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“I know you aren’t. But it’s what’s best. No one will fault you. It’s exactly something society would expect me to do, kidnapping a bride from the altar. I’m a shameless rogue.”
“No, you’re not.”
He refused to take up that argument. “You’ll be a lady. A wealthy one. I’ve always known I’d need a wife eventually.”
“But…I’m too old,” she blurted out.
“You’re not old.”
“I’m older than you.”
“By two years.”
“Closer to three. Most men want a younger bride.”
“I’m not most men.”
She looked at him and sighed. “Yes, I’d noticed.”
Well, he’d done more than notice Mary. She’d captured his attention from the very first, and allbecauseshe was older. She was more worldly and interesting than the girls his own age. Not to mention, her womanly figure had been a source of both temptation and torment.
And on that subject…
“There’s one thing you should know,” he said. “I am a lord, even if a disgraced one. There’s still an entail on the family property.” He paused. “I’ll need a son. And that means we’ll have to…” He searched once again for a polite term.
“Share a bed.”
“Do you know what that involves?” He assumed that someone would have given her some idea, but he wanted to be absolutely certain that she knew what she’d be undertaking.
For Sebastian, of course, the bedding would be no chore. He’d imagined making love to her more than once.
Who was he fooling? He’d imagined it hundreds of times. He’d evendreamedabout her, long after he thought he’d ceased dreaming of anything.
“I understand the marriage bed,” she said in perfect innocence. “The husband kisses the wife on the lips, and then she becomes pregnant.”
He stared at her, quietly panicked.
She broke into laughter. “I know how intercourse works, Sebastian. Even if I haven’t experienced it yet.”
Thank God.“So you understand that in order to create a child, we’ll need to… do that. At least once. Possibly several times. Even then, the child could be a girl. In which case, we’d have to begin all over again. But I promise, I’d impose on you no more than necessary, and only when you’re ready.”
She shook her head. “You are running so far ahead of yourself, you’re a vanishing dot on the horizon. Right now, I need to announce thatthiswedding isn’t happening. After an appropriate interval—a few months, at the least—we can discuss this again. If you still feel the same, and if I agree, we can announce an engagement then. Maybe a wedding in October.”
“Unacceptable.”
“Christmas, then.”
“Definitely not.” He’d managed to talk her into this. He wasn’t giving her months of time to change her mind. “We’re getting married today.”
“Today?” Mary echoed. He’d flown past determined, straight into the realm of deranged.
He made a circuit of the vestry, gathering her things. Flowers, veil, wrap. “Your trunks are packed, I assume.”
“They’re outside, in the coach that Giles hired. We were going to leave for the honeymoon directly after the wedding.” Thank goodness they’d planned for a small ceremony at the church, with no wedding breakfast. At least there weren’t many witnesses to her humiliation.
“So that’s sorted. And you’re wearing a gown.”
“Wecan’tmarry today,” she declared, having recalled that she was the daughter of a solicitor and claimed more than a passing familiarity with the law. “We don’t have a license, and no banns have been read. It simply isn’t possible. So there you have it.”
