She shot him a glare that could have incinerated him on the spot. “I would call you a liar.”
“I never lie.”
Her fisted hands trembling, she backed up against the wall. “Can you honestly tell me you intended to ask me to be your wife? That you have recovered from your painful past and are ready to marry?”
“I—” He couldn’t lie. She would know.
“I thought not,” she said as she returned to the window and thumped the facing, determined to unstick the stubborn thing. “Come help me open this bloody window. Now!”
He held out his hand, regretting every time he had ever told her they were nothing more than friends. “Fortuity—come. The evil herd approaches. The clatter of their cloven hooves in the hall is unmistakable.”
She stared at the door and shuddered. “This cannot be happening. Not to me. Matthew, this cannot be happening to us.”
He went to her, took her hand, and gently led her to the center of the room, closer to the door. “I will protect you, my little wren. Always. I swear it.”
Staring up at him with tears in her eyes, she opened her mouth to speak but then snapped it shut again as the latch on the door rattled, then the thing swung open, revealing a smirking Eleanor leading several of the most vicious and gossiping members of theton.
“Cousin! Lady Fortuity!” The chit adopted a convincing expression of shock, then turned to the back-biting pack surrounding her. She weakly attempted to shoo them away, as if trying to keep them from seeing that which she had already revealed to them. “Why don’t we all return to the ballroom, ladies?”
“Wait,” Matthew ordered her, ensuring his powerful voice echoed well into the hallway. “I have an announcement.”
Eleanor narrowed her eyes, and her victorious smile faded the slightest bit. “An announcement?”
“Yes.” Turning to Fortuity, willing her to trust and forgive him, he pressed a tender kiss to the back of her gloved hand. “Lady Fortuity has honored me with ayes.She has agreed to be my wife.”
“Nothing more than friends?” Lady Serafina Mellincotte snapped with a bitter snarl. “I thought you abhorred lies, my lord?”
“And what of her Scottish admirer?” taunted Lady Theodora Worsten. “This evening, his lordship has served her better than any lackey I have ever seen.”
“I refuse to tolerate such insulting behavior toward my future wife.” Matthew slammed the door in their faces, then turned to find Fortuity had lowered herself into a chair and rocked forward with her face in her hands. “Fortuity?”
“Go away,” she said, her voice trembling.
He went to her and knelt. “I will not leave you here in tears for them to discover and pick the meat off your bones.” With the lightest touch, he rubbed a finger across her gloved hand. “Look at me,” he implored softly.
She shook her head while keeping her face buried in her hands.
“Fortuity.”
“Do not say my name like that,” came her muffled scolding from between her fingers.
“Like what?” Perhaps if he teased her, it might give her the courage she needed to face the prying eyes of theton.
“Like you have the right to.”
“I do have the right to. You are going to be my wife.”
“Not if I can think of a way out of this.” She dropped her hands to her lap and stared at him with such desperation that his heart clenched. “You made it quite plain that you never wished to marry,” she said, “that we would never be anything more than friends. I will not be party to an agreement where my husband was leg-shackled to me against his will out of some ridiculous sense of honor and duty.”
“You are too overwrought to plot anything at the moment. We will sort this out. Together.” Still kneeling beside her, he eased both her hands into his and gently squeezed. “Come,” he said with a grin. “Let us find your brother and sisters. Eleanor may have locked them in the pantry.”
The library door burst open with such force that it bounced off the wall. In the doorway stood Viscount Simon Carronbridge, red-faced and his chest heaving. “Get away from her, ye filthy cur! Stand and face me, I say!”
Rage like he’d never felt before surged through Matthew, pushing him to his feet. “This is none of your affair, Carronbridge. Calm yourself and leave.”
The Scottish lord tipped a hard nod at Fortuity. “That fine lady is mine, and I find your behavior loathsome. Luring her in here. Attempting to ruin her in my eyes.”
“Lady Fortuity is to be my wife.” Matthew squared off in front of the man, shielding Fortuity.
