AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Daniel flushed as his mother shook her head.
“So…how did you get that lovely bruise blossoming on your cheek right now?”
“I had to dissuade a certain scoundrel from marrying her. It took quite a bit more to convince him that marrying her was not exactly in his best interests.”
“Why? Because you wish to marry her?”
“No. Because I do not want him for her.”
His mother blinked at him. “Daniel,” she said slowly. “She is the one marryinghim. It is not up to you to decide.”
“No, no. You do not understand! I forced her into that particular situation,” he corrected her.
Joyce Bolt shook her head elegantly. “I find myself rather confused.”
“You see, I managed to rescue her from one of her more ardent admirers.” Daniel could not help the disgust that crept into his tone at the memory of the Viscount of Caney accosting Emily in the gardens. “In revenge, he blackmailed her and her entire family, threatening her with ruination if she did not marry him.”
“What an odious man!” Joyce muttered in disgust, wrinkling her nose. “Well then, the answer to that is quite simple—if you care for her so much then you can marry her and save her from this man!”
Daniel sighed dejectedly. “I would make her a rather poor husband. The least I could do was ensure that the Viscount of Caney stayed well away from her.”
“The…Viscount of Caney?”
The sudden intake of breath was not lost to Daniel. His mother wore a stricken expression, her hand over her heart.
“The very same,” he affirmed somberly. “His mother…you would know her.”
“Your father…he…” she said shakily. “His mother…his mother was your father’s—”
“I know.”
Silence descended upon them both, the only sound in the entire salon that of the crackling fire. The Dowager Duchess stared into the fireplace, her expression unreadable.
“It all comes back in full circle, doesn’t it?” she murmured.
“That it does.”
She turned to him. “Then, what do you plan to do, Daniel?”
There was a hopeful look in her eyes that was unmistakable. He shrugged as he scratched the back of his head.
“I…honestly do not know,” he sighed. “Other than dissuading Caney from marrying her, I thought that it would be best if she found someone else far more suited to her…”
The thought of Emily marrying someone else left a bitter taste in his mouth. However, there was no other choice for him but to accept it. He could not marry her as he would only make her unhappy. He might as well reconcile himself with the fact that some other gentlemanwouldgive her what he could not.
“You had best be joking, Daniel,” Joyce told him, the warning clear in her voice.
“What do you mean, Mother?”
She gave him a long-suffering look as if she could not believe that he was being rather silly.
“What do you think the gossips will have to say about her, now that you have scared the Viscount of Caney into calling off their betrothal?”
“I made him promise to make it seem like she changed her mind,” he defended himself.
“Yes, but news of your fight with him will no doubt have spread all over London tonight,” his mother pointed out. “By tomorrow, everyone will be talking about how you fought him for her hand in marriage. If their engagement is called off, then everyone will expect you to make an offer for the young lady in question.”
Daniel’s eyes widened in realization as he followed his mother’s train of thought.
