He was gazing at her now, standing very close to her. “You are wrong,” he repeated. “It is not true that no one would want to be with you.”
She felt something stirring inside her, as he moved even closer to her. She could feel the heat from his body.
“What do you mean, Your Grace? You know what people say about us.”
“Not everyone cares about that,” he said. “I do not give two figs about it.”
Her heart was pounding now as she held his gaze. What could he mean?
“But you are only pretending, Your Grace. This arrangement between us, it is false. It is not real.”
“That may be how it started, Miss Hervey, but it is real to me now. It is almost more real to me than the ground beneath my feet.”
“You cannot be in earnest,” she whispered. She flushed as he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her towards him.
“I am entirely in earnest,” he said, his voice low now. Their faces were close together. “You ask who would want to be with you, and I will tell you the answer. I do.”
He pressed his mouth against hers, and for a moment, she started to push him away, but as she felt the warmth of his lips moving against her own, she let out a sigh and began to kiss him back. Could it really be true that he felt something for her?
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Luke knew that they should not be out here doing this. He knew he should not have kissed her, but he simply could not resist. He wanted to show her that not all men were like Lord Harry. That he was a man of his word, whatever the origins of their arrangement had been. And that he wanted her, now, at this moment. For herself, for who she really was. Desirable, beautiful, intriguing. He truly wanted her.
He could not hold back, and when he took her in his arms and kissed her, everything felt right. The rest of the world fell away, and it was just the two of them, out there in the darkness of the garden, their mouths pressed together.
But he knew that it was dangerous. They were risking too much. He was just about to pull away when a voice broke through the darkness, shattering the perfection of the moment they had just been sharing.
“Charlotte! What on earth are you doing out here?”
They flew apart, and Charlotte gasped as her eyes fell on the speaker. Luke whirled around and let out a groan as he saw Lady Haddington standing on the other side of the lawn, with Alison a little way behind her. He could not have imagined any worse combination of people to be the ones to discover them out here in such a compromising position. But the damage was done; it was too late to feel regretful now.
“I knew you were up to something, young lady,” the viscountess sneered. “Alison saw you sneaking outside, a few moments after the Duke left the ballroom, and here you are, behaving like a hussy, bringing shame on the family! Wait until your father hears of this! And the rest of the ton, God forbid!”
Luke stepped forward. “My lady, I pray you will not speak of Miss Hervey in such tones,” he said. “The fault is all mine. I asked her to come outside with me so we could converse in private. I should not have done so. I acknowledge that it was quite improper.”
“Indeed, it was improper!” the viscountess snapped. “The talking, and all that seems to have followed! Charlotte, you have ruined everything, as usual. We shall all have to leave the ball now, just as Alison was about to go and dance with the Earl of Sutton!” She paused for a moment, then spoke again. “Indeed, no. We shall not all leave. You and your sister shall go home in disgrace, and Alison and I will stay here. Your father can do as he pleases. But mark my words, young lady, there will be consequences for this shocking behavior.”
Luke knew what had to be done, and found that he felt no trepidation whatsoever. He cleared his throat. “There is no need for all this fuss, my lady,” he said to Lady Haddington. “I asked Charlotte to come out here so I could propose to her. And she has accepted, making me the happiest of men.”
He turned to Charlotte and smiled, seeing her eyes wide with shock. He willed her to go along with it, to realize that he meant every word and that this was not part of the ruse. He was not playing games anymore. In fact, he had never been more serious about anything in his life.
She nodded dumbly. He could not tell if she believed that he was in earnest or still playing a part, dissembling, as she thought he had been doing up until now.
Luke turned back to face the viscountess. “So, you see, there is no need for scandal.”
She scoffed. “There will be a scandal, no doubt about it!” she said. “It cannot be avoided now. But marriage? We’ll see about that.” She beckoned to Charlotte. “Come with me, you little hussy. Let us go and see what your father has to say about all this. The poor man. As if he has not been through enough already!”
Luke watched, speechless, as Charlotte turned away from him and followed her stepmother and stepsister back into the ballroom. He felt powerless all of a sudden, and it was not a feeling he enjoyed, not in the slightest.
* * *
It was late the following morning when Charlotte was finally summoned into her father’s presence. She was certain that her stepmother had persuaded him to make her wait to know her fate, to ensure that her suffering was as great as possible. She had been forced to spend the hours since coming home from the ball alone in her chamber, forbidden even to see Martha. It had been a torturous night, with no one to talk to, no one to confide in, alone in the darkness with her thoughts.
Lady Haddington had practically bundled her and Martha into the carriage the previous evening. She sent them home from the ball without another word, but Charlotte knew from the stares of the people that had seen them leaving the ball that there would be whispers around the ton soon. The secret would find its way out, and scandal would erupt around herself and the Duke, a scandal neither of them could control.
She had not even been able to speak to him again before he left, to try to understand if he was really in earnest about proposing marriage to her. It could not be true. Her marrying a duke? It was impossible. Beyond the realms of comprehension. But surely marriage was the only way out of this scandal. The whole situation seemed unfathomable, but the alternative of them not getting married was too awful to contemplate.
Charlotte waited awkwardly for her father to arrive, pacing up and down the drawing room. It wasn’t long before he burst into the room. His cheeks were red; she wondered if he had been outside for some air, or if he was simply flushed with fury, or the excesses of the night before.
