Chapter 6
Hannah looked across the room at her Sophie and Rowan and tried to gather her senses. After Duncan left her hours before, she had expected her father to rail against her, probably lock her in her room for what she’d done. Instead, he had been pleased. He’d even complimented her on landing Duncan despite her bad behavior.
He acted as if he’d had no hand in the terrible events leading to their unexpected arrangement. Now he had no interest in her, just on making the engagement pay as many dividends as he could.
Which left Hannah free to call on Sophie and tell her best friend the news. And now she stared at the happy couple across from her, their love so obvious and so pure, and she hesitated.
“Your message sounded urgent,” Rowan encouraged her gently. “Why don’t you tell us so that Sophie doesn’t worry herself into a dudgeon?”
“I’m sorry,” Hannah said with a shake of her head. “I feel as though every time I come here as of late, I am creating some kind of personal drama in your parlor. But today I think it might not be so bad. My—my father did arrange an engagement, just as I feared.”
Sophie buckled a little and Rowan caught her elbow, keeping her upright as tears flooded her eyes. Hannah rushed forward. “No, wait. Wait. It isn’t so bad. The man is not Viscount Gordon.”
Sophie and Rowan exchanged a glance, and then Sophie looked back at her. “Then…who?”
Hannah smiled to reassure her friend. “Mr. Duncan Cavendish, the brother of the Earl of Wilding. I met him…”
She hesitated, for she wasn’t about to tell Sophie about her visit to the Donville Masquerade and the wicked things she’d done there. Especially not with Rowan standing there watching. She would have to melt into the floor and disappear forever if she confessed that!
“I-I met him after I spoke to you yesterday afternoon. We talked at great length about our situations and the two of us have come to an agreement that is mutually beneficial outside of my father’s machinations.”
She expected Sophie to be pleased, but her friend’s concern had returned to her face. “You know Mr. Cavendish, don’t you, Rowan?”
Rowan nodded. “We met at school. We have been friendly, though I wouldn’t call us close. He’s a bit younger than I am. But we both suffered second son syndrome, so I suppose that binds us all.” He glanced at Hannah. “He seems a good enough man, though a bit wild.”
Hannah stiffened as she thought of the image of Duncan perched between her legs, doing the most wicked and certainly wild things she could have imagined. Of the way his mouth on hers made her want to shed all responsibility and just run free with desire.
She blinked. “Some might have said that about you at one time.”
A shadow of a smile softened Rowan’s expression and he inclined his head. “A true statement, dearest Hannah. But I was never wild like he was. Though they do say rakes make the best husbands, so perhaps that will turn out to be true in this case. It isn’t actually the character of your…is he truly your fiancé, then?”
Hannah caught her breath. Her fiancé. She hadn’t put it in those terms, not even in her mind. But hearing it out loud jolted her system. Duncan Cavendish was her fiancé. He would truly be her husband. And though he certainly woke something dark and dangerous in her, they had declared love to be off limits.
Not exactly what she’d pictured as a girl when she’d dreamed of marriage. No, what she had wanted was right in front of her. Rowan and Sophie’s bond. Their love. But she knew that was a rare commodity. One that could be snatched away on a whim. So perhaps it was best that they’d agreed to leave love to the side in their arrangement.
“Yes,” she said. “He is my fiancé. He and Father are arranging all the final matters as we speak.”
“Well, it isn’t his character that troubles me,” Rowan said. “Hannah, you are describing this marriage in the coldest of business terms. Is thattrulywhat you want?”
Hannah felt her shoulders roll forward and the weight of what she had agreed to suddenly felt heavier than ever. She shook her head. “Perhaps itisn’tideal,” she admitted. “But not everyone in this world has the chance the find the love you two have. Most people never get to feel such a thing. And if I do this, at least it will be on my own terms. With my own freedom still intact in some way. And I don’t…” She blushed. “I don’t hate the idea of being with him. Perhaps that will be enough.”
Rowan’s expression didn’t seem less troubled, even as he said, “Perhaps it will at that. Sophie and I will support you, no matter what. And now I can see my lovely wife wishes to discuss all this with you alone, so I will go off to my studio to work. I hope you and your new husband will consider sitting for a portrait with me when it is all said and done.”
Hannah nodded. “I would like that. Thank you Rowan.”
He bowed slightly in her direction, kissed Sophie’s cheek and departed, leaving them alone as he had the day before. Only this time Sophie speared her with a pointed stare. “Out with it.”
Hannah blinked as innocently as she could muster. “Out with what?”
“You’ve been my best friend for over ten years,” Sophie said with a shake of her head. “I know you. And you are different from yesterday. Plus every time you mention this man’s name, you blush. What is going on?”
Hannah worried her lip. She had not intended to tell Sophie the truth, but right now she needed advice. She needed to whisper her secret to someone who understood how easy it was to be swept away by passion. Sophie would have guidance.
Hannah drew a long breath, and then she quickly told her friend about her wicked plan and how it had played out so that she surrendered her virginity to the very man she was trying to avoid marrying.
Sophie’s mouth gaped by the time she was finished. “So it was never Viscount Gordon at all,” she whispered.
“No,” Hannah said. “I was so certain, but here we are. At least Duncan wasn’t angry with me when he discovered the truth. And we were able to come to a bargain where we can both benefit.”
