Page 27 of Taken By the Duke of Stone

He helped her up into the carriage and then slipped in beside her. He occupied too much space on the narrow bench and they ended up pressed side by side against each other.

"This is Georgianna, my sister and Lord Dillon," he said, "They will be escorting us today."

"Miss Proctor," the viscount nodded, "It's a pleasure."

"Nice to meet you too," then she turned to Georgie who was giving her an accessing look, "And you."

The carriage rambled on towards the ice house and the interior was plunged into awkward silence.

From the corner of his eye, Victor could see his sister shooting Lavinia wary glances and Patrick studying her intently. He narrowed his eyes at his friend as he got the sudden urge to toss him out of the carriage. The viscount was a good looking man, and many women were known to throw themselves at him. He turned sharply to Lavinia, oddly relieved to see that she had her gaze intently fixed outside the window.

It was one big disaster and he suddenly wished he hadn't brought the other two along. He would take his and Lavinia's bickering any day to the stilted silence of the cab.

It was while they were ordering ice flavors that he realized he didn't know anything about the woman he was to wed. All the times they had met, they had either been taunting each other or he had been kissing the sense out of her.

"Vanilla please," she told the server.

"Vanilla?" Georgie made a face, "There are hundreds of flavors and you choose nothing?"

Lavinia's mouth quirked up, "Vanilla is a flavor. I have had them all and while some are wonderful and some are honestly too disgusting for words, my favorite remains vanilla."

"I shall make you a lover of strawberry yet."

"I find myself unsurprised by your horrid choice," Patrick said, "Banana flavor is superior."

The three jumped into an argument about the merits and demerits of all their favorites, an argument which ended when the server arrived with the Duke's mint flavor and they all agreed that he the crown needed to strip him of his title and lands.

He let them eviscerate him as they wished, just relieved that they had found a common interest.

"Do you want a big wedding?" he asked out of nowhere as they sat there in silence while Patrick and Georgie discussed something.

She glanced at him, eyes wide, "no. It's not a marriage, Your Grace. We barely even need a wedding."

Something inside of him hardened at her words, and he tried to keep his tone even. "My mother will not let us get away with a small one and also, it will cause the gossip mongers to run amok."

Lavinia laughed, but it lacked humor. "My aunt will never forgive me if I did not let her get involved in planning me an extravagant occasion. I believe we should toss them together and elope."

Her smile slipped away, "But it does not matter if she's upset with me now. When she finds out I have signed my right to have children away just to..." she trailed off and pressed her lips together as if she had said too much, "Your sister is delightful."

The Duke narrowed his eyes at her obvious evasiveness, but he had been the one who had made it clear this was not a marriage, so what right did he have now to insist that she be honest with him.

It was just barely two days since he had set up a fence between them and he already wanted to break it and burn it down to nothing.

CHAPTER 9

Two days later, Lavinia found herself squirming under her cousin's intent gaze as the carriage rambled down toward a soiree at the Perkins house.

"Stop that!" she chided him.

He raised a hand in surrender, "I am not doing a thing. I'm all the way over here and you are all the way over there."

"You are infuriating."

"And you are a brilliant actress. You could make a fortune on the stage if your farce marriage to the Duke does not work out."

"Noah!" Lady Hartfield snapped, "Do not say such things to Lavinia. Lavvie, dear, pay him no mind. I do not know what has come over him."

"Other than the fact that I seem to be the only one who can see through her?" He raised a brow at her.

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