Page 41 of Marry in Scarlet
But Aunt Agatha and the duke were talking over her so she couldn’t get a word in. “Yes, you are, my dear.” He sounded cold and relentless.
“Perfectly understandable,” Aunt Agatha said. “Excitement does that to some gels,” she told the crowd. “She doesn’t know whether she’s coming or going.”
“I do know,” George insisted “And I’mnotbetrothed!”
“I’ll put the notice in the papers in the morning,” the duke said.
George stared at him in stupefaction. “You’ll do nothing of the sort.”
“For heaven’s sake, shut your mouth, gel,” Aunt Agatha hissed in her ear. “Leave it for now. Discuss it with the duke later, in the privacy of your own home. Or do you have any more appalling indiscretions you wish the world to witness?”
George rather thought they’d already witnessed quite enough but her aunt had a point. The crowd pressing avidlyaround them, eating up the gossip and no doubt adding to it, was unnerving. “Very well, talk tomorrow morning?” she said to the duke in a low voice. Though there was nothing to talk about, really. She was not going to marry him. The very idea was ridiculous.
He was just being gallant—or something—because they’d been caught kissing.
And how that had happened she had no idea.
He nodded.
Aunt Agatha gave a briskly approving nod. “Eleven o’clock, Ashendon House.” She turned to the crowd. “My niece and I shall depart now. Enjoy your supper and the rest of the concert. Devastated to miss it, Cicely, my dear. Your performance was superb. Wonderful hospitality as always. Mrs. Gastonbury, thank you. Come along, Dorothea. Collect my cloak please. We’re leaving.” Taking George’s arm in a steely grip, she led her toward the front door.
George’s legs were still distinctly wobbly, and when Aunt Dottie slipped an arm though hers, she felt obscurely comforted. “Don’t worry, my love,” Aunt Dottie murmured. “I have one of myfeelingsabout this. It will all work out for the best.”
George managed a weak smile. Aunt Dottie’s “feelings” were legendary in the family. George didn’t believe in them herself, but it was nice to have some support.
***
“I won’t marry him!” George said for the umpteenth time. They were traveling back to Ashendon House in the carriage. Aunt Agatha hadn’t stopped haranguing George since the carriage door closed. If it hadn’t been pouring with rain, George would have jumped from the moving carriage and stormed off.
“Don’t be ridiculous, child. You have no choice. You were caught by half the ton with your skirts up around your waist, climbing the duke like a tree. If you didn’t want to be compromised, you should never have left my side in the first place.”
“But—”
“Do not argue with me, gel! If you hadn’t behaved like the veriest trollop—and at a ton event—you wouldn’t be in this situation.”
George bit her lip. That part was true enough. She didn’t understand herself how it had happened. One moment she’d been standing in the hallway, telling the duke to get out of her way, and the next...
“But it’s too late for regrets. I’m only grateful that the duke behaved like the true gentleman he is and made you an offer—and in such a public manner that neither of you can wriggle out of it.” Aunt Agatha’s expression reeked of triumph.
“I will wriggle out of it,” George insisted. “Besides, he didn’t make an offer, he made an announcement—and without my permission.”
“You gave him permission when you climbed up his torso like a cat in heat, with your dress hitched—”
“I refuse to marry a man I dislike because of one stupid incident.” The image painted by her great-aunt’s words was embarrassing in the extreme, but it didn’t alter George’s determination.
“A man youdislike?” Aunt Agatha repeated scornfully. “You chose an odd way of showing this so-called dislike. Besides, regrettable as the incident is, the result is one we all ought to be grateful for—”
“Grateful!To be forced—”
“Forced?Pah! It’s an opportunity, gel, one you don’t deserve! The sight of you when I came out from the concert, wrapped around the duke like the worst kind of hussy!” She shuddered dramatically. “I’ve never been so ashamed in all my life!”
George didn’t even try to defend her actions. Truth to tell, she’d shocked herself with her response to the duke’s kisses. She hadn’t believed herself capable of such a thing. How had it happened? One kiss and everything had spiraled out of control. It wasn’t like her. She’d never been interested in men before, not like that.
And she didn’t even like the duke.
Her aunt’s words, however, had confirmed a suspicion that had been hovering at the edge of her mind for some time. It explained a lot. Why she was acting so out of character. How he’d been able to... do what he did.
“Of course you’ll marry him—and be grateful for it! If he is willing to marry a gel who has proved herself a strumpet—”
