Page 65 of The Art of Sinning
“Damn it, Keane,” Warren said, “couldn’t you stop her from whatever her scheme is? Why didn’t you refuse to help her?”
“Wearetalking about the same female, aren’t we?” Jeremy drawled. “The Lady YvetteIknow is rather bullheaded.”
Warren swore again. He was swearing an awful lot for a respectable gentleman.
“We’re nearing our destination,” Jeremy said. “So here’s what I propose. The three of us will enter the garden by the same gate we left through. Once there, Lady Yvette will remove her cloak and give it to you. Then she’ll retrieve her crook, and we’ll return to the ballroom. If anyone asks, you say you were retrieving Clarissa’s cloak, and found us talking in the garden.”
Warren crossed his arms over his chest. “Here’s whatIpropose. I march her straight inside to Edwin, and tell him you’ve been squiring her to a brothel and God knows where else.”
“Warren!” she protested.
“You would see her publicly ruined, is that it?” Jeremy said icily.
“No, not publicly. But I think he should know—”
“If you tell him,” Jeremy said, “he will either challenge me to some idiotic duel—which I won’t fight—and word of the challenge will get around and she’ll be ruined. Or he’ll demand that I marry her—which I’ll agree to do—and then herlifewill be ruined on account of being forced to marry me. Which do you want? Neither sounds like a particularly good choice to me.”
Yvette gaped at him. He wouldmarryher? To protect her reputation? Or just to pacify Edwin?
“Damn it,” Warren said. “When you put it that way...”
“My plan is better,” Jeremy said.
“God rot it.” Warren rubbed his chin. “Very well. But what if someone sees us enter the garden and recognizes her? Or if Edwin is outside, checking every equipage? Or if anything else goes wrong? What then?”
“If the choice is taken from us, I’ll offer marriage right then and there. I won’t have her life destroyed.” Jeremy’s gaze met hers, veiled and enigmatic. “I never intended that.”
Though his manner was cold, the words were so sweet, she wanted to cherish them. Except they were drowned out byNeither sounds like a particularly good choice to me.
Why was Jeremy so hell-bent on avoiding marriage? If he really wasn’t a rogue, then there was no need for him to remain a bachelor.
Curse Warren for showing up and interrupting what Jeremy had been about to tell her. She was almost sure he would have explained his reluctance to marry. Tomorrow night, when they were alone in the schoolroom, she would demand an answer.
“Is all of that acceptable to you, my lady?” Jeremy asked.
Her throat tightened to see him pulling away from her, returning to his earlier formality. Didn’t he see that she couldn’t do it after sharing such intimacies?
“That’s fine,” she said wearily.
But none of it was fine. She was rapidly coming to care for him, and like every man she’d known—with the possible exception of Edwin—when things got too difficult, he ran.
At least he’d offered to marry her if she were ruined. But she could never let him go through with it—because the last thing she wanted was a husband who’d married her out of duty, who’d abandoned his family for Lord knew what reasons, and who kept his cards always close to his chest.
So she’d better pray they were not caught. Because she also refused to end up a social outcast.
Jeremy was in a panic the entire way back to his cousin’s town house, though he didn’t dare show it in front of that ass Knightford, who would blast his way through any chink in Jeremy’s armor.
But looking at Yvette, so still and pensive across from him, made Jeremy want to pummel something. She deserved better. And he’d nearly ruined her entirely in Mrs. Beard’s office, all because he’d wanted to pleasure her, to see her reach her ecstasy at his hands. If Knightford hadn’t shown up when he had, God only knew how far Jeremy might have gone.
What a selfish devil he was. Which was precisely why he shouldn’t marry her. He couldn’t give her what she needed.
But hecouldprotect her from disaster. Since Yvette clearly mustn’t keep running off to brothels with him in search of her nephew—they’d be lucky if they got her through tonight unscathed—he’d have to help her another way.
That meant involving Bonnaud and the Duke’s Men. Though she’d begged him not to, there was something she didn’t know. Bonnaud and Zoe owed him quite a bit. Last year Bonnaud had uncovered the fact that Zoe wasn’t the legitimate heir and countess in her own right that the world had assumed. Which meant that Jeremywasthe legitimate heir to his cousin, the Earl of Olivier. He’d agreed to keep their secret because he had no desire to be an English lord.
That hadn’t changed, but his relations were aware that they were indebted to him for their entire future. Bonnaud would be utterly discreet, would even be willing to investigate on behalf of the son of his brother’s enemy, Samuel, if Jeremy asked it.
So he would ask it. It was the least he could do for Yvette. It was vastly superior to her risking her reputation searching the city for her nephew. And it was better than his marrying her.
