Chapter Seventeen
Selena jumped when the door to the library burst open and Jane bustled in.
“Lord Lockhaven is here,” she said.
Selena dropped the book she was holding and lurched from her chair. “He what? Why?”
“I am not sure. The footman said that he asked for your father, who was already in the salon, so he led him there and they are now in there together, discussing…something.”
“Asking for my hand?” Selena asked, nearly breathless at the speed with which everything was happening.
Jane shrugged but smiled excitedly. “What else could it be?”
What else indeed. Selena had known, of course, that Edward would need to seek her father’s permission at some point.
Although, as a widow several times over, that mightn’t have been strictly necessary.
Though of course her father would appreciate it and oh sweet heaven her mind was rambling, and her heart was pounding and—This felt real all of the sudden.
Real. And unstoppable. How could a person be so happy and so terrified all at once?
Though most brides were probably more concerned with the ceremony going off without a hitch, not the groom surviving through it.
“I should be in there,” she said, flying for the door, Jane right on her heels.
She did not wait at the salon door to be announced or invited, but burst in, ignoring her mother’s startled gasp as she marched straight to where her father and Edward sat in plush chairs across from each other.
They rose with smiles, her father’s magnanimous and indulgent, as befitted a man who just made a match for his daughter with a future duke.
And Edward’s? Full of mischief, and with a determination in his eyes she had grown all too familiar with.
“My lord. To what do we owe the pleasure?” she asked, though she was well aware of the answer.
“Oh, my dear, Lord Lockhaven has been so lovely,” her mother interjected. “He naturally asked your father for his permission to wed you—which was happily given, of course—”
No surprise there.
“But he also agreed to get a license—just a common license, my dear, as we discussed—so that you can wed immediately without waiting for the banns. Isn’t that wonderful?
We’ll still have the wedding in a chapel, of course.
Perhaps St. George’s. A bit expected, I suppose, but then it is popular for a reason, and—”
“Mother, I—”
“Do you object to St. George’s, my dear?”
Selena glanced over at Edward. He was still speaking quietly with her father, his hands clasped behind his back as he leaned toward the older man. But his gaze met hers and held, sending her heart racing.
“Well, no,” she managed to say, “not particularly. It’s only that I thought we had agreed a license wouldn’t be necessary. Waiting for the banns—”
“We had discussed it, however,” her mother said, taking her hand in her excitement.
Edward smiled and turned back to her father.
“It seems your intended is as eager for this marriage as we. He broached no objection when the question was raised. In fact, we’ve decided upon a date—the twenty-fourth of this month! ”
Selena’s stomach dropped to her toes, and she raised startled eyes to Edward again. He couldn’t hear what they had said, but he raised a brow at her likely alarmed expression and hastened to her side, despite her father being in mid-sentence.
“What is it?” he asked, his brow furrowed.
“The twenty-fourth?”
The concern cleared from his face, and he beamed at her. “Yes.”
She raised her own brows. “That is in eight days.”
“Yes, isn’t that wonderful?” her mother said with a delighted clap of her hands.
Selena struggled to find the right words that would express her concern without sounding as if she didn’t want to marry at all. Though she still wasn’t entirely sure she did. “Yes, but isn’t that a bit…hasty?”
“Oh,” her mother said with a dismissive wave. “Perhaps. I prefer to view it as romantic. When two young people are in love and wishing to wed, why wait? Life can be so unpredictable, after all.”
A faint blush stained her cheeks as Selena gaped at her. Her mother genteelly cleared her throat. “Rawley, why don’t we give the happy couple a few moments?”
“Oh, well, yes, I suppose a few moments wouldn’t hurt, now that everything is all official,” her father said gruffly.
Selena blinked in surprise. But then, she was hardly the typical virginal bride with a pristine reputation to protect.
And with the wedding apparently only a week away, there was little chance of what reputation she had being ruined whilst standing in her own salon.
She looked at Edward only to find him staring at her.
His eyes never wavered as her parents left, the intensity in his gaze burning away every other thought in her head except the overwhelming desire to be in his arms again.
They were already moving before the door had fully closed behind her parents. His hands came up to cup her face as their lips met, and she could do naught but hold tight to him and give in to the need surging through her.
There was so much they needed to discuss, so much to say, so much to tell him.
Things had already progressed far too much without him knowing everything about her.
Her past. Her curse. But there never seemed to be time, or privacy, to get it all out.
The few private moments they’d stolen together tended to be spent doing everything but talking.
Though she could spend an eternity never talking if it meant his lips never stopped moving over hers, his arms crushing her to his chest as if he couldn’t get her close enough.
When he kissed her like this, she was consumed by him.
Utterly. Happily. Every touch laid claim to her so thoroughly she didn’t know where she ended, and he began. She could get lost in him.
But she mustn’t. They must speak. Now, before it was too late.
“Edward.” She pulled back enough to gasp out his name. “Are you sure?”
He chuckled and kissed her again. “Have I not proven so?”
She ducked her head, unable to hold back her smile. “Yes, but so soon? I hadn’t expected…”
“Yes. I admit I had assumed our engagement would last a little longer than a week. But I have no objection.” He took her hand and led her to a sofa, drawing her down beside him. “It appeases your parents. And if we have made up our minds, there is no real reason to delay.”
“I suppose,” she said, though her lips had gone suddenly numb.
Because, obviously unbeknownst to Edward, there were many reasons to delay.
Rushing made it feel as if her parents were trying to get the deed done before Edward changed his mind.
Or was dead and therefore unable to follow through.
Which…was exactly what they were doing. The fact that Edward did not mind worked in their favor, but it didn’t sit well with her.
“It is only there are things we still must discuss.”
“Yes,” he said, clearing his throat. “I confess, there was more than one reason for my unannounced arrival today.”
Selena had been referring to everything she needed to tell him about her past, her other husbands. But it looked as though he had secrets of his own to reveal. The thought both brought a sense of relief and trepidation. What could be so terrible that it made a man like Edward squirm?
He steeled his shoulders. “I must tell you that my parents have hired an investigator.”
Selena’s mouth dropped open. Of all the things he might have said that one hadn’t even occurred to her. Though perhaps it should have, all things considered.
“To inquire about me?” she asked.
“Unfortunately, and against my objections, yes.”
She sucked in a sharp breath and sat back. While she might not be completely surprised at this turn of events, that didn’t mean it didn’t sting. The horror of the prospect clawed at her and sent her pulse racing.
Though she had no one to blame but herself. She should have told Edward everything before they had spent the night together. Then this whole situation could have been avoided. And she had intended to. But… The man was just so damn distracting!
“I know it must be a shock, and an unwelcome one at that,” he said with a grimace.
“If it comforts you any, it isn’t a statement on how they feel about you.
Not truly. On the contrary, they find you beautiful, elegant, and ‘of good comportment and disposition’ as I believe my mother put it.
” He smiled reassuringly. “They likely would have had any woman I wished to marry investigated, under similar circumstances.”
Her eyes narrowed. The insult of it all rankled, no matter how understandable their actions.
Because while Edward had a right to know some things about her past, his parents were reacting to the rumors that had followed her since she arrived.
Rumors that were not only patently untrue but so absurd as to be unbelievable.
A widow many times over she may be, but she was not a murderess.
That Edward might ever think so hurt. Greatly.
That his parents seemed to be trying to use those rumors to justify denying permission for their marriage added an edge of anger to that hurt.
Even more so because if word of this investigation spread, it would only lend credibility to the rumors and make her situation even more unbearable.
How dare they?
Yes, she should have shared a few details with him before they had gotten to this point. She could take responsibility for that. But she still couldn’t help a retort.
“I very much doubt they would have taken these steps with anyone else. Formal investigation is hardly a normal precursor to Society marriages. So, to what circumstances are you referring?”