Page 15 of The Lyon and His Promise
“Surely you won’t hold anything you said while you were no morethan a child into account. You’re a grown man who will one day inherit a duchy. Such a promise to yourself shouldn’t dictate your life,” Saxton said with a laugh.
Gyles briefly closed his eyes. “If my promise had been made to myself, the situation would be so much easier,” he said softly. If this woman truly was Josephine, how the devil would Simon react when he learned Gyles was escorting his sister around town?
As though he had conjured the man up from thin air, Simon joined the men followed by his friends Asher and Lucius. While the three older friends began to talk, Simon pulled Gyles aside.
“Any news?” he asked quietly.
“Nothing as yet from the man I hired,” Gyles replied not wishing to get Simon’s hopes up in case the lady across the way wasn’t Josephine. But something in his gut told him they were one and the same. “Hopefully, I’ll have an update for you soon.”
“I need to find her, Wickes,” Simon said running his hand through his hair in frustration. “Once we do, I can only pray she will forgive my foolishness.”
Gyles peered at the man before him wondering why there was such a sense of urgency after all these years. “Why now? You’ve had plenty of time to inquire as to your sister’s whereabouts. What’s the rush?” he couldn’t help but ask.
Simon shrugged. “Call it a guilty conscience getting the best of me. I only have Josephine’s best interests at heart.”
“Do you?”
Simon muttered a curse. “Of course I do. She’s my sister after all. Let me know once you learn something.”
Simon didn’t give him a chance to reply before he left Gyles’s side. He returned to his other friends, but he wasn’t listening to whatever they were talking about. Instead, his mind began to turn wondering what Simon wasn’t telling him.
Chapter Twelve
Josephine’s hands wereshaking. Gyles of all people! Who would have ever imagined that Mrs. Dove-Lyon would think the Marquis of Wickes would be a suitable husband for her? The possibility was unthinkable.
“What’s come over you, Josie?” Cassandra asked taking the glass from Josephine’s hands. “I would think you’d be pleased that the man you’ve been in love with your whole life was standing right before you.”
“You mean the man who rejected me?” she cried out taking long deep breaths so she wouldn’t faint again.
Moriah shook her head. “You can’t hold that against him, dear. You were both young and you need to let whatever happened in your past remain there and not cloud your future.”
Cassandra clapped her hands. “Exactly! Why, just think of the opportunities this will open up for you. Each of you married to a marquis! What are the odds?”
What were the odds, indeed, Josephine thought before she reached again for her wine. After taking a sip to compose herself, she was ready to face whatever awaited her this evening. “I think I’ve recovered frommy shock sufficiently, ladies. I might as well face the lion before me,” she murmured as Moriah and Cassandra stepped to the sides of her chair. Josephine rose and nodded to Gyles.
She watched him excuse himself from the men he had been conversing with and tried to control herself even while her heart betrayed her. No matter the years, she still held an affection for him that had never waned. He was just so… how should she describe him? He was utterly divine in his evening attire. But a handsome face with an expensive set of clothes could in no way determine the character of a man who would one day be a duke. She didn’t know the man he had become. She could never marry another man who only thought of her as chattel, nor would she marry a man for his money. She refused to be like her late husband, who had married her for no reason other than the dowry she had never received. Rather to be destitute or a mistress again then marry for anything other than love.
He gave a short bow before the three of them, and they curtseyed. He offered Josephine his arm. “Perhaps a stroll might do you some good,” Gyles suggested and when she placed her fingertips into the crook of his arm, she did everything in her power not to tremble. He gave her a hesitant smile before patting her hand. Obviously, she failed at hiding her reaction, and he had felt her shudder.
They walked in silence for several minutes until the sounds of the music faded in the distance. Lamplight lit the pathway until only a few couples strolled nearby.
“You never told me your name,” Gyles said quietly as he led her to a bench.
She sat down and he did the same sitting far too close for her comfort level. She inched herself away and then turned on the bench. Their knees almost touching. “There wasn’t really time for an introduction,” she murmured softly, “although I know who you are, Lord Wickes.”
“You have me at a disadvantage, my lady. Tell me who you are,”he said waiting for her reply.
“We spoke outside of the Lyon’s Den. Let us just say I’m a patron of the establishment.”
A chuckle left him. “And looking for a husband?”
She shrugged. “As you are looking for a wife?”
“Touché but not initially. Who is to say what might come of our meeting,” he answered with one of those wicked grins that still made her heart flip. “But this still doesn’t answer my question as to your name.”
“I’m not certain my identity is that important. At least for now.”
“I cannot address you asmy ladyuntil the end of time, now, can I?” he teased reaching for her hand and bringing it to his lips.
