“How do you plan to help my granddaughter?” she asked him somberly.
Austin stood stock still. His eyes locked onto Deena’s. Dominic leaned in and placed his elbows on the table as he waited patiently for Austin to answer. Selina looked from Deena to him and back.
Austin stepped into the room, eyes only on Deena. She held her breath.
Please, God. Don’t let him tell them about my true scandal?—
“I can marry her.” Austin’s words dropped heavily in the quiet room.
Selina gasped, the dowager’s lips twitched into a small smile, and Deena turned slowly towards her brother, who stared at his friend with an unreadable expression.
“Dom?” Selina whispered.
Dominic blinked back into reality and growled.“What?”
Nineteen
“Dominic, let me explain.” Austin raised both hands in surrender.
He did not think it through before he blurted out his idea to save Deena. But it was too late to correct himself. Austin couldn’t bear to stand by while Deena cried and looked so helpless.
Dominic shoved back from the table so hard his chair fell behind him. “You damn right you’re going to explain. You just proposed to my sister in the middle of a family crisis like you’re ordering another cup of tea.”
“Not proposed,” Austin corrected quickly. “It’s an offer. There’s a difference.”
Dominic’s nostrils flared. “Semantics. You think I’m going to let you?—”
“Dominic.” Selina’s voice cut him off. She stood up and laid her hand on his forearm. “Let him speak.”
The dowager tapped her cane once, unable to hide her delight. Austin almost chuckled when he saw the mischievous glint in her eyes. “Yes, do let him speak. I, for one, am fascinated.”
Austin exhaled through his nose; his gaze flicked to Deena. She hadn’t moved from her seat. Her hands were clenched in her lap so tightly the knuckles showed white. The damned paper lay open in front of her, revealing her secrets to the world, and Austin had now just added to her shock with his impromptu proposal.
I will find her blackmailer and?—
“Now is not the time to daydream, Austin.”
He forced himself to look back at Dominic.
“That’s exactly it,” he said. “There’snotime. I’m in that article, too. But Deena…she’s cornered. We all know what happens next if she stays in London. Doors close, invitations vanish, and whispers turn to outright cuts. She’ll be forced to leave London, and she won’t be welcome back in Paris, either. The person who wrote that story made sure that no one would trust Deena again.”
Austin’s mind circled back to Dominic’s quiet warning about women and how they were ruined by the mere hint of scandal.He pictured it too vividly: Deena’s bright eyes dimming, her sharp laugh silenced, her shoulders curving inward under the weight of endless judgment, and with her blackmailer on the loose, she wasn’t safe. The thought twisted in his gut like a blade.
He could not bear it.
He would not watch her be destroyed by the same poison that had already driven her from England once. Not when he had a reason to marry, too.
Dominic’s jaw worked. “And your solution is to marry her?”
“Yes.” Austin kept his tone level. “She becomes Duchess of Windemere, and her title becomes armor. No one will ever come close to hurting her. I’ll make sure of it. Personally.”
Selina tilted her head. “You’d shield her?”
“Completely. You have my word.” Austin’s eyes flicked to Deena again. She still hadn’t spoken, and her silence worried him greatly.
Dominic sighed loudly. “You are not the kind of man I will willingly give my sister to.”
His words hurt, but Austin understood his friend’s distrust. Selina was right about his reputation standing in the way of marriage.
