Page 29 of Romancing the Rifleman
Alaric hugged his papa around the neck, then left with Maureen.Diana took the chair opposite Marcus.“We need to talk.”
He scowled.“I was afraid you would say that.”
She might as well come out and say it.“I am strongly considering setting my cap for Harrington Astley.”
Marcus looked as if he’d drunk vinegar.“You cannot mean that.”
“I do.”She waved her arm, struggling to find the words to make him understand.“I like him, Marcus.Very much.”
He shut the ledger he’d been reviewing with a snap.“You will meet someone else whom you like even more.”
She sighed.“That’s just it.I don’t think I will.”
He looked at her then, and his eyes held a twinge of concern.“Of course, you will.Why would you say such a thing?”
“Because it’s been three years since I made my debut, and I haven’t met anyone else that I like even a little bit.”She gave a humorless laugh.“Most of the men who swarm around me are interested in nothing but my fortune.”
He inclined his head in acknowledgement.“I had to put up with the same thing for many years.But eventually, if you sift through enough silt, you will find a diamond.I did.”
“I think I have as well,” Diana countered.“And that diamond is Harrington Astley.”
Marcus’s scowl snapped back into place.“He is fool’s gold, at best.And not every man courting you is a fortune hunter.What about the Duke of Hunwicke?”
Diana gave him a baleful look.“He is forty years my senior and plagued by gout.”
Marcus frowned, but he couldn’t argue with that.“Well, how about the Marquess of Beasley?He’s young and handsome.”
Diana snorted.“I have had more stimulating conversations with Inge.”
This was not a ringing endorsement, as Inge was one of Aunt Griselda’s hunting dogs.
Marcus’s lips thinned into a line, but he soldiered on.“Then what about Viscount Ryburn?He’s young, handsome,andintelligent.”
“And completely disinterested,” Diana shot back.“I’m not sure how you failed to notice, but his efforts at flirtation have been directed not at me, but atyou.”
Marcus froze, and she marked the moment he realized she was right.
Not that he was prepared to admit as much.He narrowed his eyes.“You’re not supposed to know about such things.”
She rolled her eyes.“Thank goodness I do.What a disaster that match would have been!My point is, I have done everything you asked.I have considered every suitor you suggested.And I haven’t felt so much as a sliver of interest in any of them.”She leaned forward.“Not until Harrington returned.”
He rubbed his brow.“We’ll keep looking.We’ll find someone else.”
“I’m not so certain.”She looked at her brother with real sympathy.Because even though he could sometimes be an overbearing arse, she knew the reason he was an overbearing arse was because he loved her, and because he wanted desperately for the next phase of her life to turn out better than her early years.
Marcus was nine years her senior, and he had always viewed protecting her as his responsibility.The period when Diana had been forced to live under the same roof as their father had been brief, less than a month, and the servants had largely succeeded in helping to keep her hidden from the cruel, violent former duke.But she knew that Marcus regarded the fact that it had happened at all as a personal failure, and he did not consider the fact that he had been the one to rescue her, to coerce his father into allowing her to go and live with Aunt Griselda, as an absolution for this lapse.Almost twenty years had passed, and he was still anxious to make sure nothing bad ever happened to her again.
Knowing all of this made it possible to love Marcus even when his attempts to protect her crossed the line into controlling her.
She regarded her brother across his desk.She needed to get this next part right.“I was aware that you were Harrington’s favorite target for pranks while the two of you were at school.But I had somehow formed the impression that you saw him as a nuisance.I did not realize that he had… wounded you.”
Marcus looked away.“Your initial impression was correct,” he answered, his voice tight.“Other than that one incident with Mother’s portrait.But he did return it, once he realized that I…” He broke off, clearing his throat.“I was several years older than Harrington, and at the top of the proverbial ladder.He was an annoyance, but I did not spend my nights weeping into my pillow.In truth, I scarcely spared him a thought.”His eyes, as brittle as ice chips, found hers.“But the fact remains that he is a wastrel, and I want better for my sister than the likes of him.”
Diana held his gaze.“Let’s see, shall we?”She turned to face the door.“Ceci?Would you come in, please?”
Marcus groaned, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands as his duchess entered the room.“Not you, too.”
Ceci, who was heavily pregnant, grasped the arm of the chair next to Diana as she lowered herself into the seat.Marcus sprang to his feet and was around the desk in a flash.He made sure his wife was comfortably settled before returning to his chair.
