Page 24 of Too Wicked for Heaven

Kensingham stepped forward. “Apparently, last night this damned scoundrel decided he wanted you for a wife. That’s why he seduced you—to force me into accepting his suit.”

Her face was ashen, and she wouldn’t look at him. “D-Did you really plan all this just to make sure I married you?”

“It’s not the way he makes it sound,” Neville protested, feeling his hold over her slipping. “I did want to marry you, ’tis true. From the moment I met you on that balcony, I knew you were the only wife I wanted. And I knew your uncle wouldn’t let me marry you, so when you came to me last night⁠—”

“You lied to me.” She clutched the coverlet more tightly to her chest. “You . . . you told me all you wanted was one night with me, that you’d let me go before anyone could ever know.” The pain in her voice tore at him. “You told me it was my stolen night. But you never intended it to be that, did you? That’s why you didn’t wake me before Uncle came. What did you plan to do? Give him a glimpse of me in your bed? Describe in detail all the ways you . . . you⁠—”

“Please, Althea, it’s not like that,” he said, his gut clenching inside him.

But it was very near to that, and he knew it. He’d never once considered her wants during his little campaign. He’d convinced himself she would want what he wanted.

“You could have asked me, you know,” she whispered. “All you had to do was ask me to marry you, and I⁠—”

“Your uncle would never have allowed it.”

A sudden change came over her face. Anger suffused it until her eyes blazed. “That had nothing to do with it! If you had told me what you wanted, I could have helped you. Somehow we could have made him listen to us both. But you didn’t even ask me!”

“If you’ll recall,” he snapped, “the subject of marriage came up a few times, and you weren’t at all amenable to the possibility.”

The instant he said it, he realized he’d made a major blunder.

Her face went stony. “Yes, I do remember. I was very clear on the subject of marrying you, wasn’t I? I believe I said I wouldn’t marry you even if you offered.”

“That’s because you didn’t believe I would offer!” he protested, feeling like a drowning man just before his head disappears beneath the water for the last time. “You were so convinced I would never marry anyone⁠—”

“You’re saying if I’d meant what I’d said, if I truly hadn’t wanted to marry you, you would have made sure I did so anyway?”

Neville’s eyes went wide. “If? If you’d meant what you said? That means you do want to marry me, doesn’t it?”

She lifted her head, her face etched with hurt. “I wouldn’t marry you now if you were the last person on earth.”

Neville felt his heart twist inside him. “Don’t say that! I understand why you’re angry, but⁠—”

“You don’t understand a thing about me,” she said in a broken voice. “I thought you were the only honest man in the kingdom. A rake, to be sure, but honest. Yet all along you were lying to me just as Uncle did.” A great shudder went through her. “Except it was much worse, because you made me . . . care about you. You, a heartless deceiver who played on my trust!”

She turned away, and he stepped forward to catch her arm. “I want to marry you, Althea. Why is that so awful?”

Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and she swiped them away with the back of her hand. “Because you gave me no choice.” She looked at him, her lips tightening. “But I do have a choice now. And I’m not going to marry you.”

Her uncle, who’d been watching the exchange with increasing bewilderment, exploded then. “What? But you must marry him! I’ll admit his methods are reprehensible, but the deed is done now, and you’re fully compromised. You have to marry him!”

Wrenching her arm from Neville, she faced her uncle. “You promised I’d have the final say on any man you chose.”

Kensingham tugged at his shirt collar, looking extremely uncomfortable. “Well, yes, but⁠—”

“Was that a lie like all your other lies?”

There was a long silence. At last Kensingham sighed. “Devil take you, no. If you refuse to marry him, I won’t force it.” Then he leveled an angry gaze on Neville. “But I can still fight him. I can still gain justice for you. The seconds are waiting and⁠—”

“No!” she said firmly. “No duels!”

Her uncle drew himself up. “You won’t change my mind on this, Althea.”

She turned a steadfast gaze to Neville. “And you, Lord Foxworth? Have you nothing to say about that?”

Neville winced at her use of his title. But her appeal reminded him that she’d more than fulfilled her part of their unholy bargain. Now it was time to fulfill his, something he’d never expected to have to do. And she knew it.

With his eyes fixed on hers, he said, “There will be no duel, Kensingham. Proclaim me a coward if you wish, but I won’t fight you. I’m crying off.”