Page 59 of She Tempts the Duke
Startled, she stared at him. “You mean ever? Are you suggesting I give him a cut direct? Ignore him?”
“It is either him or me, Mary. If you write to him and explain the boundaries, then he should be gentleman enough not to put you in a situation where you must choose.”
“I’ve had twelve years of not seeing him, not speaking to him. You can’t deny me—” The pleasure, she’d almost said. Only it wasn’t a pleasure exactly. It was more of a challenge, more of a rightness. They’d shared so much in their youth. To never be able to share anything ever again was maudlin.
“What if I promise to never be alone with him? To only speak with him when you are there? Surely that should suffice.”
He brought her hands to his lips, pressed them there, squeezed his eyes shut. “I can tell that you are going to be a difficult wife.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
He opened his eyes, smiled. “Difficult because when you ask for something I find it very hard to deny you. I will be content if you are never alone with him and if you only speak with him in my presence. Or your father’s.”
Relief swamped her, and she smiled. “Thank you, my lord. I thought you would be done with me if you heard the rumor.”
“Two weeks from our wedding? It will take a good deal more than gossip to keep me from the church. But I should very much like not to hear anymore.”
“Perhaps I should lock her in her room until it is time to head to St. George’s,” her father suggested.
“She’s not a child, Winslow,” Fitzwilliam said. “I trust her word.”
She wanted to hug him near for that bit of trust. She vowed then and there that she would never disappoint him again. She would be an exemplary wife and give him no further cause to doubt her.
Releasing her hands, he stood. “One more thing. The necklace with the green stone you wore the other night—you’re not to wear it again. As a matter of fact I think it would be best if you return it to Keswick.”
She stared at him in muted surprise. “How did you know?”
“I asked your father about it. He asked your maid. I will not have my wife accepting gifts from other gentlemen.”
“I’m not yet your wife.”
“If you wish to be you will return it. Consider the action a token of good faith. I’ve been injured here, Mary. Am I really asking too much?”
Slowly, she shook her head. She’d even told Sebastian that she shouldn’t have accepted the gift. “No. I shall see to its return posthaste. Although you should know it wasn’t a gift from Keswick. It was from all three brothers.”
“A gift fromthreemen? I can only imagine how that might be spun by the gossips. Even more reason to return it.”
Pleasing a gentleman was such a sticky web. He bid her and her father good-bye, then strode from the room, leaving her to wonder if she would indeed be happy married to him.
“You need this marriage, Mary,” her father said pointedly. “I need it. To know you are secure. If I fail you, I have failed in everything.”
“You’ve failed in nothing, Father.”
“I failed to produce an heir to watch over you when I am gone.”
She supposed the fault there rested as much with her mother as with him.
“You say that as though you are planning to leave me at any moment,” she told him.
“Life is precarious, Daughter. I would have thought the Pembrook lads would have taught you that.”
“Had you heard that someone tried to kill Sebastian?”
He nodded. “Terrible thing that. They say it was a soldier who believed him to be a coward.”
“Do you believe that?”
Slowly, he shook his head. “But you would be wise to keep your thoughts to yourself. Do not seek to help the Pembrook lords further. It can only lead to your downfall. Your loyalty now is to Fitzwilliam. It must be to him.”
