He flashed the duke an insincere smile. “The devil has already taken me. That is why I am here, sitting opposite you in this glorified pleasure palace, watching you swill smuggled whisky and bluster over the marriage contract.”
It was also why he had lost the only two people he had ever loved. Why Maria was gone, why their son had never taken a breath in this world.
“Do you want to marry her or not, damn it?” Montrose demanded.
Here was his chance. He could sayno. One syllable, so succinct, so easy. The same in both his languages.
“Yes,” he bit out instead. Because it was the only answer he could give. His duty loomed, now more than it ever had since his return. Lady Catriona was the answer he needed.
“And will you promise to treat her well?” Montrose pressed. “She is difficult and stubborn, but her heart is soft, Rayne. It has already been broken. She has endured a great deal.”
Alessandro almost laughed. If the duke knew whathehad endured over the last few years, he would imbibe an entire bottle of whisky just to chase away the memories of it. He had not been ruined. He had been devastated. The man he had once been had been forever changed. Losing Maria and Francisco, fighting in the war, the horrors he had witnessed and partaken in, melded in his mind into one sickening blur of agony.
“I understand, Montrose,” he forced himself to say. “Believe me, I understand better than you think, and I promise to treat her as I would expect to be treated in turn.”
Which meant after she provided him with an heir, she could fuck anyone she chose.
And so could he.
Why this now filled him with a bitterness he could not seem to dispel was a question he would seek to answer later. Another day. A day when he was not signing his life away as he sat opposite the Duke of Montrose.
“You would not harm her, would you?” the duke asked next. “Or force her? If she is not willing? I am aware of this business you have with wanting an heir. Cat told me herself after your meeting. Before I agree to your nuptials, I need to be certain you will always…treat her with care.”
Cristo, what did Montrose think he was, a monster?
“I will not force myself upon her, Montrose,” he said coldly. “You can sleep soundly knowing you have not foisted your scandalous sister off on a man who would hurt her.”
He would not hurt her, of course. He was not a man given to violence against women. Against men, yes. He had committed a shocking number of sins at war. All of which he would carry to his grave and answer for one day. And he knew it.
But Lady Catriona Hamilton would not be one of them.
Of this, he was certain.
“I am not foisting her, damn you,” Montrose said then, before draining the remnants of his whisky from his glass and slamming it back on the table. “I am trying to save her.”
Alessandro gave a grim bark of laughter at such a pronouncement. “Ah, Montrose. None of us can be saved, and the sooner we accept our fates, the better we all shall be. Now, I trust all your concerns have been met, and the nuptials are to proceed as planned?”
Montrose looked as if he were about to argue, but instead, he nodded. “We shall proceed.”
Chapter Three
The garden atHamilton House was small.
But the Earl of Rayne made it feel even smaller as he walked at Catriona’s side. It was not his impressive height or the barely leashed strength hidden in his lean form. It was not even the austere colors of his jacket and breeches.
Rather, it was his presence.
There was something dark and dangerous, breath-arresting, and stomach-clenching about him. Only he could make the out of doors seem like a confined space.
“I prefer for the wedding to occur quickly,” Rayne said as they reached a small stone bench bracketed by hedges.
His lightly accented English trailed over her like warm honey. The years he had spent in Spain had marked his speech, and she found it alluring.
“How quickly, my lord?” she asked, recalling his statement, the first he had made to her since his arrival that did not pertain to pleasantries.
Because of their betrothal, Mama had allowed the two of them an unchaperoned walk in the garden, but they were to remain within view of the drawing room windows. The part of the garden they had reached was decidedly not visible from where they had left her mother.
“Would you like to sit, Lady Catriona?” he asked solicitously.
