“But over the last weeks, I have grown to admire you,” he assured. “Your fortitude, your abilities. I’ve even told my friend so.”
She blinked. “You’ve told your friend about me?”
“Indeed.” He drew her to him, circling his arms about her. “I have told him about you every time I’ve seen him, and the truth is, Iwantyou to be my wife.Hethinks you should be, and since you are going to have my child, it is the wisest thing.”
She blew out a harsh breath, lowering her gaze, barely able to face him as a realization dawned on her. “You’re going to have to write my brother and ask.”
He groaned but then he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger, lifting her gaze back to his. “Well, life is full of small inconveniences. But it will not be difficult. I don’t think he’s going to tell me no because he knows what I could do to him if he does.”
She laughed and suddenly she felt not quite so horrified as before. Some of the panic vanished, but the dread remained. The dread of a life where she was a burden to him.
Someone that he had to marry not by true choice but by happenstance.
“How did we get here?” she asked, her voice shaking.
He studied her with a determined gaze, a gaze that bore no anger, only acceptance. “The truth is, no matter how much precaution a man and a woman take, a child is still possible, and all I can think is that it was meant to be. As careful as I was, it happened because you and I were meant to be linked together somehow.”
She gasped. She had thought him a man of pure science. “You believe in fate?”
He hesitated as he considered his answer. “I think I do. Some people used to call it the gods. Some people call it fate, but for whatever reason, Cat, we are meant to be together now, and I won’t ignore that.”
His throat worked as he swallowed, as if he was gathering his courage. “Of course, I will notforceyou to marry me. I’m not that kind of man, but I would truly prefer that I be able to show my child every advantage. If you choose to go live by the sea with your sister, Lily, in a cottage, I beg of you to let me pay for it. Not for you, but for our child. I beg of you to let me pay all the fees to keep you in comfort, but I will not force you to marry me if you do not wish it.”
She frowned, unsurprised by his offer but unwilling to take it. Even now. Even in her fear of handing her life over to him. “I would be so selfish to do that.”
He sighed as if relief came over him, and she realized he had truly been afraid she might not marry him now.
She stared up at him and licked her lips as another consideration hit her. “You’re going to marry a scandalous woman. Everyone will know.”
He laughed, a sound so full and deep it rattled off the walls. “I don’t care what everyone says. I’m the Duke of Blackwood. I don’t have to give a damn what people say or what they think. There are people in my family history that have done things that would make you shudder and married people that no one would consider proper. One of the Dukes of Blackwood married an actress, you know, in the 1600s when females took to the stage.”
She laughed. “Truly?”
He nodded, and though it was slightly forced, he teased, “Oh yes, it was probably the best thing for us. Brought in a bit of new blood.”
“Well, I’m not new blood,” she reminded. “My line is ancient and well recorded.”
He inclined his head and mused, “It looks like you’re going to be fulfilling your duty, after all. You have united your family with one of the greatest in the land.”
She stared at him agog.
He was correct. She was doing exactly what she had always thought she wanted as a child and then as a young woman before she’d realized the vagaries of society.
She laughed softly, half rueful. “How strange to think that I am achieving a goal that I thought I no longer wanted.”
“You don’t have to want it,” he said gently. “You simply have to achieve that goal now.”
She swallowed at that. She couldn’t argue, and she wasn’t going to tell him no.
After all, she still was no fool and she never would be.
Chapter 15
“I’m getting married.”
The Earl of Argyle lifted his gaze from the stacks of books piled on the long table at the end of the room and met Garret’s gaze. “Felicitations, my friend. Glad to hear it.”
“She’s with child.”