“Just continue driving slowly along, and if anyone waves at us to stop, ask me before you do.”
“I place myself unreservedly in your hands.”
He quickly realized his effective surrender of the reins had been wise; Melissa knew everyone there, at least by name and association, and almost every lady present and several strolling gentlemen wanted to offer their congratulations. Every time they pulled into the verge, they were mobbed.
It didn’t take him long to decipher the ton’s message, underscored as it was by pointed comments from every major hostess and grande dame who set eyes on them. He was given to understand that their nuptials were universally approved and were viewed as beyond appropriate—indeed, as highly desirable.
As they continued their slow circuit, Melissa muttered, “I cannot believe how many matrons with daughters to settle have so peaceably and apparently sincerely put aside all hopes of snaring you. I know the hostesses and grandes dames viewed my lack of a suitor as a personal affront, but I wouldn’t have thought the likes of Lady Hammond, Lady Davenport, and the Duchess of Lewes would be so pleased to hear of our engagement.”
“Pending engagement—the notices won’t have run inThe Gazetteyet.”
“Precisely! Obviously, the grapevine has been running hot. Everyone knows of our engagement already, and they’repleased.”
He glanced at her, unsure whether to be amused or concerned. “Is that a bad thing?”
“If we decide we don’t suit, it will make disabusing them of the notion that we are, in fact, the perfect match that much harder.”
“Ah.”
Melissa hid her gritted teeth behind a suitably delighted expression. If she’d harbored any doubts over her prediction that dissolving their engagement wouldn’t be straightforward or easily accomplished, the afternoon had laid them to rest. Yet even she hadn’t foreseen such universal approbation.
When they drew away from yet another grande dame who had graciously bestowed her blessing, she muttered, “Her granddaughter is in her second Season, a beauty, well dowered and well connected—quite the catch. Yet she’s happy—actually happy—to see me waltz off on your arm, so to speak. It’s”—she flung up her hands—“inexplicable!”
It was beginning to be alarming.
That said, she couldn’t see any alternative but to continue along the path they’d plotted.
While Julian was charming, distracting, and diverting, it fell to her to deflect the often subtle but sometimes not-so-subtle interrogations of the more inquisitive grandes dames.
Eventually, it dawned on her that any difficulties arising from how the ton saw them would apply only if they decided they wouldn’t suit. What if, instead, they agreed they did—if they agreed to make their faux engagement real and go forward and marry?
If they were the perfect match…
For the past three years, she hadn’t truly considered marriage, other than as “not for me.” She’d had her years of hopes and dreams, but those had faded. Now… She glanced at Julian. Now, she was going to have to seriously consider marriage, specifically marriage to him. That might once have been her dream, but it had remained vague, unformed. Yet there was nothing nebulous about him or their situation. She had no option but to deal with both.
Facing forward, she decided she shouldn’t try to prescribe their future; she didn’t know him well enough to guess what might be, and after all, that was the point of their back-to-front betrothal.
Seated in a carriage just ahead, Lady Hornthwaite waved at them.
Melissa would have pretended not to see, but Julian muttered, “She’s a connection,” and drew his horses up so the carriages were side by side.
After delivering her beaming congratulations, Lady Hornthwaite fixed Melissa with a sharply inquisitive gaze. “I wasn’t aware you were acquainted with Carsely, my dear.”
Melissa cast a smiling glance at Julian and couldn’t think of any way to avoid responding; for a wonder, no other lady had inquired how they’d come to know each other. “As it happens, we met many years ago, at my grandmother’s house in the country.”
“I used to holiday with friends in the same village,” Julian added.
“I see.” Lady Hornthwaite’s eyes gleamed. “So you had previously met over only a few weeks?”
Melissa’s smile felt tight. “Indeed.”
Lady Hornthwaite clasped her hands to her ample bosom. “My dears, that’s so romantic!”
Melissa kept her smile in place and excused them as quickly as she could.
As Julian drove on, she groaned.
Amused, he asked, “What?”
