Page 81 of A Deal for the Duke’s Virgin

She flinched again. Mine certainly will not. So, he would continue with his rakish lifestyle, gambling and drinking and taking lovers, then?

Men are allowed to do that, she reminded herself bitterly. The rules are quite different for them.

“Thalia?” he prompted.

She drew in a shuddering breath. “But you’re a rake.”

He bit back a smile. “Thank you for your kind words as I propose to you.”

A proposal. She supposed that was what this was, but somehow it didn’t feel like anything of the sort. Not a proposal, but a business deal. A deal that was not anybody’s first choice.

That’s fitting, I suppose. After all, I was not anybody’s first choice.

“I have to agree,” she managed weakly, “don’t I?”

He eyed her with something that was almost pity. “Yes, my dear. I’m afraid you do.”

As those words sank in, Laura stuck her head out the window, glowering at them both.

“Are we going home, or aren’t we?” she demanded. “I am cold and hungry. Let’s go.”

Christian watched as Thalia clambered out of the carriage. There was a distant, inward-looking expression on her face. She shot him a quick glance but did not meet his eyes.

They had stopped in front of her house, and a quick glance up at the building assured him that there were no lights on in any of the windows. They had made it just in time.

By his calculations, it was somewhere before four o’clock in the morning. That meant that within the next hour, or perhaps even half an hour, at least one servant would be up and about.

A scullery maid, likely, going about to light the fires before the family woke up. Then the cook, then the kitchen maids, and so on. In short, this was the last half-hour in which she could be reasonably certain of returning to her room without being caught.

He watched her disappear into the darkness, scurrying towards the house. Then, once she was gone, he turned back to the carriage. His horse was hitched up behind the cab, which would allow him to ride inside.

There was a conversation he needed to have with his sister.

The door closed behind him, before the carriage lurched forward. Silence fell over them.

“So,” he said, finding Laura’s eyes in the gloom, “tell me everything.”

“Christian…”

“Thalia is not here. I can only assume that you didn’t want to tell the full story in front of her. You’re my sister, Laura. I know you better than you think.”

Do I? Or has she changed when I wasn’t looking?

There was a long silence while Laura nibbled on her lower lip, staring out the window.

“So, you and Thalia are getting married,” she murmured.

He clenched his jaw. “Yes.”

“How did that come about?”

“We struck a bargain. But then I was foolish enough to kiss her in a pub in full view of a woman like Lady Pembroke, and now news of it will be all over London. Our faux betrothal must become a real one.”

“I see. Thalia is my friend, you know. I don’t want her to be hurt.”

“Not a good enough friend for you to tell her where you were going or why you were going,” he shot back. “She was worried about you, too.”

Laura had the grace to blush. In her lap, her hands were knotted together.