Page 28 of The Duke of a Thousand Desires

“Why?” he asked Liam, insulted and astonished at the rejection. “I’m a duke. Our fathers took their Grand Tour together, and she has to marry someone.”

“You might be a duke, but you’re also a rogue in the making, and my father betrothed her to another man on his deathbed. That’s the man she’s going to marry when he returns from the army.”

“I’m a rogue?”

“We spent a summer together in London, Simon. You were circumspect, but you aren’t a Bible scholar. Not that I am judging you. It’s only that Ravenna is my sister. I wish you had approached the family earlier. Perhaps something will change.”

Simon was momentarily speechless. Should he point out that he wasn’t Liam? He hadn’t produced children around the Welsh countryside. Liam had.

“You and I have played afield, Simon, which is not a hypocritical condemnation of your affairs. Ravenna is my responsibility. She’s been pledged to another man for some time. He has been away on other matters. Soon he will be ready for marriage.”

Simon lifted his hand. “Don’t tell me anything about him.” He did not add that he might use the information to provoke a rival he had not known existed.

Liam was apologetic. “If my father had not agreed upon this other arrangement, I’d leap at the chance to see my sister a duchess.”

Simon forced himself to accept his answer with grace. His first marriage offer had been refused. The family he most admired had rejected him.

“Does Ravenna know of the arrangement?” he wondered aloud. “Is she content with it?”

“She knows. She is content enough, and even if she wasn’t, she has to obey our father’s wishes. We must behave with honor,” he said as if to warn Simon against coercion, abduction, bribery or perhaps outright seduction for all he knew.

This perplexed Simon. He could not help thinking that if he had an opportunity to court her, he might have persuaded Ravenna to his side, and she could have changed Liam’s mind.

Her unnamed husband-to-be might not be her true love.

Could Simon stop loving her? He was afraid not. But he would act honorably, even if Liam had not always done so. The Welsh duke had used his appeal to take advantage of young women with no experience at all. One of his affairs had produced an unhappy come-by-chance daughter called Edlyn.

“Let us forget this conversation,” Liam said. “We must remain friends.”

It was shortly after this meeting that Simon returned to London, and Liam died in a riding accident. Simon returned for the funeral, waited a year, and during a bout of intense fencing on the castle battlements, asked Ravenna’s current and now eldest brother, Griffin Boscastle, the Duke of Glamorgan, for her hand.

“I notice that her engagement has not been announced,” he pointed out to Griff, who was more approachable than Liam had ever been.

Griff was also wracked with guilt. He had challenged Liam to the horse race that had ended in his death.

“Life struck us a blow,” Griff said. “Sir David reenlisted in the army, and then we lost Liam. As you know we have been in deep mourning. Announcing a betrothal did not seem appropriate, I suppose.”

Sir David. Now the enemy had a name. Simon lowered his arm, masking his expression. “She is personally attached to this man?”

“She has an agreement.” Griffin shrugged uncomfortably. “Did you ever indicate your desire to marry her before now?”

Only a thousand times in his heart.

“I asked Liam a year ago.”

The men became quiet. Griff poked his foiled sword into the straw figure that stood in the corner for practice. “If I’d known you were considering her, Simon, I would have done everything to discourage the other match.”

Did Simon want her enough to deal for her in secret, not knowing her wishes on the matter?

Honor. He could not court Ravenna in defiance of her family. “If the engagement is broken for some reason, you know where I will be.”

“I can’t change a promise,” Griff said. “Look, you’ve asked twice. Perhaps the next woman you propose to will accept. I’ll keep this between us, shall I?”

Timing, Simon thought.

It was everything.

How could it possibly work in his favor? He would act with honor. But if he asked a third time, would luck befall him?