Page 46 of The Dangerous Love of a Rogue
‘I love you,’ she whispered before turning sharply as though she had been insulted and had just given him a scolding.
The words struck his gut like a punch.Good God, someone loved him. Someone who understood those words to their full depth. Lord, he adored her strength and resourcefulness.
Her father continued to look at him. The man could fume all he wished – he’d lost – Mary was Drew’s now.
Her father walked Mary back to her mother, where she would be guarded for the rest of the night.
‘I am wondering who has seduced who.’ Harry leaned to Drew. ‘Are you smitten?’
Drew turned. ‘I must look smitten; the girl wants a love match. Was that not the whole point of our letter writing? I must convince her I am affected or she will not have me.’
Harry’s needling cut. What Drew felt, or did not feel, was his own business. He did not like people knowing the boy at the heart of the rogue, the boy who only knew rejection and become a toy and a monster to be hated.
Mark grinned. ‘Well, I was convinced.’
‘Think what you will.’
‘I am going to play cards,’ Mark said and left.
Harry followed him, a smirk on his lips.
Marlow’s judgement irked more than Drew cared to admit. Pembroke had cause to be against him, but her parents had none. Marlow’s views were based on hearsay; he ought to wait until he knew Drew to make a judgement. It was another seed thrown to grow in the bitterness that was a tangled thorny briar inside him. He hated being rejected by people who thought themselves better than him.
Drew saw his elder sister Lady Elizabeth Ponsonby among the dancers.
His reputation had been sealed before his birth. His family had dictated it. He’d never had a choice. Wickedness was expected of him.
While Mary’s family tended towards happy-ever-after his family raced towards hell and Elizabeth was one of the worst of them. She danced with her latest adoring youth. She collected young men like other women collected hats. The poor chap. Drew watched her until the dance ended. As they walked to the edge of the floor she brushed the tip of her fan across his crotch. She was crass, but no doubt the boy thought himself in love as Pembroke had.
It was no wonder Pembroke judged Drew ill when he’d been entrapped by Elizabeth’s games. Pembroke had arrived in Europe with his eyes shuttered. Drew had been born with his eyes open, aware that promiscuity was not love.
Faithlessness, arrogance and self-gratification were all expected of him because that was the way of his family, and until he met Mary he lived up to every one of those expectations.
Across the room, Mary was being subjected to an interrogation. She shook her head again and again.
The vicious twist he had in his nature, the side of him that raged when he was rejected, liked her lying through her teeth on his behalf – standing up forhim. Soon, Mary would be his to protect and her family could go to hell. Mary had accepted him, and if Marlow wished to throw stones then he would be throwing them at Mary too. That would teach the man not to judge.
Peter returned, with a devil-may-care expression. ‘Damn, that pretty Miss Smithfield is a gem. I must thank your future spouse for the introduction. I am taking her for a ride on my curricle tomorrow. Her papa is as rich as Croesus. Perhaps it’s time I considered a leg shackle too.’
‘You are rich enough, you don’t need her money.’ Drew shook his head. He would lay heavy odds Peter was not inclined to marry the girl but just wanted some fun.
‘True, but when a woman is so ripe for the picking…’
‘Remember she is Mary’s friend and play nice. For tonight, however, I vote we vacate and head for a club. I need a drink.’
Peter wrapped an arm about his shoulders. ‘Then let us find the others.’
12
Mary sat at her writing desk, her hand trembling so badly the quill tip scratched across the paper leaving a spider track instead of her usual neat hand.
John had business to attend to at his main country residence. He expected to be out of town for a couple of days. His house was within a day’s travel from London so her parents had chosen to accompany him, to give the children a break from the town.
Most families left their younger children at home during the London season but her parents never had.
Mary had told her mother she was staying with Emily’s family, which of course was a lie. Emily knew about the elopement, and she’d promised to keep Mary’s secret. Emily knew everything, because Mary knew she was too timid to judge or tell anyone else. The guilt of using her friend was another burden to add to Mary’s list of sins.
Because her parents never thought Mary would lie, they accepted an invitation Emily had written as proof and not questioned Emily’s family. People would think it lapse when they found out the truth, but it was not lapse; it was love that made them trust her.
