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“Lovely.” Her gaze cut to Harry. “Is this your plan as well?”
“It’s complicated,” he hedged.
“It’s not complicated. It’s a rule that literally everyone knows: if a gentleman is caught in a compromising position with a lady, he must marry her.”
“Exactly,” said Father. “Heoughtto have seduced Lady Regina.”
“Did you lure Bianca out-of-doors expressly because you had no intention of behaving honorably toward her?” Tina demanded.
“I had already warned her I would not be offering marriage.” Harry’s words sounded defensive even to his own ears. “I am a known rake. She was not expecting me to behave otherwise. But no, I didn’t plan to seduce her. I… ”
Had already told her I was turning over a new leaf. That I was rehabilitating my reputation. That I would behave like a gentleman from now on.
Harry frowned.HadBianca thought his earlier warning of ungentlemanly intentions no longer held true?
“I told her not to trust you,” Tina muttered.
“She’s not ruined,” Harry protested. “No one saw anything but Father, and he’s hardly the world’s most reliable witness.”
The marquess was too busy coaxing the last few drops of port from his bottle to respond to this.
Tina sniffed and crossed her arms.
“It was just a kiss,” Harry tried again. “We were caught up in the moment. It will likely never happen again.”
“It had better not.” Father flung his empty bottle to the floor and shoved his hand deep into his pocket, squirming against the squab as he reached for some hidden item. He brought his hand down on Harry’s with satisfaction. “There. That’s what you need.”
Harry stared down at the thin gold band now laying in his palm. “Is this Mother’s wedding ring?”
Father nodded. “From my marchioness to yours.”
“I thought Mother was buried with her ring.”
“I took it off her hand at the funeral.” The marquess folded Harry’s fingers over the ring. “Don’t be so missish. Your mother’s dead. What use has she for jewelry now? Give that bauble to your Lady Regina. You weren’t going to buy a ring for her any other way.”
That was… extremely unsentimental, and unfortunately true.
Harry wished he didn’t feel like a lad being given a penny to purchase his own purgative. The situation certainly made him feel like vomiting.
There was only one woman he was interested in, and it wasn’t Lady Regina. Earlier at the ball, during the set he’d shared with Regina, Harry had been forced to agree with—or rather, grind his teeth in silence through—a horrific number of disparaging comments about Bianca and virtually every other woman at the ball.
The more Lady Regina had talked, the worse Harry had felt for not speaking up in Bianca’s defense, or on behalf of the other debutantes, but he couldn’t risk Lady Regina deciding she and the Earl of Eagleton did not suit.
The fact thatHarryhad determined he and Lady Regina did not suit was neither here nor there. The whole family was counting on that dowry.
Harry had cautioned himself not to fall for any woman who wasn’t an heiress. Feelings made everything more complicated. Once the heart was involved, Harry’s only choices were to fail himself or to fail his family.
He uncurled his fingers and stared down at his mother’s old wedding ring. Father might be a drunk, but he wasn’t wrong. The only path forward was to put this ring on Lady Regina’s finger.
And to do so, Harry would have to keep playing the gentleman. Regina’s interest in him was because of his title, but there were other men with titles. The reason she was considering his suit was because of his comparatively young age to the other titled bachelors, and because he’d spent the past fortnight doing his best to prove he was no longer the feckless rake he once was.
The mission was so successful, people had started calling him Eagleton again, instead of the Huntsman. Lady Regina’s brother, the Duke of Lennox, had even inclined his head to Harry when he’d come to collect the duke’s sister for their set, giving his tacit approval to the match.
“So what’s taking so long?” slurred Harry’s father.
“I can’t propose to her right now,” Harry muttered. “She’s at a ball and we’re in a hackney carriage.”
“I can’t believe you’re really going to propose to Lady Regina.” Tina shook her head in disgust. “I could make a long list of marriageable young women better than her.”
