Prologue
September 1813 – Highfield Park, Buckinghamshire
Lady Grace Postgrinned like an idiot. But she couldn’t help it. Her body still hummed from Oliver’s touch and the merest thought of him had her missing chords and fanning her face. Anyone would grin like an idiot in her place.
“Grace.” Oliver’s voice from the threshold made her heart leap.
He was already at Highfield! Had he already spoken to Braden? Or had he wanted to see Grace beforehand? She abandoned her piano bench and rushed across the floor to throw her arms around his neck. And she would have done so, if he hadn’t caught her arms and lowered them to her sides instead.
He looked positively tortured. Something was wrong. Had Braden rejected his offer? Well, her brother was going to answer to her! She was desperately in love with Oliver Ashbee, and Braden wasn’t going to keep them apart.
“Oli—” she began, but he squeezed her hands, making his name die on her tongue.
“Don’t say anything, Grace,” he said, his voice sounding almost hoarse. “This is hard enough for me.”
Heavens! What was wrong? What had happened? She implored him, begged him with her gaze to tell her what could possibly make him look so miserable.
“I spoke with my father last night,” he began. “And—” he winced.
“What is it? Youarescaring me,” she said, her heart about to pound right out of her chest.
He closed his eyes and pain seemed etched across his brow. “I don’t know how to tell you this.”
“Please tell me,” she urged. Whatever was wrong, they would face it together.
“I am already betrothed, Grace.” He opened his eyes and his piercing blue gaze appeared so haunted and pained.
The air whooshed out of Grace’s lungs as though someone had punched her. She could not have heard him correctly. “I beg your pardon?”
Oliver’s hands drifted up her arms and he held her tight. His anguished eyes begged her to believe him. “I didn’t know. I swear to you, I didn’t know. When I told him I was going to offer for you this morning, he told me all of it then. He hasalreadyarranged betrothals for Ginny, Veronicaandfor me.”
That didn’t make any sense at all. If Oliver hadn’t been holding her, Grace’s legs would have buckled beneath her. “What?” she managed to breathe out. She loved Oliver and he loved her. He couldn’t truly be betrothed to someone else. He just couldn’t. It just wasn’t fair.
Oliver’s throat moved up and down as though he was trying desperately to speak. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”
Sorry? Sorry! Shelovedhim. She’d allowed him liberties last night that she’d never imagined allowing anyone. Helovedher! He’d vowed that he did. He was supposed to offer for her. He was supposed to talk to Bradenthismorning. They were supposed to be betrothedthisafternoon. Grace and Oliver, not Oliver and…who was he betrothed to? “Who? Who is she?” Who had Lord Prestwood deemed was a better bride for his son than Grace?
“Eloise Browning.”
Eloise Browning? Who in the world was Eloise Browning? “Who?”
“Lord Hambleton’s daughter,” he said so softly, she barely heard him.
Who the devil was Lord Hambleton? No one Grace was familiar with. And she’d never even heard of his daughter. Not that any of that mattered. “Did you tell your father—”
“There’s nothing I can do, Grace.” Oliver’s voice hitched in his throat. “The arrangement has been in place for almost a decade, upon Lady Eloise’s birth, apparently.”
A decade? Since her birth! Oliver was betrothed to a mere child! Grace’s head spun and her heart twisted more painfully than she could have ever imagined. “Oliver,” she began, trying to remain calm. “I have given myself to you, and—”
“You’re still an innocent, Grace.” He closed his eyes again as though he couldn’t look at her. “No man you’ll marry will ever need to know what we’ve done.”
And was that to make everything all right, then? She wrenched an arm from his grasp and slapped him right across the face. “How dare you?”
Oliver looked stunned, and he sucked in a breath, but he didn’t back away from her or even touch a hand to his cheek.
“I loved you,” Grace said, her heart twisting so painfully she could barely breathe.
“I will always love you,” he said softly. “Until my dying breath, Grace.”