“To talk about what?”
“For one, you did not tell me your name.”
“Oh, right.” In everything that had happened, she’d forgotten the basic courtesy of introducing myself. “My name is?—”
“You needn’t continue. I’ve already learned that you are Miss Catriona Wallace, the distant niece of Lord Heaton.”
She couldn’t fight the scowl that overtook her face. It was odd how easily she gave into displays of her irritation when facing this man. “If you already knew, then why did you bother to point it out?”
“I simply thought I would let you know.”
She let out a sigh of frustration. “Is that all you wanted to say to me? If so, then we could have avoided all of this.”
He twirled her with a sudden force, sending her heart shooting up her throat. Catriona looked up to see his icy-blue eyes already boring into her, smoldering with an expression she couldn’t name.
“The truth is, I wish to repay you for the kindness you showed my daughter. Had you not been there, I shudder to think what could have happened.”
Catriona decided not to point out that her being there with Nina had caused Dorothea to fall in the river in the first place. “I need no repayment.”
“I insist.”
“As do I. I only did what any other would in the situation. Your words of gratitude are more than enough.”
“That is not so,” he stated matter-of-factly. The easy manner in which he dismissed her words only grated her nerves. “I am in your debt, and as such, I have a proposal to make.”
“Are my words going through one ear and out the other?” she grumbled, unable to help herself from shooting him an annoyed glance. “I do not want you to be in my debt.”
Which he easily ignored. “That is a pity because I am.”
“Oh, for goodness sake. I am not a?—”
“Do not think of it as charity,” he said, stunning her. How had he known what she was about to say? “I have been thinking of an arrangement that will benefit us both.”
She knew she shouldn’t ask. She should end this conversation and move on before he frustrated her further, but the words were flying past her lips before she could stop them. “What arrangement is that?”
The Duke of Irvin looked down at her, capturing her gaze. “Marriage.”
CHAPTER 4
Marriage.
“Did you see him? He seemed absolutely smitten! Every time he looked at Catriona, it was as if he was staring at the love of his life.”
The words milled around Catriona’s head without any of them truly registering. She could only think one thing.
Marriage.
“I was thinking the same thing!” Ava’s excitement was a force to be reckoned with. She shifted forward in her seat in the carriage, and it nearly sent her across the small space into her uncle’s lap. “Uncle Frederic, how could you not tell us that the Duke of Irvin was interested in our sister?”
“The Duke of Wirmington?” Frederic asked with a deep frown. His confused question nearly pulled Catriona out of her stupor.She knew they were talking about her, but heaven knew she couldn’t think about anything else but the Duke’s proposal.Joseph’sproposal. He’d insisted that she call him by his given name seeing that they would be married soon.
He was certain that she would accept, confidence dripping from every word he spoke. And the way they parted ways would not inspire much doubt after all.
“Irvin,” Maisie repeated, basically shouting in her uncle’s ear. “Our neighbor, the Duke.”
But Frederic’s frown deepened. “Our neighbor’s a fluke?”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Ava sighed in exasperation, rolling her eyes dramatically. She twisted suddenly to face Catriona who sat next to her, their knees bumping. “Cat, you’ve been so quiet. Don’t you intend to tell us everything?”
