Chapter 21 #2
Amelia clutched at her neckline, even though her dress was safely laced up and modest. She could only imagine the scene Letitia stumbled upon when she opened the door.
Herself, disheveled and red-faced, eyes closed, with Stephen standing behind her, his hands on her waist, his lips a hair’s breadth from the nape of her neck.
Women had been ruined for less.
“Letitia…” she managed hoarsely, but the older woman simply talked over her.
“Dukes cannot go around ruining innocent women,” Letitia sighed. “And now that there are witnesses—”
“Everybody out,” Stephen interrupted, his eyes blazing.
The poor butler vanished at once, with Madeline and Tristan in hot pursuit. Marjory wavered until she met Amelia’s eyes.
Go, Amelia mouthed.
Marjory retreated down the hall reluctantly.
Letitia’s eyebrows rose, and she met her grandson’s eyes firmly.
“I said,” Stephen murmured, his voice low and a little dangerous, “everybody out.”
Letitia appeared to be holding back a smile. She met Amelia’s gaze, but Amelia turned away at once.
“Very well,” she whispered. “I shall leave you to discuss this.”
She retreated at last, closing the door behind her. Once she was gone, Amelia let herself sink onto the window seat. She let out a brief, hitching sob.
“Amelia?” Stephen asked, looking rather baffled. “What’s the matter?”
“What’s the matter? What’s the matter?” she burst out. “It’s too much, that’s what the matter is! Oh, I’ve never been so humiliated in my life. They saw me like… like that!”
“It could have been worse.”
She glared up at him. “It could have been better, too. And now, because I could not control myself, because you would not put distance between us, I am ruined. And… and worst of all, I believe that Letitia set it all up. Why would she do that to me? Why does she hate me so?”
“Hate you?” Stephen frowned. “You are wrong.”
“Am I?”
“Yes. My grandmother is trying to help you and force me into doing what she wants.”
“And how on earth does she plan to achieve that?” Amelia snapped. “I’m ruined.”
“Both of us are ruined,” he responded sharply.
Amelia gave a harsh laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous. You cannot possibly compare our situations.”
“No, I suppose not,” he murmured, folding his arms.
He still had not put his jacket or cravat back on, and the muscles in his chest and shoulders strained against the fabric. Amelia swallowed hard, forcing herself to look away.
“My grandmother knows me well,” he added. “One may do whatever one likes behind closed doors, but now that we have been seen… embracing each other, the secret is out.”
“Can’t you tell your friends and butler to keep quiet about it? I will speak to Marjory.”
He scratched the back of his neck with a sigh. “It is not that simple. There is only one solution now, and my grandmother knows it. She knows what choice I will make.”
“Send me away, I suppose,” Amelia responded bitterly. “If she thinks she is helping me, she is sorely mistaken.”
“I will have to marry you,” Stephen stated bluntly.
Now that was unexpected.
Amelia flinched, glancing up at him. Had she misheard? She must have misheard.
“What?”
He gave a thin smile, glancing over her head and out the window. “I think you heard me perfectly well.”
“We cannot marry.”
“We must. My reputation is dented, and yours is damaged beyond repair. In cases like this, secrets always get out. The only way to save our reputations, I’m afraid, is to marry.”
“I can’t marry you.”
He glanced down at her, eyebrows knitting together. “Oh, no? Are you otherwise engaged? Some dull shop boy possesses your heart already?”
Color flooded her face. “No, of course not.”
“Well then, marriage it is. I like this no more than you do, Amelia. You have my grandmother to thank for this awkward position. Fear not, the marriage will be in name only.”
“Name only?” she echoed.
He shot her another Look. “A marriage of convenience, with no expectation of children or any such matters. They’re common enough in Society.
Amongst the ton, marriage is no more than a business transaction, and I see no reason why we cannot do the same.
I shall apply for a special license, and we can be married in a matter of days.
The party my grandmother was planning can serve as our wedding breakfast. I only require that, after we marry, you ask no more of me than I am willing to give. ”
It sounded as though he’d made his mind up already.
Amelia swallowed hard, trying and failing to think of something to say. She could say no, she supposed. She could refuse to marry him.
But then what? Would she leave? Would he still force her to stay? What about his revenge plans?
How could I have been so foolish as to let him touch me again?
Oh, but she knew the answer to that. She’d let him touch her—and touched him, too—because it was the thing she had wanted most at that moment.
She had wanted him.
Really, it didn’t matter whether a woman was a man’s mistress with a handful of his bastards, or simply a fallen woman who’d erred once. Fallen was fallen, and they all lay in the gutter together to be trampled and spat on.
If I leave this house unwed, I really will be ruined. He’s right. This secret will creep out, one way or another, and I’ll pay the price.
When the silence dragged on, Stephen turned and moved toward the door.
It was clear to him why his grandmother had taken action now.
She was afraid that the party would complicate matters, or that either Amelia or Stephen’s nerve would break.
That Amelia would run away, or Stephen would send her away.
Still, she could not have chosen a worse time for her little game.
Grandmother was always impatient to a fault, he thought grimly, clenching his jaw.
“I’m going to be here for longer than three months, aren’t I?” Amelia asked.
He paused, his hand lingering on the door handle.
“I think so,” he said at last, and left her alone.