Page 83 of The Good Girl's Guide to Rakes
She started at this unexpected pronouncement. “Is that so?”
“My parents and I talked about it after your visit and we all feel that this moment could not be more opportune.”
“My understanding was that it would wait until the Season concluded.” Panic skittered along the nape of her neck. She wasn’t ready yet, not when a few more weeks with Kieran beckoned.
“No sense in keeping you waiting,” he replied with an indulgent smile.
“I...” How could she hold him back? How could she move forward as his future wife? She didn’t like him, and she certainly didn’t love him.
But shedidlove someone.
Kieran.
The realization of it broke over her like a wave, yet she’d loved him for a long time. Not the flimsy infatuation she’d nursed as a girl, but a woman’s full and deep adoration. He brought joy into her life and the unshakable conviction that she could do anything. And she believed him. He helped her see that.
How could she tie herself to another man when she loved Kieran?
Ablaze with this knowledge, burning with the need to tell him of her feelings, she searched the ballroom for him.
“I know, Salome,” Lord Montford said lowly.
She blinked. “Pardon?”
“You’re a clever girl, but I’m clever, too,” he said.“It wasn’t particularly difficult to ferret out the truth, especially once my man was on your trail.”
“Excuse me,” she said, trying to comprehend what the earl was telling her. “What, precisely, are you speaking of?”
For a moment, the gloss fell away from Lord Montford’s face, leaving a twisting mask of outrage in its place. But then it was gone, and he was the lustrous earl once more.
“You’ve been cavorting around London with Ransome,” he explained. “Wearing a disguise. Calling yourself Salome. Acting in a wholly improper manner.”
She stumbled but he kept her upright. Fear the likes of which she’d never known crashed over her, engulfing her in ice. This was a disaster, an unalloyed disaster. Her mind whirled as the worst possible scenario played itself out in the middle of a crowded ballroom.
There had to be some way out.
“I can pay you,” she said quickly. “Whatever amount you’re after, I can secure it.”
He looked at her with disappointment. “Do you think so little of me that you believe I’d resort to something as lowly as blackmail?”
“What else can this be about?” she asked in a panic.
“It is,” he said as he turned her in the dance, “me saving you from yourself.”
“I didn’t ask you to,” she fired back.
“Of course you didn’t,” he said easily, “which is why I felt it necessary to intercede. You were on the road to ruin, my dear, and the gentlemanly thing to do is prevent that from transpiring. A good thingI’m intervening now, before anything irreparable occurred. Thus, my proposition.”
“Which is what, precisely?” she snapped.
His words had the precision of someone who’d planned out a speech. “You are to immediately cease all interaction with the younger Mr. Ransome. Tomorrow, I shall speak to your father about finally formalizing our engagement. We can make it a short engagement, and marry after the banns have been read. And,” he added with a chuckle, “my mother will want time to properly plan a wedding. She has been so looking forward to our nuptials, I’d hate to deny her that pleasure.”
Celeste tried to tug her hand free from his, but he held her tightly, and unless she wanted to cause a horrendous scene in the midst of the ball, she had no choice but to keep dancing.
“I’m not marrying you,” she insisted.
Lord Montford smiled as if he pitied her. “Do you think Ransome will? Everyone knows that he’s cut off if he doesn’t marry a respectable woman, and if you refuse me, you will leave me no choice but to go public with my findings. You and your family have worked hard to erase the stain of that slum from your blood, but all it takes is a word from a true gentleman, and everything will fall apart. Surely you don’t want that for your family, do you?”
“Don’t do this,” she pled. Nausea churned in her at the hopelessness of her situation. She’d realized her love for Kieran, but it didn’t matter, not when she was pinned beneath Lord Montford’s bootheel.
