Page 58 of Marry in Scarlet
Emm settled it. “Thank you, Aunt Dottie. That will be perfect. It’s a shame that Lily and Rose are both out of town at the moment. I know they’d love to go shopping with you. I wish I could go myself, but...” She gestured to her swollen belly and sighed. “I hope it won’t be long now. I’m so sick of feeling like a caged elephant.”
“Bite your tongue, Emmaline!” Aunt Agatha snapped. “Caged elephant indeed! What is a little discomfort when you have the privilege of bearing the next Heir to the House of Ashendon.”
Emm gave her a dry look. Aunt Agatha had never borne a child. Easy for her to say... But of course, Emm would never say so.
George would, if Aunt Agatha ever spoke to her like that.
***
The following night George attended a party, her first since the notice of her betrothal to the duke had been published. She was a little nervous, wondering what the reaction of the ton would be, and when she stepped into the room flanked by her two aunts, the sudden hush, followed by a buzz of low comment, confirmed her worst expectations.
Aunt Agatha said, “Now, Georgiana, your best behavior,if you will. You have the Rutherford name to uphold. None of your barnyard antics here.”
George gritted her teeth. Barnyard antics indeed! How she wished she had Rose and Lily with her. Or Emm.
On her other side Aunt Dottie squeezed her arm gently and murmured, “Head up, my love, and smile. The worst will soon be over.”
Her hostess came bustling up. “Lady Salter, Lady Dorothea, Lady Georgiana, so delighted you could come this evening. Congratulations on your betrothal, Lady Georgiana, so clever of you to catch our dear, elusive duke.”
George blinked.Ourduke, as if she’d stolen him? And wascleverimplying she’d trapped him? She itched to point out that he’d trapped her. But she didn’t. She thanked the woman politely and moved away as quickly as she could, looking for something to drink and a friendly face.
One of the young men who’d courted her came toward her, his face full of reproach. “And to think I believed you when you said you never wanted to marry. You were so adamant that you wanted to live by yourself in the country with your dogs and horses. But it was just me you didn’t want to marry, wasn’t it?” His voice was raw with hurt. “You had your eyes on a much grander prize.”
“I’m sorry.” George had no words to explain. She ached for the pain she’d caused, but there was no way to tell him that she’d been completely honest with him, and that nothing had changed, except her situation.
Nobody had shoved her into the duke’s arms that evening. And nobody had made her return his kisses and climb him like a tree. That was her own fault. Or the fault of her runaway instincts.
“Well, you tricked us all, didn’t you, Lady George,” said another man with a bitter laugh. “More fool me for believing you meant it.”
The reproaches of men who’d courted her were bad enough. Other comments were blunter and more to the point. A tightly corseted dowager congratulated her thinly, then as she turned away added in an acid aside to her friend,“She’s lucky the duke is a man of honor. In my day gels who behaved like trollops were given a good whipping and sent away in disgrace.”
Another said, within George’s hearing, “I suppose her uncle forced him into it. Ashendon is not a man to be taken lightly.”
Several women asked her when the wedding was to be, and eyed her waistline searchingly.
But the worst were the women who congratulated her for being clever, for entrapping the duke. Their congratulations made her feel soiled, dirty.
“You sneaky thing. I’ve been trying to hook Everingham for the longest time. I heard how you did it. So clever, arranging to be caught like that, doing it at one of old Mrs. Gastonbury’s musical evenings. Must have made the old ladies’ wigs stand on end.”
There was no way to explain, to put the story right. Shehadlet the duke kiss her at Mrs. Gastonbury’s, and so she had to bear the consequences of her foolishness.
And if people were determined to believe the betrothal was the result of some kind of devious stratagem on her part—and they were—well, she’d just have to grin and bear it.
The congratulations, the barbed compliments went on and on until she wanted to scream. But she’d agreed to marry the duke, and this was just the start of her punishment. She gritted her teeth and smiled and smiled and smiled until her jaw was aching. And then she smiled some more.
Lady Peplowe arrived with her daughter Penny, and George heaved a sigh of relief to see people she knew and liked. Lady Peplowe hugged her warmly and wished her all the very best, and such was her sincerity, George almost found herself a little bit teary.
But Penny was frankly surprised and said so. “I thought you were never going to get married, George. And I thought you really disliked the duke.”
George had mumbled something about changing her mind, but inside she was squirming. She wasn’t about to admit—not even to a close friend like Penny—what hadreally happened, how she’d more or less been forced into it, but she also wasn’t going to lie and pretend she and the duke were love’s young dream. It was all terribly awkward.
Penny and Lady Peplowe drifted off, and George looked around to see what time it was. When could she decently go home?
She caught sight of a clock and her heart sank. She’d been here barely forty minutes. She’d have to give it at least an hour more. Unless she pretended to have a headache. But that would be cowardly.
***
Hart was playing piquet with his friend, Sinc. He’d decided to eat dinner at his club, and had run into Sinc. Afterward, with a brandy at their elbow, they’d played cards.
