Page 5 of The Seduction of an English Scoundrel

“Oh,” Caroline whispered, her face as white as her sister’s wedding gown. “It’s him. Dear heaven.”

“Him?” Jane whispered, her dark green eyes widening. “Which him?”

Her brother had slipped away, dropping her arm as if it were a loaded pistol. He, too, was staring up at the shadow in a fascinating mix of dread and . . . respect.

Her bridal bouquet crushed to her silk-laced décolletage like a shield, she turned to confront her fate. And stared up at the most indecently beautiful face she had ever seen.

Him. The Most Honorable the Marquess of Sedgecroft.

Sedgecroft, who cast a shadow that swallowed her up from her head to the tips of her wedding slippers. Sedgecroft of the stormy blue eyes and steel-muscled body, of a scoundrel’s fame and libertine lifestyle, the most charming rascal to entertain the scandal-loving ton. The man in whose chapel she had hoped to pull off her daring scheme. Sedgecroft looking embarrassed and capable and—

What on earth could he be doing at the altar?

She felt the wild palpitations of her heart against the rose petals that she held in a death grip. The strangest thoughts raced inside her mind. She decided a sculptor would have delighted in chiseling Sedgecroft’s face, all those proud bones and hard angles, that cleft chin.

Not to mention that sinfully molded mouth, and his manly shoulders. Jane tried to estimate how much broadcloth his tailor would require to stretch across the musculature of his back. And was it true that he and his last mistress had once made love in the Tower?

His deep voice startled her from her embarrassing reverie. “I am profoundly ashamed.”

Ashamed? He was ashamed? Well, he probably had a hundred good reasons for confessing this, but none unfortunately in which Jane had taken part. She shared a bewildered glance with her sisters. “I beg your pardon. You said you were—”

“Ashamed. On my cousin’s behalf. Is there anything I can do?”

“Do?”

“Yes. About this”—he swept his large hand through the air—“this sad affair.”

“I think I can manage,” Jane replied, then added, “but it is nice of you to offer.”

His low pleasant voice sent a peculiar wash of heat swirling through her veins. She had expected a man of his reputation to deny any responsibility in the matter. Not to offer personal assistance. She wondered if he used this endearingly concerned manner with his bevy of love-stricken mistresses and admirers. What an effective way to melt a woman’s heart.

Her father bustled between them. “We’re facing a tactical problem, Sedgecroft—how to get her to the carriage through the crush outside.”

Sedgecroft glanced appraisingly at Jane, an experienced look that seemed to penetrate to her bare bones, to all her wicked secrets, to her most private hopes and fears. “That is not a problem. She may go through the vestry door and use one of my carriages. Unless for some reason you prefer your own vehicle.” He paused, studying Jane again. “I could escort her through the gates myself. I could carry her, if it comes to that. That would give the populace a reason to talk.”

Caroline drew a breath, and Miranda’s eyes widened in amused disbelief. Jane groped for Simon’s arm, clasping his wrist in such panic that he turned to frown at her.

“Help,” she whispered weakly.

“I thought you had never fainted in your life,” he muttered.

She raised her bouquet to whisper back. “This might be the day I make an exception. Could he be serious?”

A glimmer of admiration lit Simon’s eyes. “With Sedgecroft, one can never be sure. I’ve seen him bluff his way at cards to win a fortune.”

She stole another glance at that magnificent face and recognized the traces of good humor that the marquess had presumably suppressed, perhaps out of concern for her feelings. She was again pleasantly surprised. Rumors of his family’s rash behavior had circulated in the ton’s drawing rooms for years.

“I do not think it will be necessary to carry me,” she said, although under different circumstances a woman might certainly have been tempted to take him up on the offer.

“No?”

She was horrified at the hot blush that burned her neck as she looked into his blue eyes and found herself captured by a sensual appeal that he seemed to exude almost as second nature. Jane might have been completely overwhelmed by all this blatant male charm if she hadn’t been so intent on bringing the situation to an end.

Carry her to the carriage, indeed. Talk about creating a scandal. Although she had to admit those proud shoulders of his looked more then capable of the job—oh, what was she thinking? This was hardly the time or place to go to pieces over a handsome stranger.

“I am prepared to walk to the carriage and face the crowds,” she said.

“Of course,” he said, his voice polite and deferential.