Page 72

“As soon as we are married, I shall do everything I can to mask the scandal so that Miss Fowley doesn’t suffer the consequences.”

“I don’t think that is possible,” Jo protested.

“It is possible. We’ll make it possible, Jo. We can’t deny ourselves happiness on account of others. I made mistakes, I admit. But I don’t want you to have to pay for them for the rest of your life. Tell me that you’ll marry me, and I shall spend the rest of my life ensuring that you’re happy.”

Jo let out a chuckle. “It won’t be easy. There will be a grand scandal. An actress marrying a viscount?” Was she actually considering it?

“It’s true.” He took her hands in his and squeezed. “But with time, the scandal will wane.”

“It will?” Jo stepped closer to him as if enchanted by a spell and pulled by an invisible thread toward him.

“It will. And as soon as you stop acting, I am sure people will—”

Jo froze. “Stop acting?”

Richard frowned. “Well, yes. Once you stop acting, the scandal is bound to pass. People will have less cause for gossip.”

Jo let out an indignant breath and snatched her hands out of his grasp. “Pardon me, I am not going to stop acting.”

“What do you mean, you are not going to stop?” He looked utterly baffled, the poor man.

“Just that,” Jo said.

“Do not be ridiculous.” He scoffed. “You can’t be an actress and a viscountess!”

Jo stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief. “Then I do not want to be a viscountess.” Her voice didn’t shake. As if her world wasn’t turning upside down.

Richard reared back. “I can’t believe I am hearing this. You cannot be serious.”

Jo licked her lips. “Richard… It is who I am. I can’t give up everything for my life with you. What if I asked you to give up your title, would you?”

“You and I both know that isn’t possible.” His answer was immediate, dismissive.

“But what if it was? If you could give up your title, would you?”

“This is useless contemplation.” Richard raked a hand through his hair, pacing like a tiger in her tiny cage.

“What if you could pass it on to Adam? Would you hang it up and travel with me?” she insisted.

“And what would I be then?” he finally barked.

“And what would I?”

“You’ll be a viscountess, my wife!” He stepped toward her again, reaching for her.

She gave him a pitying look. “I would not be the same person you claim to have fallen in love with. What will I have left if I give up everything for you?”

“You’ll have me.”

Jo swallowed back the lump in her throat. “And what will you have left to love? What will be left of me?”

He tugged on his cravat nervously. “Then what do you want? You don’t want to be my mistress, and you don’t want to be a viscountess. What the devil do you want then?”

Tears pricked at the back of her eyes. “I want to live in a world where it is not shameful to love me for who I am.”

“There is no shame in who you are,” he growled.

“Isn’t there? Then how come you can’t accept me as I am?”