AMITY DIDN’T KNOW WHATto say so she made a joke. “To show your Norman ruling-class authority?”
The duke’s handsome mouth started to twitch, and then he laughed. “Yes, exactly.” Still, he didn’t release her but displayed his dimples until she wanted to melt.
“There is no purpose to our speaking alone,” she reminded him. Already, her family would be wondering where she was, and when they noticed the duke’s absence as well....
“That’s a lie, and you know it,” he protested. “There is our future at stake, and if we are to have children, countless more, as well.”
“Countless!” Amity couldn’t help her exclamation. “Perhaps three, I would say.” Inappropriately, her thoughts flew to being in bed with Henry Westbrook, Duke of Pelham, and creating those children.
“Fine,” he continued. “That’s at least five lives which our speaking alone will impact — no, six if we include Mr. Cole’s, which we must because you won’t release the man from this travesty of an engagement.”
“It is not a travesty. This—” and she gestured between herself and Henry, “—thisis a travesty.Weare not engaged, nor will we ever be.”
“Give me a good reason, and I shall leave you alone. And do not again mention your current engagement as that is no impediment at all.”
Amity didn’t care for his easy dismissal of Jeremy. “All right, the reason you and I cannot marry is because you are a duke, a peer of the realm.” That was as plain as she could make it.
He made a sound of sheer exasperation. “Surely, that is a mark in my favor, not a reason for you to remain engaged to your lawyer friend.”
“If I must say it even more clearly, Your Grace, you and I do not suit. I am a shopkeeper’s daughter. I do not belong with you in the world of thehaut ton.”
“Then we shall remain far from them if they bother you. Regardless, I know with your intelligence, you can learn any trifling social etiquette of which you may be uninformed.”
She shook her head. “Even if I could easily catch up with everything Lady Madeleine sokindlypointed out she learned while in the nursery, what about my chocolates?”
“What about them?” He frowned, and she wanted to smooth the lines from his forehead, but he would never be hers to touch.
“I could not be a chocolatier as a duchess, therefore, Your Grace, I cannot be your wife.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Henry’s silence confirmedher worries, especially as he let his hand fall away from her arm, releasing her.
However, when Amity took a few steps in the direction the others had taken, he called to her again, “Miss Rare-Foure.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
