CHAPTER11
WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW
Amoment earlier
“Rather fortuitous Engleston played his part so well, wouldn’t you say?” Richard, Earl of Penhurst, remarked as he plucked a card from the deck. “I expect I’ll be free of my ward by this time tomorrow.”
“You could have been free of her if she’d agreed to marryme,” Marcus, Viscount Huntley, countered, rolling his eyes when the card he selected made his hand even worse than it already was.
“But then you’d be married, and I would have to listen to you complain about her every time we were at the club,” Richard said as he spread out his hand on the table. “Show your cards.”
The viscount huffed, tossing his hand on the felt table top. “I have nothing, and now I’m bored.”
Richard pulled his chronometer from his waistcoat pocket. “They should be back soon,” he said. “Unless Engleston has decided to take her to Gretna Green instead of springing for the special license.”
“He’s too honorable for that,” Marcus stated. “He’s probably left her virtue intact. I bet they didn’t even spend the night under the same roof.”
Giving the viscount a quelling glance, Richard got to his feet and headed for the door. He stopped short when he rounded the corner, though.
His niece and the baron were engaged in a discussion that had Marian in tears and David doing his best to keep her from running off.
About to join them, Richard paused when David noticed his arrival and scowled at him. At the same time, Marian ran for the stairs.
“Damn you,” David stated before he hurried to follow her.
Afew moments earlier
Marian regarded David with a look of disbelief. “My uncle put you up to this?” she asked in dismay “What? Did he offer you double my dowry to be rid of me?”
“No. Not at all,” David replied, attempting to sort what they had overheard in the card parlor. “I had no idea you even existed when I arrived yesterday.”
“I should have known this was too good to be true,” Marian replied, her lips quivering as tears streamed down her face.
“But it is true. What we have, I mean,” David sputtered. “I love you. I want to marry you?—”
“For the money, I’m sure,” Marian wailed before she ran for the stairs.
Stunned at her sudden departure, David glared at Richard. “I played my part?” he repeated in disbelief.
“Now, now, it’s not like that,” Richard said in an attempt to calm the baron. “It’s just... it worked out so well, you two meeting one another like you did?—”
“She asked me if I was her betrothed,” David remembered. “Before we were even introduced.”
Richard angled his head back and forth. “I might have suggested you were in the market for a wife,” he hedged. “And that you two would make a perfect couple, seeing as how you’re both so shy,” he added with a pained expression.
David huffed. “Damn you,” he stated before he hurried off after Marian. He knew where he could find her—she would be in the room at the end of the hall. But how would he convince her he had nothing to do with how they had met? How would he convince her he hadn’t been part of some sort of set-up? That he wasn’t marrying her for her dowry, even if he might require it until the weather improved?
“The truth is always best.”
David whirled around to discover Mrs. Skarsgard standing at her office door. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her head was angled to one side as if she had paid witness to a dozen similar situations in her position as proprietress of the Soho Club.
“And if she’s still not convinced I wish to marry her? That I wasn’t part of some nefarious scheme concocted by her damned uncle? Excuse the curse, please.”
Mrs. Skarsgard took a deep breath and let it out. “A few kisses should help alleviate the issue,” she replied. “We’ll meet you in the chapel in fifteen minutes.”
David blinked. He had almost forgotten about the wedding ceremony.
Determined to set things straight with Marian, he marched to the end of the corridor and stood before the door. He thought about asking to be let in but decided she would only tell him to go away.
