cry to my father and he would demand that you marry me.’

      ‘As you might at any rate,’ he pointed out. ‘The door is closed and we are alone. Should you wish to tell tales about my behaviour, I would have no evidence to refute them.’

      ‘Perhaps I would if I wished to trap you into marriage,’ she snapped. ‘It is you who have come to me and not the other way round. I never gave you any reason to think I wished a union. If your intentions are not in that direction, then, as I said before, you had best leave.’

      He ignored the door and looked her up and down again, walking slowly around her, so as to view her from all angles. Then he spoke. ‘Truth now. I will not tell your father, if that is what you fear. You have my word. Is there another, perhaps someone inferior to me, that you might prefer?’

      ‘Would it matter?’ she asked in exasperation. ‘Between the two of you, you and my father seem to have settled the matter.’

      ‘It might,’ Reighland said, after a moment. ‘And you did not answer my question.’

      ‘If we are taking my opinions into account at this late date, then I shall tell you again: there is no other. All the same, I prefer to remain unmarried. Even if I sought marriage, it would not be with you. We do not suit. I thought I made that clear to you, when we danced.’

      ‘I see.’ He was staring at her again, appraising. ‘You do not wish to leave the loving bosom of your family.’

      She almost laughed at the absurdity of it. ‘Of course I do. There is a dower house on the property in Cornwall that stands empty. And land further north where I might stay with my mother’s sister. Perhaps I could go to Scotland. Any of those would do for a genteel spinsterhood. That is all I seek for myself.’

      ‘Then I am sorry to disappoint you. As I said before, your father has no intention of allowing that. You will be married. If not to me, then to some other. Since you have no concrete objections, other than an illogical dislike of me, I will speak to your father. We will formalise this arrangement by the end of the month.’

      Arrangement. Was that all it was to him? She had known when it came time to marry that there would be no love match. But she had not thought it would be quite so passionless as this. And so she blurted, before he could leave, ‘If you mean to go ahead with this, then you had best know the whole truth, so that you do not reproach me with it on our wedding night. I am no longer innocent.’ She would pay the price for her honesty, she was sure. The duke would storm out and tell her father. Then she would get a long lecture from Benbridge and his new wife about her stupidity in disobeying their orders and casting aside the only match they had been able to make for her.

      But at least it would be over.

      The Duke of Reighland was still standing there, giving her the same curious, up-and-down examination that he had been. Then he asked, ‘Are you pregnant?’

      ‘Certainly not!’ Her cheeks heated and her palm itched to slap him for being so bold as to ask. Then a thought struck her. ‘If I was, then why would I bother to tell you?’

      ‘Why would you have told me anything?’ he asked back, just as sensibly. ‘If you wished to marry me, you would have kept quiet on the first point. But if you truly wished to frighten me away, you’d have lied about the second. The two statements, taken together, only make sense to me if they are true. They seem to imply that you are a most candid young lady. The truth is an admirable quality and quite rare in London. It must be cherished when it is found. I have learned all I wish to know. I will have you.’ He stepped closer to her and she felt a sudden panicked scrambling desire to move away, back across the room before he would touch her.

      But he did nothing more than bow before her, taking her cold hand in his and offering a kiss that was the barest touch of his lips against the skin. ‘Now, with your permission, I will depart.’ He rose and smiled. ‘And with or without СКАЧАТЬ