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“Baron Rutherford,” she answered. “Have you met him?”
“I have.” His voice deepened a little.
“Your tone suggests you know him quite well.”
“Let us say, I know him as much as I wish to. No further acquaintance is required.” To his surprise, his declaration brought a smile to her features. He’d met Baron Rutherford often enough and decided long ago he was an odious figure. He had a habit of making ladies uncomfortable and demanding to be the center of attention. “That betrothal is gone then?”
“It is,” Lord Miller declared with fervor. “I do not know what is to become of her now, yet you have come here today…” He paused, leadingly. “May I presume you have come to ask us something, rather than just talk of this situation.”
“I have.” His words prompted a sudden reaction. Lady Marina stood off the windowsill and rounded the rococo settee where her parents were sitting, moving toward him.
“No, no, Your Grace, you do not have to ask anything of us,” she pleaded.
“Marina, you have been forward enough and embarrassed yourself as it is,” Lord Miller snapped at her. “Pray, do not make it worse.”
“Speaking my mind is not an embarrassing thing, Father,” she argued with him, making him bristle even more, though she never once looked away from James.
This time, he couldn’t hide his smile. There was something to admire in the way Lady Marina refused to be silenced by her father, even in a matter so delicate as this.
“You are under no obligation to ask us anything,” she said solemnly, standing beside him.
“No obligation, you say?” He sighed deeply, for he felt that obligation. He felt it as keenly as the same need he’d had to recover his dukedom’s fortune. “I feel a responsibility, even as you dissuade me from it.” Her lips parted, evidently realizing she could not stop him from asking his question. “My Lord, I have come to ask for your blessing to marry your daughter.”
CHAPTER5
“Oh…” Marina gasped. She had not thought it would come to this, but here the Duke of Curton was, defying her expectations.
I cannot marry him.
Her eyes danced over him. There was an attraction there, certainly. His tall and lithe figure had her imagining things, and she’d be lying to herself if she hadn’t wondered at least at one point in the night what could have happened in that chamber where they were alone together, had they not been discovered. Yet attraction was not a good cause for marriage alone, and neither was saving a reputation.
“No.” The word escaped her lips so suddenly that the Duke snapped his head toward her, cricking his neck and lifting a hand to rub the sore spot.
“Ignore her; she is overcome with shock.” Joshua was on his feet and grabbed Marina’s arm, pulling her away. Turning his back on the Duke, he offered one warning glare, urging her to be quiet. “You also have no say in this matter, Marina.”
“Strange, I thought we were talking about my hand as the one that is being given away here?” she pointed out. Her father gritted his teeth then planted a false smile in place and turned to face the Duke again.
“Of course, I accept, Your Grace. A marriage will not only rescue her reputation but may help lessen the slander against your name as well.” Joshua’s words barely seemed to affect the Duke. He nodded though he made no comment on the matter of his own ill-used reputation.
This cannot be happening.
Marina looked to her mother in desperation, hoping she would say something to object, but just as Ruth had not protested against Lord Rutherford for a suitor, she said nothing against the Duke of Curton either. She simply shrugged in Marina’s direction.
Oh, Mother!
“Can we not talk about this more?” Marina pleaded, striding past her father to come face to face with the Duke.
“We have done all the talking we need to,” he said in summary. The top hat that had rested in his hand up until this moment he now lifted and returned to his head. “I will take my leave of you.”
“Already?” Joshua said in surprise. “Do you not wish to hear what her dowry is?”
“I will begin the paperwork from my end. I will also apply for a special license, My Lord. We must marry soon, within the week, if we are to stem the flow of scandalous whispers.” He turned and moved to the door. Marina followed, knowing she could not let this conversation end like this. She stumbled as she walked, amazed the rogue she had heard so much about was now preparing to marryher.“As for the size of her dowry, I do not care what the value is.”
“Not at all?” Marina asked in surprise, reaching the door at the same time as him.
“I have enough money these days, My Lady. Your dowry you can keep for yourself if you wish to.” His words filled her with a sort of warmth, one that took her so much by surprise that her lips opened and closed for a second as she struggled to find words. Lord Rutherford had made it clear that he intended to use her dowry to improve his house to the latest fashions set by the continent in Paris and Venice. She was not to see a shilling of it.
The Duke was already proving himself to be a very different suitor.
