“Fortuity?”
She halted, and every hair on the back of her neck stood on end. “What is this? A trick?”
Matthew stepped out of the shadows with a scowl as dark as the devil’s waistcoat. “You should not be in here alone with me. Leave at once.”
“Do not order me around, Lord Ravenglass. I am not one of your servants.” But she hurried back to the door. She indeed needed to leave before anyone saw her in such a compromising situation. The latch clicked, but the door refused to open. “Matthew,” she said, struggling to force out the words, “your cousin has locked the door. Why would she do that?” Panic rising, she tried again. All it did was rattle and remain shut. Perhaps the mechanism was just a bit tricky, or it stuck in damp weather. She closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and tried again—and again. The door was indeed locked.
She leaned forward and rested her forehead on the door. “How did she lure you here, or was this your idea?”
“Fortuity.” His injured tone cut through her. “I would never do such a thing to you, and you should know that.”
“All I know,” she said without turning to face him, “is that I am locked in a room, alone, with a man thetonpaired me withonly weeks ago.” She turned, tempted to throw something at him. This had to be his fault, his and his dratted cousin’s. “I will be ruined. My sisters will be ruined.”
“Only if we are found.” He took a step forward but halted when she jabbed a finger at him.
“Has your unbelievable arrogance done away with any good sense you ever possessed? If Eleanor took the time to lure us both here and lock us in, do you not think, at this very moment, she is gathering every tongue wagger she can find to drag here and reveal our contrived debauchery?”
He jutted his chin higher as he moved closer. “Then we will marry.”
*
“We most certainlywill not marry,” Fortuity squeaked in a high-pitched whisper.
The entirety of her person trembled, making Matthew draw closer still so he might catch her if she swooned. Even in the dimly lit room, her pallor was unmistakable. Her disgust for him wrapped cruel, icy fingers around his heart and twisted, nearly ripping it out of his chest. Gads, she hated him more than he’d ever imagined possible.
“If we are found, it is the only way,” he said quietly, hoping the certainty in his tone would calm her. “You know that as well as I. Your reputation would be compromised.”
She pointed a trembling hand at the window. “I will climb out that window. All I need to do is escape this room. Don’t think I won’t do it.”
“Has your hatred for me truly grown that strong?”
She stared at him, blinking rapidly, then swiping at tears that appeared to make her angrier. “I do not hate you,” she said with another shudder. “But I refuse to marry a man who does notwant or love me. I am not a duty or a lesson in chivalry.” She went to the window and grunted with the effort of trying to raise the sash.
He couldn’t hold back any longer. He strode forward and pulled her into his arms. “Fortuity—stop.”
“Leave me alone,” she said, growling with her teeth bared. She twisted back to the window and tried in vain to open it. “Why will this dratted thing not give way?”
He caught her by the wrists and yanked her back into his arms. “I saidstop, and I meant it. You will be my wife. Either by announcing the bloody banns three Sundays in a row, special license, or Gretna Green. I do not care. But I will not have you and your family ruined by Eleanor. I will deal with that conniving chit later.”
She glared up at him, the hurt in her eyes stinging him worse than a slap in the face. He ached to tell her that everything happened for a reason, that perhaps this was fate’s way of shoving him in the direction he had needed to take all along. But he couldn’t. Something inside held him back, kept him from making himself even more vulnerable to her than he already was. Gads, he was still such a coward when it came to love.
“And to answer your earlier question,” he said, trying to shift his thoughts from his own failings, “Eleanor informed me that your brother wished to speak with me regarding a matter of the utmost importance and asked that I meet him here in the library.Thatis how I came to be in this room.”
“And that does not anger you?”
“Of course it angers me.”
“Then why are you so bloody calm?” She tried to twist away. “Let me go and help me open this infernal window.”
“The drop from that window would injure you.” He stepped between her and her faulty means of escape. “How would thathelp your reputation, my little wren? Having the servants find you crumpled in a heap on the carriage road?”
She stared up at him, her chest heaving and becoming quite the distraction. “Break down the door while I hide behind the desk. After an appropriate amount of time has passed, I shall sneak out and rejoin the party.”
He would laugh if her determination to escape him didn’t cut him to the quick. “I daresay that breaking down the door might draw the attention of anyone close enough to hear.”
“Then we both need to hide. Or…or discover if there is a secret passage out of here.” Her eyes lit up, and she tore away from him, running her hands along the walls and shoving on the bookcases. She cast a glance back. “Well, come on. I would think a man who does not wish to marry would be more helpful.”
“What if I said I changed my mind and now wish to marry?”
