She jerked away from James as Adam came into the parlor. Beside him were her two knights, grinning with triumph.
“What is the meaning of this?” Adam demanded as Diana jumped from Somerton’s lap.
“A mistake,” Diana quickly answered.
“No, Diana.” Somerton rose. “This was not a mistake, nor was my courtship of you last spring.”
She gaped at him. “That was not a courtship,” she argued. “I thought it was, but after all those horrible things were said…” She stepped away. “I was a fool then and I’ll not repeat the mistake.” Which she’d nearly just done. If her brother hadn’t walked in just now…she didn’t want to think what might have occurred.
“What horrible things?”
She didn’t dare repeat everything she’d heard, and she’d certainly not speak the worst of it tohim. But she could tell him some of it. “That your mother was pressuring you to marry and you picked me so that she’d stop bothering you, but you’d not changed your mind about waiting years before you married only to produce a child at the age of forty.”
“I admit that for years I’ve made that claim, as I’m certain Lynwood can attest to that fact.”
Diana looked at Adam, not that she needed any further confirmation, though her brother nodded in agreement.
“However, did it ever occur to you that I might have changed my mind?” He took a step toward her. “That my plan may have been altered one evening while I stood in the Bentley ballroom and a miss wearing a pale green, nearly white gown stepped through the entrance?”
She blinked at him. Somerton remembered what she had worn that night?
“That I was captivated by her beauty and that her curls shimmered with highlights of gold when bathed in candlelight.”
Oh, he was a rogue with his honeyed words, but she’d not be moved.
“I knew that I needed to know your name and when I learned, and your age, wondered if I’d been blind during the earlier seasons for not having noticed you before.”
Her cheeks warmed and she hated that Somerton viewed the evidence of her embarrassment.
“I did not court you to appease my mother. I courted you because I wanted to know you.”
They did come to know one another very well. Almost too well.
“It wasn’t until after our evening at Vauxhall that I finally admitted to myself that I was in love with you.”
Diana nearly stumbled. He’d never once indicated that he loved her and after what she’d heard, she didn’t think James possessed the ability to love.
“Why do you think I asked you to meet me in the gardens that night?” he asked.
Diana opened her mouth prepared to answer seduction but as Adam was standing there, she said nothing.
“I was going to ask you to be my wife.” He glanced at Adam. “I know that I should have sought your permission first, but you were not in Town.”
Adam just nodded as if not bothered.
“Instead, before I could even broach the subject, you slapped me, called me names and then left.”
Her face burned and it was all she could do not to fan herself.
“Am I forgiven?”
Tears burned and she tried to blink them away, but it was not to be as a few slid out of the corner of her eye. He may love her but what he’d done with her mother she’d never be able to forget. She was just as certain that it would eat at her, especially when her mother visited.
“Diana?”
“I’m sorry that I let what others said about your intentions toward me cause such a reaction and for that I am sorry.”
He blew out a breath as if relieved.
