Page 48 of Her Daring Earl
“Damn it,” Fitz said, shaking his head as he stared ahead. “I guess I’m going to have to marry her.”
CHAPTER 17
“Here they come.”
Eliza turned, her gaze following to where Siena was pointing. Sure enough, Fitz and Levi were cresting the hill on their horses.
“What do you think they are talking about?” she asked Siena.
“The same thing we were, I imagine,” Siena said. “Hopefully, Levi was able to talk some sense into him.”
They were walking among the orchard outside of Appleton. The trees were blossoming, and Eliza knew that they would produce the most gorgeous fruit in nearly no time at all.
Almost like herself, she thought with a laugh.
“Perhaps if we hide, they won’t see us,” Eliza said wryly, but Siena only smiled and shook her head, gazing into the distance.
“Levi could find me, no matter where I hid.”
Eliza couldn’t help her smirk, but their love was rather adorable.
“At this point, I am not sure that I would want to marry Fitz, even if he asked,” Eliza said, crossing her arms and turning away from the approaching men toward Siena, who lifted a brow.
“What is your alternate solution?”
“I suppose live with my parents, concoct some story about how I married a soldier who died in battle before the birth, and then raise the baby alone.”
Siena blinked.
“You came up with that story rather quickly.”
“What can I say? I’m a natural storyteller,” she said with a wry grin before continuing. “There is one other option.”
“Which is?”
“Do exactly what Fitz accused me of. Find another man to quickly court me, fall in love with me, marry me, and then pretend the baby came early. I would never be intimate with him until after our marriage to pretend it was so, but the rest I could probably do. Perhaps Lord Brighton would be interested. I know my mother approves.”
Hope leaped into her heart that there could be a solution, and she turned around to hurry back to the house and suggest that it was time to return to London. Before she could take a step, however, she ran into something tall, hard, and very frowny.
“Fitz,” she said, stepping backward, annoyed that he had been able to sneak up on her. “Why are you so close to me?”
“You willnotmarry Lord Brighton,” he said, nostrils flaring as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think you have any say in the matter,” she said, standing toe to toe with him, refusing to back down.
He pointed at her stomach. “As that is my baby, I most certainly do.”
“Oh, you are claiming the baby now? I thought it was someone else’s – if it even exists at all,” she returned, her ire matching his.
“I believe Levi and I will go explore the orchard. We will not be far,” Eliza dimly heard Siena murmur, but she was too concentrated on her battle with Fitz to respond.
“Baby or not, you will not go to Lord Brighton. For courting or love or marriage or any of your damn experiments.”
“Lord Brighton is only one option,” she said, stepping to the side to go around him. “I might find someone else. I am sure many suitors would be interested in me.”
He stepped with her, blocking her path. “You will not.”
“Fitz,” she said, unable to stop herself from reaching out and shoving at his chest, all of her pent-up frustrations coming through. “Get out of my way. I’m sorry, but in case you hadn’t noticed, there are few other options available for a woman in my – likely – condition.”
