Page 22 of A Chance to Dance with the Duke
He hated that he’d hurt her chances for a good match.
He hated just as much that she’d believed her only chance for a good match was solely due to her father’s title and her dowry.
He hated most of all that…perhaps that was true.
But it shouldn’t be the case. It never should have been the case. He was surrounded by blind, deaf nitwits if no one could see what a diamond of the first water she was.
“Don’t you see,” he said, resuming his pacing. “If you help me to spread the word that I have my heart set on courting Miss Taylor, then…then…”
“Then your popularity will prove infectious?” Kal finished drily.
Carver felt heat creeping up his neck. He’d never considered himself overly arrogant, but when Kal put it like that…
“I’m just being practical,” he muttered. “You two are always telling me how I can have my pick of ladies?—”
“And you can,” Albright said. “You’re a Duke, for heaven’s sake. Of course you can.”
“But that is why you must take care not to get entangled with a woman you have no intention of truly marrying,” Kal finished.
Kal’s tone was overly slow, as though he were explaining one-plus-one to a small child.
It ought to have been more irritating than it was, but Carver understood his point. He just wasn’t quite sure how to explain why that thought didn’t worry him.
Not nearly as much as it should.
Albright cut short another silence “It’s not that it’s abadplan, Carver,” Albright started. “It’s just that it’s?—”
“A bad plan,” Kal finished.
Albright and Carver ignored the grumpy Marquess.
“We just want you to be careful, that’s all,” Albright finished.
Albright was taking on the role that Carver typically played within their circle of friends. The easygoing, kindhearted lord beside the stern, domineering Marquess.
Carver frowned. The charming Duke. He’d worked long and hard to ensure he didn’t deserve the same harsh reputation as his father and brother, and for what?
All of London might be fooled, but Miss Taylor thought him the worst sort of beast.
And for reasons he was loath to name, that was entirely unacceptable. He’d rather all of London despise him if it meant this one sweet girl deemed him worthy of her time.
There it was again, that incessant kicking behind his ribs.
“What if it works?” Kal asked suddenly.
Carver blinked. “Pardon?”
“You’ll all but corral this girl into an engagement she does not want.” Kal’s exasperation was clear.
Albright nodded, his expression kinder than Kal’s, but clearly he was in agreement. “She doesn’t seem to want anything to do with you?—”
“And I shall give her ample opportunity to cry off. After we’ve ensured that every good and eligible gentleman in London wishes to court her.”
They both stared at him in disbelief.
“And that is what you want,” Albright said. Blast. Now he too was talking as if to a simple child. “Do youreallywish for another man to court Miss Taylor? Because it seems as though you’ve already formed an attachment…”
Carver tensed, waiting for some sort of cutting remark from Kal, which never came.
