“Did the gentleman in question force you?” Emilia pressed. “If you were coerced or manhandled, your brother must hear of it at once.”
“No,” she reassured her sister-in-law. “My foolishness was purely voluntary. A moment alone, and I gave in to my weakness. It was a few kisses, nothing more. As I said, it shan’t be repeated.”
“Itcannotbe repeated,” Emilia warned gently. “You understand that, do you not, my dear? We are working so hard to restore your reputation after what that regrettable little toad did to you. We cannot afford to cause a scandal. It will affect not only you, but your sisters as well. Promise me you will not do something so reckless again, Eugie.”
She closed her eyes once more, unable to look at the kindness on Emilia’s face any longer, knowing she was lying to her sister-in-law, knowing just how great a scandal was already in the making.
“I promise,” she whispered, guilt curdling in her gut and making her misery complete.
She would do everything in her power to hold true to that promise.
Everything.
One fact wasbecoming painfully apparent to Cam: Miss Eugie Winter was avoiding him.
Not just avoiding him.Hidingfrom him.
An entire day had gone by without a single sighting of her. And he had looked for her. Everywhere. All whilst attempting not to be too obvious in his search. He had not asked after her directly, for fear his interest would become suspect. She had not been present at breakfast, nor for any of the festive afternoon diversions occupying his fellow guests. Dinner, too, had come and gone without her.
This morning, he was once again riding with Aylesford at his side, hoping the chill of the bitter December air would give him some much-needed clarity on what he needed to do. Thus far, it had not.
“You look remarkably grim,” his friend noted, his breath making wisps of fog as he spoke.
“As do you,” he observed. “I have yet to hear word of your betrothal.”
It was a relief to settle upon the problems of someone else, at least for a moment. Distracting himself from thoughts of Eugie was proving more difficult by the hour.
“That is because I have yet to secure the acquiescence of my betrothed,” Aylesford noted, his jaw tensing as he made the admission. “She says she is not certain she wishes to be tied to a scoundrel such as me even in a feigned courtship. Do you believe the airs of the minx?”
Perhaps the viscount had met his match in Miss Grace Winter.
“Your reputationisblack,” he pointed out.
“More like dun,” Aylesford argued.
“And youarea scoundrel,” he continued, ignoring his friend’s interjection.
Then again, so was he. What manner of gentleman stole a lady’s innocence in the midst of a house party? Orever, for that matter?
“I am not a scoundrel.” Aylesford scowled at him. “Devil take it, Hertford, whose side are you on?”
“Yours, of course,” he said, bracing himself against a sudden, cold gust of wind. “Which is why I am pointing out how the lady must feel about things.”
He could have been speaking to himself.
Indeed, hewasspeaking to himself.
And he realized how much of a cad he must seem to Eugie. Or perhaps—worse—a fortune hunter. Which he was. Both of those things. Yes, he was.
“The lady is not required to have feelings on the matter,” Aylesford was saying. “The vexing wench is proving more difficult to woo as a feigned betrothed than a true betrothed would be. If I actually wished to marry her—which I most assuredly do not—I would simply go to her brother and ask the devil for her hand. It would be as simple as that.”
“Why do you not do that?” he asked his friend, and once more, the question was one he should be asking himself as well. “Go to Mr. Winter directly. It is hardly a secret he is attempting to secure noble husbands for his sisters. I should think he would be more than happy to accept your suit.”
Mayhap he should do the same: approach Mr. Winter. Ask for Eugie’s hand.
“I would if I was assured the lady in question would agree to the match,” Aylesford grumbled. “But although I have no intention of ever shackling myself to anyone, and she knows it, she may refuse to agree to the feigned betrothal, just to spite me.”
True.There was that possibility for him as well. Eugie had been angry with him when she had fled his chamber two nights ago, and with good reason. Cam stared into the field that stretched out before them, wishing he knew what the hell to do next.
