Page 158 of The Dueling Duchess

The duke did not hesitate to rise to the occasion. While he was a few inches shorter than Guy, he stood his ground.

“Guy, please,” Cecile said.

When he refused to turn away from the duke, who was glaring right back at him, Cecile came to stand beside him and set a hand on his cheek to turn him away from the other man.

Guy met her pleading gaze and felt like a fool.

He huffed out a sigh and stepped back, dipping his chin to her.

“Perhaps it might be best if Her Grace and His Grace were given a few moments to speak to each other. Alone,” Dumas added.

Guy was about to say over my dead body, when he saw that Cecile was nodding.

He knew he was gawking but couldn’t shut his mouth.

“Please,” she murmured. “Just for a few minutes.”

He felt breathless, as if he’d been kicked in the stomach by a mule.

Guy glanced at the duke and clenched his jaw at the smug look on the Frenchman’s face.

“Please,” Cecile said again, the word so soft it was barely audible.

Guy nodded. “As you wish.”

* * *

Once Guy and Mr. Dumas left the book room, the duke’s expression softened. “I’m terribly sorry to have upset you, my dear. Won’t you sit?”

Cecile sat and the duke took the chair beside her, the one Guy had just vacated. “I did not understand that you and Mr. Darlington were, er, betrothed.”

“We are not betrothed,” she was forced to admit, wishing for a moment that they were because it would probably make this conversation shorter, if not easier.

She shook off thoughts of Guy’s pained look and forced herself to concentrate. “I take it you were about to suggest a union between the two of us?”

“I only thought to do so when I believed you were at liberty. But if your affections are otherwise engaged, I would never suggest such a thing.”

“If I do not marry you, then you will challenge the validity of the marriage?”

He opened his mouth and then hesitated, sighing. “I do not wish to commence our association in an adversarial way.”

“And yet you have.”

“I assure you that my family and I are by no means committed to such a path.”

“Your family?”

“Yes, I have three younger brothers, five sisters, many nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and my mother.”

“That is a large family,” Cecile said. And they would all suffer at losing the duke’s fortune to her, a stranger.

“It was even larger, but three of my brothers died fighting against the Usurper. Like you and your father, we were forced to flee and leave everything. These past twenty years have been . . . well, I’m sure you know.”

Cecile did know.

“May I make a suggestion?” he asked.

She nodded.