“I’m not going anywhere until someone explains—where are we?”Gabriel demanded, at the end of his patience.“Who are all of you to me?”
“We’re your friends,” the blonde duchess assured him at once.“I’m Bess.Well, Duchess of Ashbourn, but you call me Bess.And this is my husband, also your friend, the Duke of Ashbourn.Nathaniel, but you generally call him Ashbourn.”
He called this pretty duchess by her Christian name, and she had a nickname for him.He was allowed into their home while she was clearly with child and probably limiting her social interactions to only the closest of family and friends.
It must be true, he concluded grimly.They must be friends.So why could he not remember them?
The panic he’d been holding at bay began to claw at the back of his throat.
“And…how did I come to be injured?”he asked, less steadily than he would have liked.
“I would like the answer to that question as well,” said the mountain—Ashbourn.He really had perfected that stern glower of his, hadn’t he?
For some reason, everyone was now looking at the dark-haired beauty, the only one in the room whose name he did not yet know.
“I-I—” she stammered miserably, seeming at a complete loss, and Gabriel found he didn’t like to see her distressed.
Giving her a smile, he tilted his chin up and spoke as if it were only the two of them in the room.“Ah, but that’s just it.Whoareyou?”
She gazed down at him, color flooding her cheeks until they were almost the same dark pink as the lip she was currently digging her straight white teeth into.She searched his eyes for a long moment, and Gabriel would almost swear he saw the moment she reached some sort of decision.
Even without remembering one single thing about her, somehow Gabriel knew to brace himself for whatever was about to come out of her pretty mouth.
“I’m Lady Lucy Lively,” she said, tilting her chin up in an adorable way that made her look as though she was preparing to swan dive off a cliff.“And we are engaged to be married.”
* * *
What had she done?Whatwas she doing?
She heard herself say the words as if from the depths of a cave, echoing and strange.But the moment they were out there, she knew it was the only thing to do.
This bastard had mocked her, rejected her, lied to her, manipulated her, and bedded her.But that didn’t mean she wanted to see him throttled by her brother for trifling with Lucy’s virtue.
She’d seen the way Nathaniel had looked between them, narrow-eyed and assessing.Her brother clearly knew, or at least suspected, that Thornecliff had spent the night in Lucy’s bedchamber.
Lucy didn’t give a toss about her reputation, but she knew that her brother very much did.And she also knew that her reputation affected more than just herself.
A scandal like the Duke of Thornecliff getting injured and losing his memories after spending the night with an unmarried lady under her brother’s nose… That would reverberate through the Ton like an earthquake.
It would bury Nathaniel and Bess… Even Kitty would be dragged down, by association.Kitty’s life would be forever altered, through no fault of her own, before it even truly began.
Lucy couldn’t allow that to happen.A false betrothal, however temporary, would do a lot to stem the tide of gossip and outrage.If it meant Lucy had to spend all her time being a comforting presence at the bedside of a man she despised, so be it.
As for what would happen when his memory returned and he realized she’d lied about their engagement, well, Lucy would cross that bridge when she came to it.He would be angry, of course, but at this moment she didn’t care.
There was a not-so-tiny part of her that felt he deserved nothing less than monumental deception on a life-ruining scale for everything he’d done.
So, into the face of her brother’s stunned, gaping disbelief and Bess’s wide-eyed interest, Lucy said, “This isn’t how I would have wished to tell you both.It is very new, but Thornecliff and I are engaged.”
She was proud of the way she was carrying it all off, until she happened to glance down at her supposed husband-to-be to find his coal-black eyes fastened upon her as though he could peer right through her.
Putting her shoulders back, she gave him a smile that only wobbled a bit, before turning to Nathaniel.“Of course, this means there can be no thought of Thornecliff recuperating at Dr.Perry’s surgery.He must stay here, with us, where I can make sure he is receiving every possible attention and all the best care.”
Dr.Perry sputtered a bit, offended at the implication that he and Mrs.Perry might provide something less than the best possible care, but Lucy held firm.
She needed Thornecliff close, to keep an eye on his recovery so that she had some hope of salvaging the situation whenever his memories returned.
Thankfully, Bess chimed in to agree that Thornecliff should certainly remain at home with them at Ashbourn House, and it was sorted.
