“And what does that have to do with me?” Norman knew he was being cold, but did she truly think she could change whatever she wanted to about their plan, and he would just go along with it? After all the times she had insisted she would never marry, suddenly she was so eager to do so, and he was just supposed to show up?
“You’re engaged to me,” she said evenly. “You have an agreement with my father.”
“Agreements can be broken. Especially agreements made between dukes and earls.” It was the first time he had tried to use his title so bluntly, to position himself above another man, and it made him feel a bit sick to have done it. But at the same time, it was true. If he decided he didn’t want to go through with the agreement, there would be nothing Lord Crownway could do to force his hand on it.
“I didn’t come here to manipulate you,” Susan said, though he could see by the clench of her jaw that she was furious this wasn’t going the way she wanted it to. “I didn’t tell you you had to marry me.”
“That’s good, because I don’t have to.”
A low growl escaped her. “Iaskedyou to marry me, Norman. Iknowyou don’t have to. Iknowthis has more to do with what I need than what you need. I’m asking you to help me. I’ll still keep to our arrangement. I’ll make sure my father invests in your business. And you won’t have to do anything with me once we’re married. I’m not asking to have a relationship. We don’t evenhave to treat one another as friends. All I’m asking is that you honor the arrangement we made.”
“An arrangement you weren’t going to honor yourself until you needed something,” he pointed out.
“It’s not about what I need.”
“I know, I know. It’s about what your sister needs. And that’s very noble of you, but she isn’tmysister.” He shook his head. “I think you always wanted to marry. Everything you said about not wanting to get married… that was some sort of trick, wasn’t it? Maybe you hoped to make me beg you to marry me? That isn’t going to work.”
“You’re a fool,” she snapped. “Do you think I enjoy this? You’re not begging me for anything, Norman, don’t forget that. I’m the one who wrote to you. I’m the one standing here and beggingyouto go through with something that you already told me you would do—and something I told you I didn’t want. You don’t think this is difficult for me? Of course I’d rather not do this at all. There’s still a part of me hoping you’ll tell me no—but I know I need to marry now. My father is watching me too closely. I won’t get away with the act we were trying to pull, and if I don’t marry you, he’ll try to force me to marry someone else instead.”
He was unsympathetic. “Marry someone else, then,” he said.
Her face flushed. “Please.”
She was embarrassed. She couldn’t even bring herself to look at him. Why would she feel like that if he meant nothing to her? What was really going on here?
“Why? Why do you want it to be me all of a sudden?”
She looked down. “Because at least I know you’re a good man.”
“You don’t think I’m a good man. You think I make assumptions about people. You think the only thing I care about is myself and my own needs.”
“Yes, I do think that.” Now she did look at him, and the look in her eyes startled him. It was almost a plea. “If you were a selfless man, you would be asking how you could help me, even if you didn’t want to marry me. You wouldn’t be standing there with that stone-faced look while I poured my heart out to you and telling me it wasn’t your problem.”
“Well, how can you say I’m a good man, then?”
She bit her lip. “You’re not abadman,” she said. “If I marry you, I know you won’t do anything that would cause me harm. I know you’ll make sure I live a decent life and that I have everything I need. I know you won’t force me into your bed.”
“Of course I won’t.” He softened.
“That’s why I want it to be you.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“Is that the only reason?” he asked.
“That’s the reason.” But she turned her head away, as he knew people did when they weren’t being altogether truthful.
He didn’t know exactly what he had been hoping to hear her say. All he could think was that it would have been nice if she had admitted to wanting him for something he was, rather than simply a list of things he was not. She was right to think he wouldn’t be cruel to her, of course, but that was nothing special. No decent man would.
Still, how can I possibly expect her to be eager for a marriage to me when we have both said many times that we didn’t want it? How could she possibly get excited about having to marry me after hearing that from me so many times? Of course, she couldn’t.
He sighed. “All right,” he said.
She looked up. Shock was written on her face. “All right… what?”
“All right, I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ll marry you.”
“You will? Truly?”
“Nothing changes as far as anyone else is aware,” he said. “We tell no one that the marriage was never intended to take place. We simply go forward with it as though that was what we meant to do all along.”
