“I do, however, have one condition.”
“What is it?” He would give her anything.
“We marry tomorrow.”
Anything but that.
“No, we must marry today.”
She stopped and whirled on him, demanding, “Why the rush?”
“Why the delay?” Will returned. He hated pushing her this way, but he needed a reason—a real reason—to delay. A reason to believe she would keep her word.
“I want a win.”
His brow furrowed. “You want . . . a win?”
She nodded, her chin lifting in a defiant manner. “A win.”
Will admired her bluntness, and he understood. He could give her a win. “Very well, you have your wish. Tomorrow.”
Her smile started small but grew to beaming. It fairly blew him away.
They stood in the street and looked at each other a moment, neither speaking. They’d been through a great deal since yesterday. How could one woman drive all rational thoughts from his head and leave him with the intellect of a tree stump? However she managed it, Will didn’t mind. He sensed the truth in her words, saw it in the depth of her gaze.
She wasn’t lying to him.
She’d said she’d marry him, so she would.
“Do you still wish for me to return to your house now that I’ve answered you?”
“Are you willing to?” Will didn’t want to part with her. And he couldn’t say he’d be at ease with sending her home.
“Yes, I’m willing.”
“Very well then.” Will offered his arm, both of them making their way back to his townhouse.
Heryesmeant more to him than anything else in the world, but deep in the corners of his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder what mischief Harriet Hillstow might have up her sleeve now.
Chapter Eight
“Ican’t believeyou’re staying at the Marquess of Leeds’s house the night before your marriage!”
“We are wedding.”
“I cannot believe you areweddingthe Marquess of Leeds!”
Harriet stared at her friend, Lady Leonora Heart with a sense of amusement. Yes, she had agreed to marry Leeds. She also decided to stay at his house instead of going home. Her reason was rather simple. She hadn’t truly wanted to return home. She could face her father if she had no other choice, but she couldn’t quite forgive him yet.
Oh, she understood their world, understood what he’d done. But to give her not even the tiniest consideration as to inform her of the betrothal? And then to have her betrothed appear moments after her confrontation with him?
Harriet doubted she could explain it convincingly to her friend, but she’d rather remain with Leeds than return home.
Marry a man that would fight for you.
She’d already made up her mind before he found her with Rochester, yet it occurred to her, as the man was kneeling in the middle of the street, not caring who witnessed such a shockingly embarrassing scene, that her mother would have approved of him.
She would have approved their betrothal, their marriage.
