Almost smirking, proud of having uttered a complete sensical sentence, I stood up straighter. “I’m wrong.”
Nodding, the duke went around his grand desk, pushed at a chess piece, and sank into his chair. “You’re right about being wrong. And I don’t believe anyone is rational right now. Nonetheless, I do have a plan to fix everything.”
Lady Hampton, who now had her hands locked behind her back, gaped at him. “Tell us. Please let it be anything other than Georgina being forced into a marriage of strangers.”
“Poor strangers on both sides. With the way my departed friend, Lord Hampton, worked the Wilcox fortunes, you can’t afford anyone else draining your finances.”
“Now wait a minute, Torrance.” I was ready to poke him in his pointy wide nose. “I’ll be no burden to my wife. I need more time to finish my sonata. I’ll earn my way as a composer.”
He waved me away. “I’ve seen your work. It’s good. Your skills on the pianoforte are superb. I’ve no doubts of you succeeding, but your compromise is now. The problem is now. She must marry now.”
The goddess gasped. “No. Marriage wasn’t my intent. Your Grace, I don’t know him. He doesn’t know me. Scandal is better. I don’t want an unhappy marriage.”
Those expressive eyes said everything she hadn’t, that she’d seen the suffering of a battling couple. I had too, and I also wanted none of those memories to become mine.
Thoughts of my mother and the sacrifices she’d made to be a proper marchioness and maintain dignity for her sons weighed on me, smothering my lungs as though one of the duke’s heavy bookcases had fallen on me.
I gazed at Georgina and again became wordless. There was no way out of this but marriage. “As a gentleman, I must insist—”
“Noble. Noble.” Torrance threaded his hands together. “Here’s my plan. You and Miss Wilcox will pretend to be engaged. You will spend a proper amount of time together to keep up the pretense. Teach her a song to sing.”
“A pretend engagement,” Lady Hampton said. “And a song? She never exhibits in public. She gets too frightened. How does anything you said help?”
“Katherine. Stop speaking about my faults like they are a disease. And I’m right here. I can open my mouth.”
“That’s what got you in trouble. You kissed a stranger.”
“Is it better to do so with someone you love?” The duke hummed something that chased Lady Hampton to the grand window behind his desk.
He turned to Miss Wilcox. “Seems like you don’t have a problem exhibiting in public with Sebastian. That will come in handy at an event I will throw.”
“Can’t we just go away quietly and pretend this day didn’t happen? Your Grace, I don’t want to marry Lord Mark Sebastian.”
“Let’s hope no reporter writes about what they saw. They always make things sound so much worse. But the odds are great that they did. Juicy gossip will make better headlines than any progress in my science meeting.”
“I can withstand gossip,” Georgina said, but her gaze lowered from everyone to the fretwork carvings of the desk.
“It’s one thing to be rash, but to be vilified by gossip in print is abominable,” the duke said in grim tones. “It can become unbearable being written about in the paper, day after day. This type of disgrace can last a lifetime. My mother still refuses to come to London because of what she’s seen.”
This was the first time he’d said anything of the princess in a long time. Livingston mentioned something of her and the difficult battle Torrance had claiming his peerage.
“A pretend engagement,” he continued, “keeps Miss Wilcox as a respectable young lady who let her overjoyed fiancé have a first kiss. The public nature of the ball I will throw will find a new suitor, one so taken with you, he’ll convince you to end your engagement. There’s nothing like a woman’s commitment to one young man to attract others. Right, Lady Hampton? It’s not uncommon for a heart to be swayed. When love is new or unequally shared, theft is easy. That gossip is bearable—a change of heart, as opposed to the gossip of loose morals or a calculated attempt to entrap a man with a title.”
The viscountess’s countenance turned a deeper shade of rust. The duke’s words seared like a fatty beefsteak over an open flame. We all could be tied to a pit with fire licking and hissing at us as we burned. “Scandal . . . hurt more than pretend.”
Georgina looked to the door as if she wanted to flee. “Your Grace, are you saying that a public pretense will let people see his lordship and I as a couple?”
“And as not well-matched. Miss Wilcox, they’ll think that you momentarily fancied your music teacher and will believe you when you beg off. Sebastian is known for music and bird-watching. You will have to exhibit at least once or twice to attract positive attention. And suitors will need a chance to see you. Singing will do that.”
“Exhibiting in public?” She shook her head. “For once my sister is right. I’d be terrible singing for suitors.”
“Yes. No.” I cleared my throat. “Your voice is lovely. I’ve taught friends of my mother’s. Music is always on my mind. Everyone will expect my partner to follow suit.”
I moved closer to Georgina and pointed to my temple. “Music gets stuck in here. Often, I’m desperate for it to come out. But I’m also desperate to fix this. Torrance’s crazy plan will work. I heard you sing. You will dazzle people. The rightness of our pairing will be apparent. Then you will break with me because of a new suitor or an exasperation at my wanting you to perform. Brilliant, Torrance.”
“No.” Lady Hampton frowned. “This is too risky. Why not beg off now? There’s no need for such an elaborate ruse. If they must marry, they should do so now and quietly.”
Georgina looked at me like I’d match wits with the angry Lady Hampton.
