“Trust me, Jack,” he urged again, his dark eyes pleading with her. “There’s truly something I must show you. I promise it will be a very good thing for you.”
“I trust you, James. I think I always have,” she said, and then she climbed into the coach.
He climbed in after her and quickly shut the door. James pounded on the ceiling, and the coach rolled off down the cobbled road at a breakneck pace.
She gasped, grabbing hold of the seat. The coach rumbled through the streets of Mayfair, winding its way through the backways until, at last, it slowed only minutes from where they had departed.
“Where are we?” she demanded suddenly, but one look outside told her exactly where they were.
The small church designed by Christopher Wren loomed pale in the moonlight.
They had stopped directly in front of the steps.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“Marry me, Jack. It is the only solution.”
“What?” she ground out. “Is this a cruel joke? You have made it clear that we would never marry. That I was not for you.”
“I was wrong,” he replied, his face creased with desperation and regret.
Her stomach coiled, sick. What the blazes had happened? For he had not brought her here for a joyous ceremony. She thought of the note in her reticule. The marriage of unfulfilled wishes. Of a friend who had cut herself off from all that had brought her joy before she wed. And Anna Maria hadwantedthat marriage.
She shook her head, barely able to grasp the idea that she could destroy James’s life andhiswishes. “No. You do not want this. I can see it clearly on your face—”
He seized her hand and held it in his grasp, pulling her toward him until their faces were but inches apart.
“Take your freedom, take your future, and take your dreams. Marry me,” he begged, his voice harsh. “I promise to give them all to you.”
How could she say no to that? She’d be an utter fool. But the look on his face? The pain there…
If she agreed, she would have all that he said. She would be a duchess. There would be no more cares or worries.
But she wouldn’t have love, either. For from his expression, it was clear this was not a proposal of love. It was one of duty and fear.
She sucked in a breath. “Who knows?” she whispered.
He winced and looked away. “Soon, it could be all of London. We were too reckless.”
She swallowed as a sick sensation stole through her. He was saying nothing more than she had said to herself this very day. And yet she had hoped that they had avoided scandal, even if they had done more to ruin her than any lady ever needed.
She was not about to risk her family’s future if ruin was potentially waiting for her. And so she nodded tightly. “If this is what must be done, I will do it.”
If gossip was about to break regarding herself and James, all the callers in the world tomorrow morning wouldn’t mean a thing. They would slip away from her as if she and her entire family were a poisoned pool.
And at that moment, the coach door swung open.
She expected a footman and was ready to allow him to help her down.
But the man standing at the open door was not a footman.
It was her brother.
And in that instant, she knew. She knew deep in her bones with an agony that she couldn’t deny why James had brought her here.
It wasn’t through his own wishes. Oh no, he was here because of Alexander.
“What have you done, brother?” she whispered, her voice hitching as tears filled her eyes.