Page 72 of The Duke’s Matchmaker

In that moment, Nathaniel understood that it was what he wanted more than anything else in the world.

He reached the bottom of the stairs and took the turn that would lead him to the front door…

His heart sank.

He had been wrong. He’d guessed wrong. It wasn’t Dorothy standing there, waiting to greet him. It was Jonathan, watching him nervously as if he knew something was wrong.

She hadn’t come after all, and he was suddenly sure that she never would.

He had been a fool to hope for it.

CHAPTER 36

“You don’t look well,” Jonathan observed.

Nathaniel supposed that was probably true. He hadn’t eaten or slept since the failed proposal. “I don’t feel that well,” he confessed.

“Should we send for a physician?”

“No, no. It’s nothing like that. I’m just a bit tired.” He poured a drink for each of them and pushed one of the glasses across the table.

Jonathan picked it up and looked at the amber liquid. “I didn’t really come here to drink.”

“Well, what’s the harm in it?” Nathaniel asked.

“Other than the fact that it’s not yet noon?” Jonathan squinted at him. “This isn’t your first drink of the day, though, is it?”

“Well, no,” Nathaniel confided.

“This is to do with what happened between Dorothy and yourself, I assume?”

Nathaniel sighed. “Of course it is. I suppose all of London is talking about it.”

“Well, you and I certainly are,” Jonathan said. “That’s the real reason I wanted to come and see you. I wanted to hear from you directly how you felt about it. And what you’re going to do now.”

“I don’t know that there’s anything I can do,” Nathaniel murmured.

“Of course there is. There’s always something.”

“I asked her to marry me,” Nathaniel said.

He had anticipated a big reaction, some indication of shock, but Jonathan didn’t even register surprise. He just sat and waited for the rest of the story.

“She turned me down,” he said. “She wasn’t interested. Not even for a moment.” He shook his head. “She didn’t even have to think about it. It was an immediate no. And when her sisters tried to bring her around, she got angry at them and walked out of the room.”

Jonathan frowned. “Really? She did?”

“Did you think she would have told me yes?” Nathaniel laughed bitterly. “A lady like her…if she could be won, it would have happened already. I never stood a chance. Not with her.”

“I didn’t know you were serious about her,” Jonathan admitted. “I thought you were the one who couldn’t be won, Nathaniel.”

“You knew that I wanted to marry.”

“I also knew that you swore up and down you weren’t interested in finding love,” Jonathan reminded him. “You wanted to marry for Colin’s sake. Well, you wouldn’t be sitting here drinking in the middle of the day if all that had happened was that a lady you weren’t particularly interested in had turned you down. You would find someone else to fill the role of Colin’s mother. I know for a fact you had other prospects. You’re upset about her for some other reason.”

Nathaniel gritted his teeth. “Must you try to pull everything out of me?”

“You’re just lucky it’s me and not Gabriel,” Jonathan pointed out. “He’d never have let you hear the end of it. You’d be dealing with an hour-long lecture about how he was right all along, and how next time you’d be smart and listen to him.”