“Iamresponsible for her, even more so than I first realized. Don’t you see? Given what she overheard in the garden that day, she had no other choice than to jilt me, but that won’t stop thetonfrom destroying her. Even if she manages to slip through Wrexley’s grasp, her future and her sisters’ prospects are all laid to waste. Shehasto marry me, or she’s ruined.”
Derrick didn’t argue, but his breath left his lungs in a weary sigh. “She has to accept you first, Huntington, and under the circumstances, I don’t see what you can do to persuade her.”
“I’ll do whatever I must. Wrexley’s immoral, reckless—a man without principles or boundaries. He’s out of control, Derrick.”
Lord Derrick was quiet for a moment, then his gaze met Finn’s. “Who do you suppose is more dangerous, Huntington? A man so out of control he risks everything, or one who’s so tightly controlled, he risks nothing?”
Finn didn’t answer, and after a moment Lord Derrick sighed, and followed the ladies into the house.
“The first man is a danger to others. The second is a danger only to himself,” Finn muttered at last, but he may as well not have bothered.
There was no one there to hear him.
Chapter Ten
Iris went up to her bedchamber, threw herself down on her bed and lay there, staring up at the ceiling without seeing it.
Not once, during their brief betrothal and the long weeks of their courtship, had Lord Huntington ever looked at her like he had this afternoon. He’d never spoken to her in that soft, pleading voice, and he’d certainly never stroked a lock of her hair between his long fingers.
No, he’d waited until she’d jilted him for that.
Iris kicked her legs into the bed beneath her, giving in to the fit of temper squeezing her in its grip. He hadn’t looked at all like the cold, grand Marquess of Huntington when he’d clutched her shoulders and begged her to listen to him, had he? Looking into his burning eyes, she’d felt as if they were at a masque ball, and he’d torn off his masque to reveal he wasn’t at all the person she’d thought he was.
If he’d shown her even a hint of such passion before, they might still be betrothed, and she wouldn’t be in this mess.
But in it she was. She’d jilted a marquess, lied to her grandmother, compromised her sisters, and now here was Lord Huntington, claiming no lady butherwould do for his marchioness. He was determined to drive a wedge between her and her one chance at putting things back to rights.
Lord Wrexley.
She gave in to the urge to behave like a child having a tantrum and beat her legs against the bed again. He hadn’t spared her any of his attention when they were betrothed, so how was it he couldn’t bear the idea of living without hernow?
How had he put it when he barged into her bedchamber yesterday afternoon?
I reject your dismissal.
Gentlemen weren’t even permitted to reject a rejection, were they? It was against the rules. It wasn’tdone, for pity’s sake. Andwhy, in the name of all that was just, did he have to look so absurdly handsome when he was in a temper—
“Miss Somerset?” A soft knock sounded on the door. “It’s Lady Tallant.”
Iris jerked upright on the bed. Lady Tallant? What could she want?
Another faint knock. “May I come in?”
“Yes, of course.” Iris rushed to open the door. “Lady Tallant, this is a surprise.”
“Yes, it’s a day for surprises, isn’t it?”
She strolled into Iris’s bedchamber, closed the door with a firm click behind her, and regarded Iris in silence for a long moment.
Iris shifted from one foot to the other, her stomach fluttering with nerves under her ladyship’s penetrating stare. “How may I help, my lady?”
“It takes quite a lot to catch my attention, Miss Somerset, but I confess you and your game of rotating suitors has piqued my interest. Now, suppose you tell me what was so awful it would make you jilt a gentleman like Lord Huntington?”
Iris’s mouth fell open in horror.
Violet.
Before she could say a word, Lady Tallant held up a hand. “Now, don’t blame your sister. She had no choice but to tell us. You can’t truly believe you could hide this from Lady Hadley and Captain West for the next two weeks.”
