Chapter 6
The moment Evelyn woke up the next day, she knew something was wrong.
She just couldn’t immediately remember what it was.
As she turned in her bed, staring up at the ceiling, all came rushing back.
The feeling of Asher’s fingers on her face, plucking the piece of thread from her hair.
The thought that he just might lean down and kiss her.
The expression he made when he had obviously decided against it. Her own internal dismay.
Then Lady Norwood’s discovery.
Her stomach twisted again as her maid knocked on the door, entering with some hesitation.
“My lady?” she said, biting her lip. “The morning papers have arrived.”
Before Evelyn had a chance to ask her why that would be a problem, the maid nearly threw them on the bed and ran away.
Evelyn leapt across the bed for the papers, rifling through them so quickly that she nearly ripped the page.
And there, already in print:
A certain duke and a certain learned lady were found in intimate proximity…
She groaned, flopping back in her bed, the paper folding over her face.
So much for the hope that she and the duke had held onto last night as they had returned to Norwood House, one at a time. Hope that Lady Norwood wouldn’t say anything. Hope that life might return to what it had been.
She wondered if her father had read this yet, whether he would say anything.
She didn’t have to wonder long, for moments later, she heard “Evelyn!” shouted from the ground floor, and she groaned again, nearly falling off the bed in her dismay.
By the time she dressed and found him in his study, her father was furiously pacing back and forth.
“Evelyn,” he said, lifting the papers in his hand and shaking them back and forth. “Explain.”
She sighed. “The duke and I were having a discussion, and Lady Norwood just happened to find us during our conversation,” she said. “That is all. Nothing compromising occurred.”
“But you were alone.”
“In the garden,” she defended herself. “There were many people about.”
The way he was looking at her caused shame to flood her, as she saw her father’s gaze land on his desk, to where he had opened a manual for one of his academic societies. She knew his academic reputation was on the line, that it meant more to him than any political scandal could.
For no one could take his title away, save the king and prince regent, she supposed. But his acceptance into his learned societies? That was much more volatile.
Her anger grew, not at her father, not at the duke, but at whoever had cornered her into such a situation.
She looked down at her own morning papers, containing her puzzle, but it was a folded scrap of paper sitting on the top that caused her heart to beat harder.
Withdraw, it read, in a hand she did not recognize. Or matters will worsen.
Before she could raise the matter to her father, she was interrupted.
“My lord?” The butler’s knock on the door was slight. “You have a visitor.”
“Who?”
“The Duke of Ravenscar.”
Evelyn and her father stiffened, staring at one another.
“We will meet him in the drawing room,” her father said with a sigh. “Best get this over with.”
He was already sweeping past her and out the door, and she hurried to catch up to him.
“Get what over with?”
“His apology, his proposal, our acceptance.”
“What?” she gasped.
“He had best be proposing, or trouble will be had,” her father muttered.
“You cannot threaten a duke.”
“What’s stopping me?”
“Father, you just… You just cannot.”
“Watch me,” he said, stepping up to the drawing room doors. Evelyn prepared to walk by him and into the room, but he held up a hand to stop her.
“I will do this alone.”
“But, Father—”
“She will be present.”
They stopped, startled at the voice, turning to find the duke was standing, arms folded across his chest as he stared them down from within the room.
“Your grace, I do not believe we require Evelyn for this conversation,” her father said, but the duke shook his head.
"She stays,” he said, his voice brokering no argument.
“Very well, Evelyn,” her father said with a strained smile.
She nodded and entered the room with a curtsy and a small nod of thanks to the duke, although he offered no return expression.
He looked exhausted, as though he hadn’t slept all night, yet still impeccably composed — a man used to operating under enormous strain.
Evelyn walked toward the sofa against the window, where the half-open shutters allowed the morning sunlight to creep in. The butler hovered in the doorway, and Evelyn caught his eye. “Perhaps tea,” she suggested, and he nodded, turning away, as though pleased to have a task.
They hadn’t even breakfasted yet.
“Lord Stratford,” Asher began, taking charge of this meeting even though it was in Evelyn’s father’s house. “As I’m sure you have seen this morning, the rumors have grown beyond the Paragon Diamond. I assume they have been made deliberately.”
Lord Stratford nodded before demanding, “Were my daughter’s actions in any way inappropriate?”
“Father!” Evelyn gasped in shock before her father turned his gaze on her.
“I’m sorry, Evelyn, but if you are here, then you will have to hear the frank discussion.”
Asher glanced at her without emotion before returning his attention to her father. “She was the soul of propriety. Any fault lies within the circumstance… and with me.”
Evelyn’s heart twisted at his unexpected gallantry. Did he mean to take the burden from her, or was he used to taking on responsibility for everything and everyone else in his life?
There was a long pause before the duke continued, his voice low and resolute. “I have spent the night considering the consequences for us both. There is only one way to protect our reputations.”
Evelyn’s father braced himself, and Evelyn stiffened, knowing what was coming. She felt like she was no longer breathing as shock, fear, and a strange, faint thrill she tried to suppress immediately filled her.
“We must marry.”
Asher felt the weight of overwhelming responsibility settle on his shoulders.
This was the last thing he had wanted — to be forced into marriage.
He had just always assumed a young lady would have trapped him deliberately.
He didn’t want this, but he could not allow Lady Evelyn to be ruined.
She didn’t deserve it.
At the moment, however, she said nothing, but was simply staring at him. He wasn’t sure how long they would have remained in such a tableau had the tea not arrived.
“Evelyn,” her father asked quietly once the maid departed, “do you consent?”
Evelyn lifted her head, meeting Asher’s eyes. In her gaze, he didn’t find a young woman eager for opportunity, but rather someone caught in the same trap as he.
“Yes,” she whispered. “If this protects my family, then I will accept.”
Asher hadn’t wanted to bind himself to anyone.
At least, not intentionally. He had already lost too many people, had no wish to tie himself to someone he might also risk losing.
He also had too many people to answer to, too many responsibilities to add another.
He could barely look after himself, his mother, and his sister, let alone everyone and everything else within the dukedom.
Yet here he was. Practically engaged.
“And in the meantime,” he said, “we will determine who has spread the rumors. I will not stop until I determine who stole the diamond, who wanted to make it seem like we were the ones who did so, and who has spread these rumors linking us together.”
“I will help you,” Evelyn agreed, standing as a wave of exhaustion washed over her.
She hadn’t realized just how much she was holding onto.
While she hadn’t asked for the situation to play out like this, in some ways it helped to share the burden of responsibility, to know that, even if the duke wouldn’t be her partner in truth, he could help lighten the load, face this beside her.
Her step faltered for a moment, and the duke was there, beside her, his hand coming to her elbow to steady her.
She looked up, their eyes holding.
While trepidation simmered there, so did heat. Fear. An unspoken question of what could be between them.
Evelyn supposed they would discover that together.
Still holding her gaze, the duke said, “Lord Stratford, perhaps we could now speak about the practical arrangements?”
“Come to my study,” her father said. “Evelyn, why do you not go find breakfast?”
She nodded woodenly, but even after they had departed, she couldn’t help but wander down the hallway, close to the door, pausing for a moment, wondering just what the two of them would have to say to one another.
“I will do everything in my power to safeguard her reputation — and yours,” the duke was saying, and Evelyn’s heart softened toward him.
He cared, in his own way, which she appreciated.
“We should announce the engagement this afternoon,” Asher said to Lord Stratford, who sat woodenly behind his desk.
Asher had asked his mother about Lady Stratford last night, wondering more about Lady Evelyn.
She had told him that Lady Stratford had passed when Evelyn was just a girl.
She had then quickly proceeded to remind him about why her friend Lady Tottenham’s daughter would make him a better match.
Interesting that Evelyn’s father had never remarried, as most others would have.
“That is rather quick,” Lord Stratford said, blinking.
“It will help quell all talk as quickly as possible,” Asher said. “Turn the tide, at least, of what is being talked about.”
“Would you like the banns to be read or for a special license?”
“A special license will cause this all to be conducted quickly,” the duke said.
“Very well,” Lord Stratford said, and Asher was surprised that he actually looked rather melancholy.
“Most men would be happy to have their daughter marry a duke.”
Lord Stratford gave a humorless laugh. “As long as the young man makes my daughter happy, that is what I care about,” he said. “This has all come about quite unconventionally, and rather quickly.”
Asher realized the issue then — Lady Evelyn was her father’s companion, his only family.
He was going to be alone.
“You are welcome to come visit whenever you wish,” Asher said.
“I will be just fine,” Lord Stratford blustered. “I have no wish to impose.”
“You are welcome at any time,” Asher repeated. “My mother and sister also currently live with me.”
“Ah, yes, the duchess,” Lord Stratford said, and Asher’s brows raised when he noted how the viscount seemed to perk up at mention of his mother. “We knew one another when we were younger,” he explained, and Asher could only nod.
“I suppose we should determine the marriage contract,” Asher said, and Lord Stratford nodded before the two of them sat at the desk and began to go through the wording Asher had already carefully drawn up.
He had been generous to Lady Evelyn, unsure of her dowry and not particularly interested in it.
He was wealthy enough as it was and had never relied on a prospective dowry.
Lord Stratford seemed particularly relieved that Asher didn’t ask for much, and his eyes even teared slightly when Asher promised that Lady Evelyn would receive all that she brought into the marriage if something should happen to him.
His stomach was growling, and his back was aching by the time he stood, and when he shook Lord Stratford’s hand, he was surprised that he was not as apprehensive as he would have thought he’d be after such a conversation.
Perhaps it was because he knew that Lady Evelyn herself hadn’t trapped him into this situation and that, perhaps, they could be companionable, if nothing else.
She was beautiful, but he hardly knew her beyond the fact that she had a mind that would intimidate most men.
But he was not most men and, in fact, appreciated her intellect — as long as it didn’t cause him any interference.
With that thought in mind, he left the house, looking out the window of his carriage to see a figure in the front window of Lord Stratford’s townhouse, watching him.
Lady Evelyn.
Whose life was now bound to him, not by affection, but by necessity.
Surely, his life wouldn’t change too much, though — would it?