Everyone turned to look at him with puzzled expressions.
“There is another solution that will save both Melissa’s reputation an’ me own.” He silently swore at himself as he spoke against his better judgment.
“Go on?” Daphne encouraged him, taking a seat once again.
“I will marry Melissa,” he stated bluntly, allowing the consequences of his actions to take hold.
4
“What?” Melissa quickly shut the door as everyone began to speak at once.
“Are you serious?” Avery asked, taken aback.
“That’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard in me life! Ye cannae marry her.” Darragh’s voice was low, seething with rage as he looked at his friend.
“That’s the best news I’ve ever heard in my life!” Daphne jumped to her feet with newfound energy. “Both of my daughters married to lairds!”
Daniel watched Melissa’s face as she stared at him in disbelief. “You can’t mean that?” she finally asked when the others quieted.
“I do,” Daniel said before shrugging. “Nae pun intended.”
“We can’t possibly make a good match,” she began to protest. “We would be at each other’s throats day and night.”
“I dinnae see that ye have much of a choice, lass,’’ he said irritably, taken aback by her reluctance to accept his help. “Me own reputation can be saved, but yers will be salvaged as well if we say that we’ve been courting for a while.”
“He’s right,” Daphne said happily, walking over to him and looping her arm through his. “Everybody wins in the end.”
“Now, just a minute!” Darragh spoke up angrily again. “Daniel cannae marry Melissa!”
“And why nae?” Daniel challenged him, growing tired of all the effort he was putting in for a woman he hardly even liked.
“Because yer a rake!” Darragh blurted out, not caring about how his friend would feel. “Everybody kens that yer unlikely to settle down an’ take a wife,” he said out of exasperation more than anything else.
“An’ what if Melissa is the one to change me?” Daniel cocked his head to the side in a challenge.
Everyone looked at him in astonishment.
“It’s nae the truth,” he added quickly when he glimpsed the look of shock on Melissa’s face. “But I’d like to think I could make people believe I could change.”
Darragh rolled his eyes and shook his head, a trait that he and his sister-in-law seemed to share wherever he was concerned.
All eyes turned toward Melissa to see what she would say.
“It’s up to you, dear,” Daphne said to her youngest daughter with an encouraging nod. “It’s your future that is at stake here, I won’t force you either way.”
Daniel’s annoyance grew as he watched Melissa hesitate. She was biting her lower lip as she weighed her options. He had half a mind to withdraw his offer and cut his losses.
“I’ll do it,” she eventually said, surprising even him. “I’ll become Daniel’s wife for the sake of both of our reputations.” She let out a breath as she finished.
“Ye dinnae have to make it sound like yer doing me a favor,” Daniel grumbled, regretting his own decision.
“Are ye sure, lass?” Darragh asked her with grave concern, ignoring the way his friend grumbled and shook his head.
“Yes,” Melissa said with a nod. “I will go upstairs at once and change my gown. The announcement can be made before all of the guests depart.”
Melissa gulped as she straightened the fabric of her dark blue dress. Her mother and sister had helped her fix her hair before she was ready to go downstairs.
“Are you sure you wish to go ahead with this?” Avery asked her gently as she arranged the final strands of her hair into a bun.
