The moment her mother left, Margaret turned to the Duke. ‘I assume you realise we will not actually be marrying. But a year’s engagement will get me out of the Season. Hopefully, by then I’ll have come up with a way to free myself from this charade.’
‘Your enthusiasm for this match is so flattering,’ he said with a wry smile.
‘As you said, it is a convenient arrangement that gets us both out of an unwanted situation. There is no point pretending it is anything else,’ she shot back with more sharpness than intended.
‘Yes, ma’am.’ That was followed by a facetious salute as if she was some sort of sergeant major. ‘And I am more than happy to save you from the tedium of the Season, but in exchange it would be advantageous to me if we are seen in public together on occasion.’ He gave a small laugh, as if this was all a jolly jest. ‘And it would help if you looked at me with a modicum of affection, rather than as if I were the devil incarnate.’
Margaret was unaware that she had been looking at him like that, but it was not an entirely inapt description of how she felt about him. He certainly had a devilish reputation, and she was undoubtedly not the first woman to see him as devilishly handsome.
‘You know the reason why I agreed to this arrangement,’ she said, hoping her words contained no affection, not even the modicum he had requested. ‘So, are you going to tell me the full story of why you suddenly decided it essential to be engaged to marry?’
He pulled the letter out of his pocket and looked down at it. ‘It’s a bit, shall we say…’ He sent her a sheepish look.
‘Sordid? Scandalous? Not fit for a young lady’s ears?’
‘Mmm,’ he added, rubbing his hand around the back of his neck.
‘Gossip is bound to reach me eventually, so I might as well hear it from you. And please, do not spare my blushes.’
‘Well, how can I phrase this? Baroness Winterborne and I have been involved in a certain dalliance.’
‘She is your lover?’
His eyebrows shot up his forehead at her frankness. That was, she hoped it was her frankness he was reacting to and not the slight quiver in her voice when she said the word ‘lover’. But it was hard not to quiver when thinking of the Duke in that way.
‘Yes, well, she was. It had all rather run its course when her husband, for some unfathomable reason, took umbrage about his wife straying.’
Margaret tried to keep her expression blank but found it hard not to frown at such a flippant attitude to the sanctity of marriage. ‘You find the husband’s objection difficult to understand?’
‘Mmm.’
She waited for him to continue. He did not.
‘There must be more to it than that. As I said, please do not try and spare my blushes. I wish to know exactly what I am getting myself into.’
And please do not blush, she said to herself. She had to focus on her abhorrence of this immorality, not on the ridiculous heat rising within her every time she thought of him being some woman’s lover.
‘If you insist.’
‘I do.’
‘Well, yes, Helena Winterborne was my lover, but I was certainly not her first and I doubt if I’ll be her last, which makes Baron Winterborne’s behaviour all the more difficult to understand. He has not objected to his wife’s behaviour in the past, especially as he has been seeing the same mistress since before he married, continues to see her, and they have several children, all of whom he supports rather lavishly.’
Margaret tried hard not to show what she thought regarding this appalling behaviour, but suspected it was written all over her face.
‘And what?’ she said, her voice carefully modulated. ‘You’re worried about your reputation if it gets out that the two of you were lovers?’ She smiled inwardly, pleased that this time she’d got the dreaded word out without any telltale signs.
‘I wish that was all it was. No, Baron Winterborne has threatened divorce proceedings. I’m sure you know what being dragged through the divorce courts is like for a woman, particularly a member of the aristocracy.’
Margaret nodded, knowing exactly what Baroness Winterborne would face. The press loved nothing better than to report on every salacious detail of such goings-on among the aristocracy. While the men got off relatively lightly, the women were depicted as wanton, immoral and debased. If she had children, which Margaret believed the Baroness did, they would be taken away from her and it was unlikely she would ever see them again. Even other members of her family, particularly the females, would be tainted by the scandal and they’d all be shunned by Society.
He passed her the letter so she could read the Baron’s threats for herself. His hand lightly touched hers as she took it from him. It was the merest brush, hardly any contact, but the annoying tingling that rippled from Margaret’s fingers, up her arm and to her chest was impossible to ignore.
‘I don’t know what Winterborne is thinking,’ the Duke continued, while Margaret tried to concentrate on reading the letter. ‘This is so unlike him. But hopefully, when he realises it is all over between me and his wife, and that I am a reformed man, he will drop all talk of dragging this through the courts and destroying his wife’s reputation.’
Margaret nodded again, conceding that this was a valid reason for their engagement, although it would have been better if the Duke had not become involved with a married woman in the first place. She owed Baroness Winterborne nothing, but no woman should have to go through the ordeal of the divorce court, particularly when men could behave in the same manner and never be held accountable.
Holding the letter by the edge, she handed it back to him, careful to ensure their hands did not touch.
