“There is no scandal, Lady Maribel, except the one you hoped to create.”
“Then you won’t stand in my way?”
Evie felt something bubbling up in her chest and realized it was rusty, bitter laughter. The idea that she could prevent Gray from marrying any of the ladies visiting Carthwaite was absurd. Most of all, because she’d never wish to keep him from his duty.
And she’d certainly never wish to be the reason his name was associated with any sort of scandal.
“I won’t stand inhisway, Lady Maribel. I promise you that.”
CHAPTER6
After all the years he’d known Evangeline Granger, Gray could make a long list of her attributes and talents. She had a keen eye for art and skill at watercolors. She was passionately loyal woman—to her aunt, her various political causes, and her ladies’ charitable organization. And she was proficient enough with a bow and arrow to cause a man worry about ever offending her.
But now, after five days at Carthwaite, he could add one more talent to the list. The lady had an incredible knack for avoiding him. The third day he understood. He’d been shaken by their kiss and went through much of that next day in a daze that had nothing to do with all the drink he’d consumed the previous night. The haze had only subsided once he’d realized what he now had to do.
On the fourth day, he’d been in a foul mood all day because Evangeline had never appeared at the events the aunts had planned. He’d made it halfway to her room before being stopped by his aunt on one occasion to partake in a toast since it was one of the lady’s birthdays. The second time he’d tried, a maid had waylaid him because he’d forgotten the pocket watch and chain he always wore.
The small details of the house party had become increasingly irrelevant because Evangeline and what he felt for her, and hoped she felt for him, consumed his thoughts.
The moments together in her room—what they’d revealed and how right it felt to have her in his arms—had changed him.
His greatest fear was that Evie’s absence meant she regretted the kiss, regretted the hunger and passion she’d showed him that night, despite what she’d said before. If she was embarrassed, he had to let her know that she had no need to be. The desire between them was wholly mutual.
But instinct told him it wasn’t regret. He knew what Evie intended to accomplish by avoiding him. They shared the same sense of duty and always had. He’d often felt humbled by how content she was to abide by her aunt’s wishes when he obeyed his father begrudgingly while resenting the man’s cruelty.
Today, as he did every day since he’d arrived at Carthwaite, he climbed the tower stairs to stand outside the ducal suite, wait for Mrs. Reed to emerge, and seek an update about his father’s condition.
This evening she was standing outside his father’s room as he strode down the hallway, and he quickened his pace to reach her.
“Has he taken a turn for the worse?”
“Not at all, my lord. He’s in surprisingly good spirits this morning and asked that I determine how your search for a bride is proceeding.”
Gray barely resisted rolling his eyes. “Not a true search, is it?”
Mrs. Reed chuckled. “I suppose it’s not. They’re all here within arm’s reach and hoping to be selected.”
She spoke with a jovial tone as if he must be pleased to be a man with so many ladies eager for his favor. The very opposite was true because beyond his every expectation of how this house party would proceed, he’d kissed Evangeline. And she’d kissed him.
And, somehow, he wasn’t the same man anymore.
He’d imagined kissing Evie, holding her, so many times. Yet it had been better than his wildest dreams. He couldn’t choose a wife from among those carefully selected by his aunt and Lady Worthington.
He knew what he wanted now. Though the trajectory of his life had been mapped out from birth, as carefully as the schedule for this bloody house party, he had a new clarity, a new purpose. He wanted Evie.
Now he just had to make her see that too.
“So, since your father won’t give me peace until I ask, have any of the noble ladies caught your eye?”
“No.” Not one of the noble ones, but the most intriguing, clever, and maddening woman he’d ever met had. “Tell my father I shall come and speak to him tomorrow.”
“Goodness.” Mrs. Reed tipped her head, and the white cap she wore wobbled atop her gray hair. “That sounds as if you plan to decide quickly.”
Gray offered her a smile, even as nerves caused his pulse to race. “We’ll see how the evening proceeds.”
Downstairs, he found everyone gathered in the drawing room awaiting the signal to go into dinner. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he let out a sigh of relief.
Finally, she’d rejoined the group.
