Page 43 of Snowed In with the Jilted Duke

“Kendal. Are you asking to marry Pippa instead?”

Turning to face Montgomery, Oliver nodded, feeling like the biggest fool in the world to come begging to this man to marry his daughter. His other daughter.

But he would not be able to bear it if he said no.

“How does Pippa feel about it?”

“I think… I feel… I think she would say yes if I asked.”

Montgomery’s brows shot up almost to his hairline. “You haven’t asked her yet?”

Oliver sighed and rubbed his face, hoping to calm his swirling thoughts. “Not in so many words. In all honor, I could not ask her to make any promises until I spoke to you, because you are the only one who can release me from the original bargain.”

He looked Montgomery in the eye. “I have read the agreement. I know a substitution is possible. But it would require your permission.”

The two men contemplated each other for a long time. Oliver felt suffused with frustration, trying not to clench his fists or become belligerent.

“Do you love her?”

“Yes.” The word emerged without his volition, and he collapsed back into his chair, head in his hands. “God help me, I do. Even though it may well ruin me.”

“Well, well, well. This is a fine mess.” Montgomery got to his feet and began his own thoughtful pacing as Oliver clutched his hands on the arms of the chair to prevent himself from springing forward and shaking an answer out of him. Even a “no” would be better than this suspense whilst Pippa wept upstairs.

“Where do you suppose Penny is?”

“I don’t know.” It had been a nagging worry at the back of Oliver’s mind for the past week. “My brother Hugo went after her, and he has not returned either.”

Montgomery visibly relaxed. “That’s all right, then. I have every confidence in your brother. I’m sure he’s kept her safe and well.”

“I certainly hope so.”

Montgomery paced up and down the room twice more before turning to face Oliver. “What are you willing to give Penny if I allow you to marry Pippa instead?”

“I… what?”

“What is the compensation you will give Penny if I allow you to throw her over and marry her twin sister? She’ll be humiliated in front of the ton. She must have compensation.”

“I would need to see which properties are currently unentailed,” Oliver hedged.

“Then we should get to that, your grace. Assuming this is what you want.”

He thought of Pippa as she had been the night before, flushed and beautiful, and certainty flooded him.

“Yes,” he said. “This is what I want.”

Of course Mother had come to gloat.

At her mother’s insistence, Pippa dragged herself up from the bed to trudge over and sit in one of the armchairs near the fireplace as Mother seated herself on the settee across from her, a small smirk on her face.

“I ought to have known Kendal would be wise enough to keep an eye out for the main chance. He is the son of a gamester, after all.”

“I don’t understand,” Pippa said slowly, and her mother laughed.

“Did he court you? Did he whisper sweet words to you? Did he take liberties that would bind you to him?”

Pippa’s face went aflame, and her mother nodded sagely.

“I did not realize until today that there was an escape clause in the contract all along.”