“He’s a genius and can do as he pleases.”
“Yes, well, he’s demanded we pretend to… be in love with one another. When in public.”
Arthur turned on his heel to face Devon and walked backward. “Excellent suggestion. Perhaps pretending will turn real enough.” He turned back around, a quick blink of a movement. “At least you’re attracted to one another. It’s a good start.”
Attracted to Miss Clarke? Was he? Of course he was. He’d enjoyed kissing her. Would like to do it again. Soon. Especially now that he could.
Arthur swung the door to the blue parlor open, and Devon followed him inside. His mother sat next to Tabitha and two other guests—the Countess of Abbington and Miss Lillian Clarke, looking pale and sorrowful in the most delicate shade of pink he’d seen outside her cheeks.
Yes, he was attracted to her, but was attraction enough to build a marriage on? He hoped so. Because he had nothing else to offer her.
CHAPTER8
Lillian’s chat with her friends had thankfully provided the solace her discussion with her parents had not. Her mother had been downright gleeful at the prospect of gaining a duke’s son, second son though he may be, as a relative. And Papa had released the anger he’d kept carefully controlled the night before. Her ears still hurt. She may be deaf in the left one.
Her fault, though. She’d made a mistake, and now she would pay for it.
Tabitha peered at Lillian over the rim of her teacup, a single graceful red brow lifted high above the other.
“You have something to say, Tabitha, and I suppose I must hear it.” Lillian made a mask of her face and looked out the window.
“It is only,” said Tabitha, “that you used to stare at Lord Devon as if he hung the moon. If you were not fully in love with him, you were halfway there.”
Lillian sniffed. “A schoolgirl’s admiration. Nothing more.”
Jane snorted. “Obviously more than aschoolgirl’sadmiration. You were caughtinflagrante—”
“It was not that bad!”
Jane turned to Tabitha. “Something happened at Christmas. At Whitwood during the house party.” She turned a narrow-eyed gaze to Lillian. “I am not sure what. One moment you were starry-eyed and filled with unrequited love and the next…poof! Out of love entirely. Or so you said.”
Lillian pursed her lips. “It was the unrequited bit that turned me. As well as Lord Devon’s slide into hedonism.”
“He had a difficult month or two,” Jane said. “Smelled of spirits from dawn to dusk.”
Tabitha grinned. “Until she was discovered half naked with—”
“Not half naked!” Lillian insisted. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Where is the comfort from my dear friends? I’ve been chastised to death this morning, and I was hoping for a show of solidarity if not suggestions for a way out of this mess.”
Jane and Tabitha rose from their seats and sank to their knees on either side of Lillian. Tabitha sat beside her on the couch, and Jane laid her head on Lillian’s knees.
“We are sorry,” Tabitha said. “I’m just trying to understand your feelings. You seem not even a little pleased, while last year, you would have—”
“Been over the very moon I thought Lord Devon hung?” Lillian provided.
Jane and Tabitha nodded.
Lillian dropped her gaze to her hands laying lifeless in her lap. “You know what I want now, and it is not to marry Lord Devon.”
Jane grinned. “The wallflowers.”
“You can still help them,” Tabitha said. “A marriage to Lord Devon will not stop that.”
“I need to marry, yes, but it must be to someone more respectable. Someone like Lord Littleton.” Lillian groaned. “He would never gain the nickname Reputation Ruiner. I’ll have to tell Littleton.Whatam I going to tell him?” She sighed, a frustrated sound. “Never mind. I know the answer to that question. I must tell him that I’m in love. My father insists on it. I suppose he’s correct. Pretending it’s a love match is the best way to avoid whispers and rumors.”
“There will still be rumors and whispers,” Jane said. “They come whether you deserve them or not.”
“Lady Abigail came to me yesterday,” Lillian said. “She’s made progress. However, her father does not trust me. Being an inventor’s daughter and all. No matter my own behavior, no matter my father’s achievements or my own, thetonwill always—”
