Evan put himself between Lady Katherine and her father. He grabbed the older man’s hand, his nails digging into the man’s skin. “You will stop this at once,” he said. His voice was quiet, but every word that came out of his mouth was laced with fury. He could not remember a time he felt angrier than in this moment right now. “You will not hit a lady in my presence, or I will call the constables. You had best remember that I am a duke and you are merely a marquess who is currently an unwelcome trespasser in my home. If I call the constables here, it will be you walking out in handcuffs, not the dowager duchess. You have threatened my family, and because of that, I will ruin you. Leave now.”
The man glared at him, but after a moment, he realized that Evan was dead serious. He nodded and averted his eyes downward. “Forgive me, Your Grace,” he murmured. He took a step away from the duke, pulling his arm out of Evan’s grasp at the same time. “Katherine, let’s go,” he said sharply.
The young lady hurried to her feet and scampered after her father, mumbling apologies to both the dowager duchess and Evan the entire time.
The two of them watched the father and daughter leave. His grandmother watched with a furrowed brow. “Do you think she will be all right?” she asked. “Oliver is not a forgiving man when he is angry, and Katherine has put him in a spot of trouble.”
“He put himself in trouble,” Evan growled. “He would have been better off letting Lady Katherine run away to Gretna Green with the stable boy than hurting you the way he did. But I’ll make sure she doesn’t suffer along with him.” He turned to her. “The better question is, are you all right?”
She nodded. “I am so sorry,” she said. “When he threatened me at the opera, I refused, because I saw how happy you were with Miss Thorne. But he persisted, and I got scared. I should have been truthful with you from the start instead of pressuring you into an unwanted marriage. And I hate that Miss Thorne got hurt as well.”
“So you approve of her after all?” Evan could not help but ask.
The dowager duchess smiled. “Approve of her? My dear boy, I would not care if you married the scullery maid as long as you were happy. Of course, I approve of her. She’s a wonderful young woman, and I know she will make you very happy.”
He smiled. “Good. I would hate to throw you out of the manor because you could not get along with my bride-to-be.”
Her eyes lit up. “Has she said yes, then?”
He nodded. “At least she came here today at my invitation. She’s in the library.”
Martha’s expression turned sad. “I must apologize to her. I hope she will be able to forgive me for all the trouble I have caused.”
He smiled at her. “I am sure she will be more than happy to forgive you once she listens to your story.”
His grandmother took Evan’s arm and the two of them walked together to the library, where Joanna was pacing around the room while her chaperone stood quietly at attention. She turned to look at Evan and then the dowager duchess. The anxiety was clear on her face.
Martha teared up at the sight of her, and she walked over and grabbed Joanna’s hands. “Oh, my dear. Could you ever forgive me?”
Joanna looked stunned. “Y-yes? Of course. Can you please tell me what happened?”
The three of them sat down at the table while a servant brought tea for all of them. The dowager duchess explained everything, starting from her defending herself from assault to Evan throwing Oliver Preston and Lady Katherine out of the manor.
By the time it was over, both the dowager duchess and Joanna had tears running down their faces. Evan drank his tea quietly tokeep himself composed, even though part of him wished he had strangled the marquess with his bare hands.
“I am so sorry you went through that!” Joanna declared when the dowager duchess had finished her tale. “What a horrible man!”
“Do you forgive me?” Martha asked. “I never wanted you to get hurt, and I am so sorry that it happened.”
Joanna stood up and pulled the dowager duchess into a hug. “Of course I forgive you!”
The dowager duchess breathed a sigh of relief as they pulled apart from each other. “I think you would be an excellent match for Evan. And I know he loves you very much.”
Joanna turned to look at Evan with a smile that took his breath away. “I love him too, very much.”
He stood up and stepped forward. “Does this mean you will marry me?”
She nodded quickly. “Yes.” Her voice cracked, and he knew she was on the verge of tears again. “Yes, I will marry you.”
He breathed a sigh of relief and pulled her into an embrace. His lips crashed down on hers with the urgency of a starving man tasting food for the first time in years.
She belonged to him, and he could not wait to give her everything she could possibly dream about. He knew, as he kissed her, that he belonged to her just as much.
Somehow, this clever, strange woman had stolen his heart away, even though most of London thought he never had one to begin with. And he would not have it any other way.
They kissed until the dowager duchess cleared her throat loudly to announce that she was still in the room. Joanna pulled away, blushing furiously and giggling as she looked at the older woman with an apologetic expression.
But Evan could not take his eyes off Miss Thorne—his fiancée. “I love you,” he whispered to her.
