Page 85 of How to Seduce a Duke this Autumn
Charlene’s fingers tightened around her cup, her shoulders stiff under the weight of Maddie’s warning. Somewhere between reason and desire, between Maddie’s logic and her own burning want, sat the truth she wasn’t ready to face.
*
Adam found himselfonce again before Charlene’s house the next morning. He’d left the house after he’d tossed his brother outand spent the night at White’s, hoping some miracle answer might descend upon him on how to manage a situation he was not equipped for.
He brought a hand over the breast pocket where his very old apology still lay.
Apologies didn’t help much, verbal or non-verbal.
His brother was a perfect example.
But he still needed to apologize and explain, even if she didn’t expect either. However, he suspected he would have to get past Waylon Fielding first.
He strode up to the door and knocked.
Of all the things he didn’t expect, which was becoming rather a theme of his life, it was to enter Fielding’s office to find him and Mr. Grafton.
“Fielding.” He nodded at Charlene’s brother. “Grafton,” he muttered as an afterthought, refusing to look at the man.
“Rotheworth,” Fielding said. “What brings you to my doorstep this early in the morning?”
Adam’s jaw ticked. “The same thing I suspect brings your current guest.”
“He is a friend, not a guest. Soon to be family if fate allows.”
Adam barely refrained from balling his fists, a gesture that these men wouldn’t miss. So, Grafton asked for Charlene’s hand, and Adam would just have to do the same. Though, admittedly, he loathed doing so in these circumstances.
The choice was still up to Charlene.
“So, she has a suitor who asked for her hand. Now she has two.”
“I’m not inclined to accept your proposal,” came the flat reply.
“Since I didn’t ask for your hand, I don’t see how that matters.”
“My father isn’t here.”
“That didn’t stop your friend. Why should it stop me?” Adam shot back. “And you seem to forget, while you are your sister’s guardian, you cannot force her to marry a man against her will.”
“But I can stop you from ever setting foot in my house or near my sister again.”
“And how would she feel about all this dictation?”
“Dictation? This isn’t dictation.”
“I don’t know. What would you call it if you ordered or did things she didn’t want you to do?”
“Protection.”
Grafton cleared his throat. “Quite right.”
Adam ignored him. He wouldn’t win against both of them. Short of spelling it out, he had made his intentions clear. Besides, while he’d known he might have to contend with Fielding, the man was not his goal this morning.
“I’m here to call on your sister.”
Fielding crossed his arms. “That is not happening.”
“Shouldn’t she be the one to decide whether that is happening or not?”
