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“I intend to marry your charge immediately, by special license. I compromised her last night, after you deserted her.”

“I—You—”

“You left your charge at a ball, with no provision for her safety nor way to return to her own house. Without so much as a farewell.” His eyes drilled into her.

“Lady Regina …” she faltered.

“My sister is a feckless and unkind girl, who had no intention of telling me that Miss Valentine had been left under my care. Since you did not bother to inform me or Miss Valentine, your charge would have left to make her own way home from the ball.”

Beatrice cleared her throat. “I would have safely returned home in a hackney, Jonah. I believe Lady Alcon wanted the best for me.”

“I did!” Lady Alcon chimed in.

The duke’s chilly composure didn’t warm an iota. “For your sake, Lady Alcon, I hope that Mr. Valentine paid you in advance, because I doubt he will be pleased by my account of your chaperonage.”

“Well, I never!” Lady Alcon gobbled. “That’s … You’re …”

Beatrice took her arm. “Don’t worry, Lady Alcon. You can depend on my recommendation. But perhaps it would be good to write to my father immediately. I am afraid that most of London does believe that something imprudent happened between myself and the duke last night.”

Lady Alcon’s heart sank. It was one thing to chaperone a young lady who married a duke with pomp and circumstance, preferably in a cathedral. It was quite another to have two charges in a row marry in a hurly-burly fashion by special license. This wasn’t quite as bad as the elopement of last year, but very nearly.

“Meanwhile, I shall bring my fiancée to meet my uncle,” the duke announced. “He is currently attending the Prince Regent, so we will not return until the afternoon.”

Lady Alcon swallowed. She would have loved to accompany her charge on rounds of celebratory visits, puffing her role as chaperone, but the duke couldn’t have made it clearer that she was excluded.

The image of her sister’s charming cottage in Devon popped into her mind. Polite society wasn’t as welcoming as it used to be.

Hardly knowing what she was doing, she scuttled through the door, her heart pounding. She would write to Mr. Valentine, of course. But she would also write to her sister.

Bea put her hands on her hips. “You mortified that poor woman!” she chided, frowning at her future husband.

Jonah looked completely unrepentant. “Would you want another young lady to go through what you did? Starved on a daily basis, and then deserted at a ball?”

“No,” Bea admitted.

“She should never have left you last night. Anything could have happened.”

Bea didn’t want to ruin her good mood by fretting. “It is true that you could have seduced me—but you didn’t.” She drifted closer and put a hand onto his chest. “Did you know that my parents eloped?”

“Dukes buy marriage licenses and do the thing properly in the family chapel,” Jonah informed her.

“All right.” Bea leaned in. “You haven’t kissed me good morning.”

His eyes instantly darkened. “No more have I.” He bent down and gave her a fierce kiss, but rather than pulling her closer, he drew her out of the house and into his waiting carriage.

Bea didn’t hear what Jonah told his coachman, but she had a good idea that it didn’t involve a direct passage to wherever the Prince Regent was. In the subsequent long minutes of kissing, she found herself nestled on the wide seat.

Watching, as Jonah tore off his coat. Smiling, as he unbuttoned his waistcoat. Gasping, as he pulled his shirt over his head.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

She had to tear her eyes away from the way his shaft was outlined by his breeches. “Yes.”

He bent over and then straddled her on the wide bench. “Query: Will the Duke of Lennox marry Miss Beatrice Valentine, and live with her happily, in sickness and in health, as long as they both shall live … whether he seduces her before marriage or not?”

“That’s easy,” Bea murmured, looking up at Jonas’s beautiful eyes, realizing that she didn’t just like this big burly duke.

Somehow, he had walked into her heart when she wasn’t looking. She reached up and pulled him down to her.