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His cousin really needed to control her sharp tongue, or she would find it rather hard to find a suitable match in all of London. But then again, most people only knew one side of Melissa. The rest of the family, though, was privy to her quick temper and even quicker tongue, and right now, he was her chosen target.
“Fret not, Melissa. I will make this right,” he promised her softly.
Melissa glared at him. “You better because I will not countenance you ruining her life,” she snapped irritably at him. “I shall never forgive you if you do.”
He smiled begrudgingly at her. “And this is why Mother says it will be difficult for you to ever find someone to marry.”
“Why must I marry?” she flung back. “I have the privilege of enjoying my life without an overbearing man like you to order me around and tell me what I should and should not do.”
And therein lay the difference between Emily and Melissa, Daniel realized with startling clarity. Although her parents died when she was younger, his cousin lacked for nothing and acquired a generous inheritance—enough to ensure that she could live happily and well, even if she refused to marry.
Emily, on the other hand, must marry if she wished to continue living with the same level of comfort she was accustomed to.
Tonight, he had ruined all of her chances of ever finding such a man who could suit her, care for her, and provide reasonably well for her.
Daniel frowned pensively as he remained silent for the rest of the carriage ride back home. He knew only too well that it was not only wealth and status that decided a happy marriage—his own mother had both, and yet, she was unhappy for most of her married life.
It was precisely because he cared too much for Emily that he did not wish to doom her to the same fate that the Dowager Duchess of Gilleton suffered at the hands of his sire.
But how was he going to help her out of the predicament he had put her in?
If only he could have kept his hands to himself, kept himself from touching her so intimately…they would not be in this predicament, and Emily could happily live her life separately from his.
But she had been like a flickering flame, burning silently, steadily in the corner, and he was the idiotic moth who should never have drawn close in the first place.
Tonight , her flame burned the brightest he had ever seen, and he was unable to resist it. When he saw that bastard Chaney attempt to force himself on her, he had lost all reason.
All of this was his fault, and even if it cost him everything, he would do all that was in his power to make it right.
* * *
In another part of London, Lord Gregory Pratt poured himself a glass of fine brandy as he celebrated his victory over that arrogant bastard, the Duke of Gilleton.
He threw his head back and finished the contents of the glass all at once.
Lady Emily Montgomery had proved to be a rather easy target—shy, naïve, and awfully eager to please. He had managed to charm her with very little effort on his part. He had meant to seduce her and discard her as he often did with many of his other conquests, until she appeared in that damned dress tonight.
In that one instance, he watched as she captivated an entire ballroom with her quiet presence and spectacular radiance. Like a butterfly shedding off its cocoon or a phoenix rising from the ashes, she had emergedchanged,and that was enough for him to decide that he would have her.
Or no one would.
So, he had lured her into the garden, vaguely hinting at a proposal, and being the gullible fool she had been, she had complied.
I would have succeeded, too, if it had not been for that insufferable Gilleton, he thought angrily, his fingers wrapping tighter around the glass.
Fortunately, it had all worked for the best—Gilleton slipped up, and Emily would still be his or risk damning the entire family with her.
A cruel smile twisted his features as he thought about the dilemma the Montgomery family would be in tonight. It was bad enough that Emily was now at risk of becoming a social pariah, thanks to His Grace, but they also had one other unmarried daughter to think of.
Even if Emily somehow managed to escape his clutches, the rest of the family would not. Knowing the Marchioness of Rutbridge, she would never countenance her stepdaughter ruining her own daughter’s chances of making a successful match. That woman would throw Lady Emily Montgomery to the wolves if that meant her own daughter could rise above her station.
“A rather fortunate turn of events,” he congratulated himself softly as he poured himself another glass. Thinking of the lovely Lady Emily Montgomery, he felt a slow smile curl his lips upward.
She will make a fine bed warmer, he thought to himself.Those eyes of hers could tempt a saint, and that body? Made for carnal pleasures.
He would enjoy the delights her body would have to offer. Even though she and the Duke had spent a significant amount of time alone in the dark gardens, he knew that Gilleton would never take her innocence.
Not when he was bloody terrified of becomingexactlylike his dead sire.
