“—or I can throw you over in a fit of pique and be done with you all together.”
She visibly shuddered at her words. They both knew how much she despised the social whirl. Their engagement had never been announced, and yet everyone had expected it since they were both small children. If she were to publicly cast him aside, then she’d have to enter the Season for real. She’d have to go toparties and look for a suitable husband, all at an age when most of her peers were at home with their second or third child.
“Kimberly, don’t be hasty. Let it wait for a few days.”
She glared at him. “Do you understand how long I have been waiting? You should have proposed years ago.”
He dropped his hands on his hips. “You know why I didn’t. Lord Castlereagh himself asked me to stay in Prinny’s inner circle. England needed someone with a level head to keep Prinny from his worst excesses.”
“I would never stop you from going to Carlton House!”
“Prinny prefers to entertain with bachelors, not dull men with leg-shackles on them.” He dropped his weight onto the desk. “Those are his words, not mine.”
“And now you are engaged to a Chinese opium eater.”
“That wasn’t my fault!”
“But it was predictable. This or some other disaster, and you know it.”
He pressed his lips together. He knew it was the truth. She’d warned him of it three years ago when he’d told of her Castlereagh’s request. One could not remain in Prinny’s intimate orbit without getting pulled into one scrape or another. Naturally, as a future duke, he would be forgiven whatever mishaps befell him, but she was in a more precarious position. As the daughter of an earl, she was an acceptable wife to him, but her title had neither prestige nor great wealth. Given that she was not considered awarmperson like his sister, scandal would inevitably slide off of him then splat on top of her.
It wasn’t fair, but it was the truth of their positions. As was the fact that he should have proposed to her years ago. Indeed, if he had been a “proper son,” as his mother put it, they’d be married and have a couple heirs already in the nursery. It was only his promise to Lord Castlereagh that had kept him from doing his duty by her. They’d begged him to act as a brake toPrinny’s impulsive behavior. And in order to do that, he’d had to remain a bachelor.
But now he had to fulfill his promise to her. It was the only honorable thing to do. So he pushed off the desk to cross back to her. He gathered her hand in his and squeezed her fingers.
“Kimberly, I have every intention of fulfilling my promise to you.”
She gripped him back. “Max, I am five and twenty. That is much too old to be searching for a husband. If not for our understanding, I would already be called an ape leader.”
“I will call out any man who dares utter such a thing.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not the men who say it. Or at least not until their mothers and sisters say it first.”
“A few more days,” he pleaded. “I shall resolve everything and then we can announce our engagement.” He flashed her a grin. “In this,Prinnywill have to understand.”
They both knew that Prinny understood only what he felt like understanding, and Max could no more force the royal than he could sprout wings and fly. The real question was whether Max would marry her anyway despite royal displeasure.
“I have been faithful to you, Max,” she said firmly. “I have done as you and your parents asked. I have stood by you when your friends called me fat—”
“I didn’t mean—”
“For it to happen,” she finished for him.
What he’d actually said—and his friends had repeated—was that her breasts were as plump as bowls of treacle and just as tasty. He’d been thirteen, and boys tended to say such things. But what had been a youthful boast by him had tainted her as a fat, loose girl who was not fit to be a duchess. He’d been an idiot, and he’d apologized profusely for his stupidity. At the time, she’d forgiven him, and yet she still brought it up whenever she was angry at him.
“But it did happen, Max, and I forgave you. I refused good marriage offers from men who would have given me a fine life.”
“You will be my duchess—”
“And I have waited while you dance upon the prince and do things that you should have outgrown by the time you began shaving.” She didn’t say it, but her gaze went to his unshaven cheeks.
“Kimberly, I am playacting. If you could know what excesses I have prevented—”
“None of much importance, I wager,” she snapped. “If it were not you, it would be someone else. The prince is not without wit or discretion of his own. He uses you as an excuse to stop his wildest impulses.”
Max shook his head. “You have no understanding of what it means to keep Prinny happy.”
“I am not being unreasonable,” she countered.
