Page 45 of Her Rogue to Ruin
“Down the aisle.” Lady Mary closed her eyes and shivered. “I’ve said too much. Forgive me, Lady Hastings.”
Portia was not surprised to learn that Lady Mary Howard dreaded marriage to Phin, even if she thought of him as a man that she’d love to spend all her future days with. The young lady had no choice in the matter. And that made all the difference.
“I knew Lord Pemberton was betrothed to you,” Portia admitted to the young woman. “I wondered if you resented the wait to marry.”
Lady Mary’s eyes ballooned behind her spectacle lenses. “Oh, heavens no,” she said with a breath of relief. “The delay has been much appreciated. I’ve been free.” At that word, her whole face lit up with color and vibrancy. “Able to study and even travel a bit, all without the expectation that I must participate in the silly rituals of the marriage mart.”
Portia couldn’t help a little smile at the lady’s change in mood. “What did you study?”
“Medicine. If I had my druthers, I would study formally in Edinburgh. I want to be a doctor, Lady Hastings.”
“So you don’t wish to marry Lord Pemberton?” Portia felt a gnawing guilt at the very self-serving question, yet she had to be certain.
Lady Mary took a breath to answer and then hesitated, her eyes narrowing. “May I ask who you are to him?”
“I’ve been commissioned to paint his family’s portraits.”
Lady Mary quirked one broad blonde brow. “That’s not all though, is it?”
“I love him.” Portia blinked, stunned that the words had slipped out. And then she blinked because tears had begun to fall.
Lady Mary dove into a reticule hanging at her wrist and handed over a kerchief. “The condition is quite serious, it appears.”
Portia dabbed at her eyes and drew in a sharp breath. “I’m sorry. Forgive me for that.”
“There’s nothing at all to forgive. Your feelings for him are quite intense, apparently.”
“They are.” Portia felt that her chest had been pried open and her heart was exposed for the young woman to see. She’d never admitted her love for any man. Never felt the power of the emotion for any man. “It’s rather new for me.”
Lady Mary offered her an indulgent smile. “I have not experienced it all, but I have observed it in others. Perhaps I will succumb one day too. Though I feel a kind of love when I am studying or helping someone who is ill.” She traced the toe of her boot through the grass. “Though from the looks of how it’s affected you, it’s quite different.”
“I didn’t expect it,” Portia confessed. “I’d given up on it ever coming my way. Marriage—I thought perhaps I’d do that again. But this…” She lifted the lady’s sodden kerchief and let out a shaky sigh. “To be honest, it’s more than I expected to feel for anyone.”
“Well, then.” Lady Mary approached and squared her clear blue eyes on Portia. “I suggest that you dry your eyes and steel yourself.”
“Steel myself?”
“I think I can I get out of this betrothal, but we must battle my father first. And he’s not a man who loses many battles.”
* * *
“I should callyou out for this, Pemberton.”
“Duels have been outlawed for half a century, Lord Edgeworth.” Phin’s mother stood, as did Phin and Lord Edgeworth, in the hall’s largest drawing room.
Phin had presented the man with an offer—additional funds to end the betrothal quietly and without fuss. They could state to anyone who knew of the arrangement that Lady Mary had ended the betrothal.
Lord Edgeworth had roared like a stuck bear before Phin could fully get the words out.
“Your son, Lady, is reneging on the longstanding agreement your husband arranged. My daughter has waited years for the terms to be fulfilled. Years when she could have been gadding about finding herself a prince or a duke.” Edgeworth glared daggers at Phin. “I should have your balls for this, boy.”
“I’ll thank you not to threaten my son with such talk.” Phin’s mother approached the blustery old man. “Septimus, we are offering you generous terms, and Lady Mary is still youthful enough—”
The man roared out a laugh almost as loud as his earlier shout. “Youthful? The chit is gone six and twenty. A spinster on the shelf, and it’s a dusty one at that.”
“Thank you for that lovely condemnation, Father.”
Everyone turned toward the drawing room threshold. Phin’s breath caught at the sight of Portia standing behind Lady Mary Howard.
