Chapter Six #2
“How do you know?” He stared at her in a smoldering way that burned into her soul. But this ability to melt a woman’s heart was precisely the reason he had become known as a Silver Duke.
“Are you suggesting that you love me?”
He hesitated.
“I thought as much. Do you understand now why I cannot agree to a loveless marriage, even if we are genial to each other and might get along as friends?”
“And you think I merely want us to be friends?”
She nodded. “I am not dismissing its importance. A happy marriage must have more than, er…encounters in the bedchamber for the purpose of siring heirs.”
He groaned. “Cousins, out. I need to talk to Florence in private.”
They all scrambled to their feet.
“I hope you reconsider, Florence. You would be happy joining our family,” Sebastian said in all earnestness. “Trajan will not ignore you. He’ll be a good and devoted husband.”
Andrew expressed a similar opinion.
So did Nathan. “Trajan would not have proposed to you unless he believed yours could be a successful marriage. He just wouldn’t have done it. We know him. He isn’t a soft touch and is not asking out of pity or a sense of noble sacrifice. He sincerely likes you, Florence.”
“I like him, too,” she admitted. “But is this not more reason for me to worry about him? Should I not care that Frampton might hurt him?”
“No,” they all replied at once.
“Out,” Trajan said more gently, nudging his cousins to the door. “I’ll join you in the parlor shortly. Or let Timmons know if you are still hungry and I’ll meet you in the dining room while you have a second breakfast.”
“Good idea,” Andrew said, grinning as he rubbed his stomach.
Florence wished very much to accept Trajan’s offer, for she was already halfway in love with him and had been since meeting him last year. She also found his cousins so kind and welcoming. All these Aubrey men were honorable and brave. Who else would agree to risk their lives for her, a stranger?
She could not allow them to do this for her.
But what a wonderful group they were.
Trajan was the handsomest, of course. His sunburst of golden hair fell in perfect waves even on rainy days when no one’s hair looked good—but his did. The wretched fiend. He also had gorgeous green eyes that she could stare at for hours on end.
Not to mention he was tall. Handsome. Had divine muscles.
His cousins also had the makings of handsome men, although they needed a few more years to fill out as nicely as Trajan had done.
All three had hair darker than his, ranging between tawny and very light brown.
Their eyes were a dark blue, much like the deepest blue of the ocean.
Sebastian, the youngest, had a sparkle to his eyes and an elfin grin.
Nathan, the middle cousin, had ears that stuck out and round eyes reminiscent of an owl’s.
However, those features fit his face perfectly and did not detract at all from his good looks.
Andrew, the eldest, had short, spiky hair that she expected would look devastatingly appealing once his face matured enough to give him a square, rugged jaw to counterbalance his “casually” styled hair that was not really casual at all.
What did they think of her?
Well, no matter. She was not going to marry their cousin and become a part of their family.
“Florence,” Trajan said as the door closed behind his cousins, the deep rumble of his voice making her melt a little as it slid over her like a perfectly aged Madeira wine, “I am not proposing to you out of pity.”
“Then you are proposing to me out of a misguided sense of valor.”
“Nor is it valor.”
She took his hands in hers. “You are the most wonderful man I have ever met. But I will not ruin your life by accepting you. However, I shall be more than willing to receive your offer after this mess of an assignment is over, assuming you are not sick of me and never want to come near me again.”
“But you won’t accept me now?”
“How can I?”
“It is easily done. All it takes is a simple yes from you.”
She shook her head. “It is not simple at all, as you well know. Can we put off this discussion until after tomorrow’s tea with Lady Frampton? Let’s see what happens then.”
“We already know what proper etiquette requires her to do. She is going to return the invitation and invite you into her home.”
Florence nodded. “I hope she does, and Aunt Hermia will come with me. So do not bother to rage at me. I am not going to do anything foolish while we are there.”
“Just being there is dangerous and ridiculous.”
She ignored his comment. “Hermia and I will have a lovely chat with Lady Frampton once she invites us to her home. We shall share cakes and buttered bread, and then we shall leave. I am not going to attempt to steal those letters during our visit to Frampton Court.”
“Is this supposed to ease my mind when I know you will wait until nightfall and break in then?” he said with a growl. “And Frampton will be waiting for you.”
“You think I cannot outsmart him?”
“Dear heaven, Florence. I will have a full head of gray hair because of you before the week is out. I will be the silverest among the Silver Dukes.”
She cast him a wan smile. “Is this not another reason why you should avoid marrying me? I have my important reasons, too. If we were to marry, you would gain total control over me, and the law will always be on your side whenever you try to stop me from doing what I must do.”
“Must do? Yes, how wicked and beastly of me to try to stop you from getting yourself killed,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Blast it, Florence. I just want to protect you.”
“I know, and I am falling in love with you because of it. Truly, no one has ever treated me as wonderfully as you have, and most of the time you are irritated with me. I suppose this does not say much for me. Should this not give you warning?”
He gave a wry laugh. “Oh, warning bells have been going off in my head from the moment I met you. I am fully aware of what I would walk into if I married you.”
“Chaos. Disaster.”
“No, Florence. I would be binding myself to someone who would be a match for me, someone who could keep up with me, often best me, and always be faithful to me and honor our marriage vows. This is who you are, and I know this in my heart. Do not ask me to explain this rightness I feel about us. Let me take you under my wing.”
“Under your wing? I am not your little bird to protect.”
“Yes, you are,” he said with a soft growl. “Am I not an experienced bird watcher?”
She managed a small smile because she was not angry with him at all, certainly not after his impassioned words and wonderfully apish need to keep her safe.
His own smile soon turned earnest. “I like you, Florence. Very much. I doubt I would feel this way about anyone else.”
Not even Eden?
She dared not pose the question, for she already knew the answer. He loved Eden most of all.
She let out a ragged breath. “I need to protect my brother in the same way you wish to protect me. My heart compels me to do this, just as your heart seems to be compelling you to guard me. I know he doesn’t deserve to be saved, but when has life ever been fair? I cannot ignore his situation.”
“Oh, yes. You can. The Princess of Wales can be made to see reason. You are the one choosing to put your life at risk for an undeserving brother. I just don’t get it, Florence. What has he done to earn your loyalty?”
“Him? Nothing. I do this for the sake of my family. You should understand this, considering how close you Aubreys are to each other.”
“Do you think this will make your parents love you? That it will be the magical cure to make up for their years of neglect?” With a grunt of exasperation, he slipped his hands out of hers and began to pace like a caged beast in front of her.
“They will not even thank you. And your brother will repeat his foolish behavior because he suffered no consequences for his actions.”
He was going to make her cry again. Everything he said was true.
And still, she needed to do this for herself. Even if her family never showed her the slightest appreciation, she would know that she had saved her brother.
Her father would know it, too. This was all that mattered to her. She would not require her father to ever utter a word of praise, but she would know he understood what she had done and be grateful for it.
Her mother would also know.
Perhaps this was the real reason she felt compelled to risk her life for her brother. Her mother would know, and possibly despise her all the more for it.
But Florence would see the recognition in the woman’s eyes each time they met. I saved your golden child. Love me or hate me, I don’t care. Just feel something.
Anything was better than the complete indifference she had endured all her life.
“All right, Florence. Let’s see what happens tomorrow,” Trajan said. “But I want you to know the offer of marriage was sincere on my part.”
She nodded. “And my joy in receiving it was just as sincere.”
“Then why hesitate to accept me?”
Her heart gave a little hitch, for she really wanted to shout with glee from the rooftops and consent to marry him.
But Eden was first in his heart, and she did not know if she could handle this in their marriage.
Could she be happy being merely second best in her husband’s affections?
Having to look at him every day and know he was wishing for Eden to be the one by his side?
Even if he hid his disappointment well, and even if he was kind to her—which she knew he would be, because he was a very good man—she could not spend the rest of her life as someone’s leftovers.
This was what she had been all her life.
She would rather remain alone than have to endure it to the end of her days, especially from Trajan… this man she loved.
No, she meant…this man she could love.
Was it not too soon to admit one was in love? Or to know it for a certainty?
Perhaps she was thinking too much about this.
Could marriage to him work? Was kindness enough to sustain them in a good marriage, even though she would be the only one truly in love?
He studied her for a long while before speaking again. “This is about Eden, isn’t it?”
She tipped her chin up. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“Oh, Florence. Your heart is an open window and I can see straight through it. I am not in love with Eden. I know this is what you are thinking.”
She was, but she merely pinched her lips together rather than acknowledge it.
“I will admit to holding a torch for her when I arrived at the Bromleighs’ house party last year. But then I met a fake bird watcher,” he said with an endearingly boyish smile, “who caught my attention, and I haven’t been able to get her out of my heart ever since.”
Her eyes widened. He’d said out of his heart and not merely out of his thoughts.
“Me?”
He laughed softly. “Yes, you. Imagine my surprise when you tumbled back into my life yesterday. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the day we met. In fact, I was lost in dreams of you when you happened to fall atop me.”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Yes. I considered returning to London in the hope I might find you there. That’s what I was doing while walking in my woods yesterday morning. Thinking of you. Suddenly, there you were.”
She winced. “Crash landing on you.”
“It was a wish come true for me,” he said with remarkable sincerity, and held out his arms for her. “Your sudden appearance, that is. Being shot at and threatened by Frampton was not quite in my plans.”
“Nor mine.” She moved into his embrace and rested her head against his chest, simply breathing him in. She loved the sandalwood-and-citrus scent of him, and the muscled heat of his body.
“Just put my marriage proposal in the back of your mind for now. Let it simmer. You’ll give me your answer whenever you are ready.”
“All right.”
“But Florence, I do not want a fake betrothal between us.”
“You are asking me to make this betrothal real?”
He nodded. “Yes, I would like it to be.”
She wanted it too. “Just what would it entail?”
“Kisses. Honesty in our feelings.”
“And what about the bedchamber? Is this not what happens when couples become betrothed?”
He tipped her chin up so that she faced him. “That is not a requirement. If you wish it, then I am more than willing to oblige. But if you prefer to wait until marriage to give yourself to me, that is all right, too.”
“Truly?”
He nodded.
“Very well, I agree. Our betrothal is no longer a lie.”
“And we work toward marrying?” he asked, arching an eyebrow when she turned pensive.
She did not answer him. There were too many impediments to work through first.
He sighed. “All right, too big a step for you right now. We’ll inch toward it.”
She hugged him fiercely. “Thank you for understanding.”
In truth, she ached to accept him. But he was already too fiercely protective of her.
What would he risk if their hearts were truly pledged to each other?