Page 72 of A Scottish Bride for the Duke
“Quite right,” he told her when he finally came back into himself. “And don’t forget it.”
She laughed a little, cupping his face in thoughtless affection he’d once thought he’d hate.
“As though ye’d ever let me forget,” she said with sweet amusement, and kissed him.
“I suppose you’re happy?” Eliza said as they took tea in the parlor, a room Isobel had adopted as her own. “You look happy, at least, which is something.”
“I am happy.” Isobel blinked in surprise, not just that she had admitted it, but because it wastrue.
She was happy. Adrian made her happy.
“I didn’t think he wanted to marry me, and I don’t believe he did, but I do think he will make me a good husband.”
“Of course he will.” Eliza waved a dismissive hand, as though this point was hardly worth the time taken to discuss it. “Adrian is good at everything he puts his mind to doing. If he has decided he will make you a good husband, then a good husband he will make.” She pursed her lips as she thought. “Are you intending to take a honeymoon?”
“Not as such. Adrian will give me a tour of his properties, but we have some business to conclude in London.”
To Isobel’s relief, Eliza didn’t ask what form of business, and thus she was not obliged to lie. Although her friend had noticed her oddness around Lord Moreton, she had just attributed it to being overwhelmed—and then once she and Adrian had announced their engagement, all other considerations fell by the wayside. Lord Moreton, and any connection the two may share, had been forgotten.
Isobel was glad. Eliza would have wanted to know all the sordid details, but anyone she told would be in danger. Lord Moreton could not be trusted. Sometimes, she wondered why she had told Adrian at all.
But he had been so good in promising that she would be safe, and it had been so very easy to believe him. Areliefto give someone else the burden of the secret she had been carrying so long, and even more of a relief to think that he would do more than carry it with her—he would protect her from it.
“Do you like him?” Eliza asked now.
Isobel blushed. “Why are ye asking?”
“So, you do,” Eliza said in great satisfaction. “I had hoped you would. Not before, mind you, but only because I never thought Adrian would marry. Once he offered for you?—”
“He did notoffer for me,” Isobel protested. “He announced that we were already engaged.”
“Semantics. The end result was the same, and are you telling me if hehadoffered for you, you would have turned him down?”
Isobel hesitated. For the longest time, she had mistrusted the duke. When she had most needed a place to stay, he had turned her away, and he had treated her with so much suspicion that she had wondered whether he would act against her.
But he had not, and by the time he had comforted her on the balcony—oh, she had not felt she could have told him about Moreton then, necessarily, but had he asked, thus offering her his protection? Had he gone down on one knee and begged for her affection? Would she have denied him?
If Moreton had not arrived as he had, and if the duke had merely given her the protection of his house for no reason other than that she needed a husband and he needed a wife, would she have accepted?
She rather suspected she might have done.
“I daenae know,” she said. “Mayhap.”
“Oh, youwouldhave done. How marvelous!” Eliza clapped her hands. “It’s a delight, you know, to have you as a cousin. Adrian is wonderful, of course, but he is sodull. And now you are a married lady, you can accompany me to events sometimes instead of my mother.”
“Oh.” Isobel blinked. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“We shall havesuch fun. Which reminds me—youmustattend a ball soon. You will take the ton by storm. And just think how many young ladies will have to play nice even though they had hoped to snag the duke.”
“Eliza,” Isobel said, trying to hide a smile. “I didn’tsnaghim.”
“To be sure you did. But if you appear in public and he is affectionate—which, of course, we both know he will be—then that will put their arguments to rest. All they can do is accept you as the new leader of the fashionable world. AndIshall be your cousin.”
Soon, she would have been married a week. That was long enough to make her appearance in society again. Still, the thought made her stomach turn.
“Tell me, are ye still being besieged by suitors?” she asked. “It sounds as though you don’t need my help.”
“Oh, not for flirtation.” She sipped her tea. “But you know I would like another Season at least before marriage. Some of them are still asking after you. For all the young ladies of London are disappointed that Adrian is no longer on the market, the gentlemen are disappointed that you have gone.”
