Page 39 of One Dangerous Desire
The man looked as if he’d just tumbled down a hill. His neck cloth hung askew; his hat was missing; one glove encased his hand, and he clenched its soiled mate in his other hand. His blond locks were disheveled in a way that might have made him look dashing, if his skin wasn’t sallow and his eyes ringed with bluish half circles.
“Don’t do this, Henry.” Emily placed a hand on his arm as if to hold him back, but the minute his gaze locked with May’s, he lunged forward.
“Miss Sedgwick.” His gait lengthened as he moved past two other couples browsing paintings in the hall. “Please accept my apology for last night.”
May stepped back as he drew near, far past the polite boundary gentlemen usually respected. “All is forgiven, Lord Devenham, I assure you.”
He held out his hand. When she refused to take it, he dropped down on one knee and began digging in his upper coat pocket.
Emily rushed up behind him. “Not here, cousin. Not like this.”
“Miss Sedgwick. May. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” He looked miserable as he lifted a dazzling ring toward her. His breath reeked of liquor, and his red-rimmed eyes were those of a man who’d probably missed out on anything like rest the previous evening. “Been in the family for years, this ring. Some ancestor brought the sapphire back from Byzantium during the Crusades, or so the story goes.” He turned his hand so he could look down at the bauble. “No idea where we got the diamonds.”
“The ring is lovely, but . . . ” But she was a terrible woman, because all she could think was how the blue shade reminded her of Rex’s eyes.
“It’s yours, May. If you’ll be mine.”
“My lord—”
“Henry,” he insisted in a warm, earnest tone, reaching for her hand again.
She grasped his fingers, and he latched onto her palm, locking her in a firm, clammy grip.
“Please stand, my lord. You shouldn’t be down there on the floor.”
“If I do, you’ll give me your answer?”
“I will.”
He pushed off with his back leg and started to rise, but he lost his balance somewhere on the way up.
May reached out with her free hand to steady him, but he leaned into her, over her, tipping her backward. She tried bracing herself against his weight and felt him grasping for purchase, an arm around her shoulders, another stuck out to stop his fall.
Emily shrieked as Devenham thudded to the ground, pulling May along with him, nearly on top of him.
Her elbow scraped the wall, the skirt of her gown tore with a resounding rip, and amid the gasps and whispers of two couples watching the whole debacle May heard a metallic ping. Devenham’s Byzantine gem glinted at her from its resting place across the hall.
“Henry.” Emily bent to scoop up the ring. “How could you muck this up so completely?”
May pushed herself off of his leg and sat against the wall beside the earl, catching her breath and trying to stifle a tickle of awkward laughter at the back of her throat.
“That”—Devenham got to his feet far more gracefully than he’d fallen and held a hand out to May—“didn’t go at all as I’d planned.”
“No, I suspected as much.” May dusted off her gown, assessed the tear, which wasn’t nearly as bad as it had sounded, and lifted her gaze to his.
“Are you all right?” The tumble seemed to have roused him. His eyes regained their usual sparkle, and a dimple twitched in and out of existence at the corner of his unshaven cheek.
“I’m in one piece, my lord.”
“I take it your answer is no.” He finally let the dimple bloom and offered her a full-on grin.
“Yes. I mean, no. My answer is no.” May grinned too, hoping to soften whatever disappointment she caused. “Save that ring for a lady who deserves it.”
She certainly didn’t deserve the Devenham jewels when her thoughts and heart were full of Rex. The pastor’s daughter Emily had mentioned weighed on May’s mind. If the young lady had his heart, shouldn’t she have Henry’s ring?
“That’s not the way of it, Miss Sedgwick.” As his voice dipped to a raw tremor, his expression hardened. “I will marry for money, and you will marry for a title. Our fate is to do what we should. Not what we wish.” His words echoed in the high-ceilinged hall.
May’s heart, which had been so full ofyesand possibilities, ached now. And her head was as full of denial as it had been a moment before of hope.
