How to Fool a Duke (The Husband Dilemma #1) - Lancaster, Mary Page 0,48
will not believe that. Kissing at the front door with her hair loose about her shoulders? While no one else is at home? Yes, I met the companion in the square with that tediously serious red-haired man, so I know you were alone with Miss Sarah.” She smiled. “What a tale that would make for the gossips.”
“Don’t, Maria, it is you who will look both foolish and ill-natured. You must know I mean to marry her.”
Pain surged in her eyes, but before he could soften his tone, it was replaced by fury. Then her darkened lashes swept down, hiding her emotion.
“Oh, no, Leonard,” she said in quite a different voice, hard and cruel. “You mean to marry me.”
“Maria, we have gone over this before. We did not suit as lovers. We most definitely would not suit as husband and wife.”
“Duke and duchess,” she mused. “I shall make an excellent duchess, regal, witty, the perfect hostess.”
“Not with this duke,” Leonard said firmly. “Let it go, Maria.”
“Why, no, I couldn’t do that. You asked for my discretion.”
He frowned, uncomprehending.
“My discretion,” she explained patiently, “will be assured for your—er—hand in marriage.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous?” she repeated, gazing at him innocently. “You want me to speak to her parents? You know they will immediately take her home in a rage. If only they could find a nunnery, they would immure her in one. As it is, she will be buried in the country.”
“Not if I offer for her,” Leonard got out, forced by sheer fury into discussing what he had sworn not to. “I am not no one. Merrington will be glad to give her to me.”
“But the world will laugh at her. The foolish chit who charmed you with a song, married from pity after a sordid scandal.”
“No one would believe such idiocy,” Leonard retorted.
“Oh, but they would,” Maria said softly. “Trust me, I would see to it.”
He stared at her. “Why?” he asked helplessly.
“Well, if I can’t be a duchess—your duchess—I would have to have something else to amuse me. But don’t despair, my darling. I know you will never let that happen. Announce our engagement tomorrow evening, and my wicked tongue is stilled. After that, I’m afraid your little songbird will be nothing but an object of scorn and ridicule. And just think—she will owe all that to you.”
Without a word, Leonard, swung away from her and strode across the square in the opposite direction. Her soft, mocking laughter followed him, and he acknowledged, savagely, that he deserved it.
Chapter Fifteen
Sarah could keep silent no longer—for she’d watched the confrontation between Maria and her beloved duke. Where that woman was concerned, no good could follow, and the way Leonard had stormed off… She secured her cloak about her shoulders and rushed off in the direction of the inn, counting on finding Maria alone. Since the day that woman appeared, she had done nothing but look down on Sarah and go out of her way to insult her, to treat her as a lesser being.
As she approached the cobbled walkway that lead to the inn, she spotted Maria lingering in the small gardens of to the side of the building. The widow appeared to be alone and talking to herself with a self-satisfied smile on her face.
“Are you looking for me, Miss Sarah?” she asked, barely gracing her with a look in her direction.
Sarah rolled her eyes. “Indeed, I am.”
“How fortunate for you that I foresaw your need to speak with me. That’s why I am out here.”
Sarah entered the neatly laid out garden, admiring the different species of roses. There were two stone benches, and she sat down on one. “Why would you assume that I wanted to talk to you?”
Maria chuckled and faced her. “Perhaps it had something to do with that indiscretion in the front of your cottage.”
“I hardly call a kiss an indiscretion, Lady Maria. It was a gesture of respectable affection between myself and my betrothed.”
“Betrothed,” she repeated sarcastically. “Is that what the duke told you? He’s a rogue of the highest order, believe me.”
Sarah had hoped to avoid hearing the sordid details about Leonard’s dalliances with Maria, but the woman seemed determined to share her experiences. “Perhaps he was a rogue with you…”
Maria snorted rather unattractively. “Let me guess, you think you are special to him?”
“We were nearly betrothed three years ago.”
“Oh, yes, I know the story well, for he sought comfort in my bed soon after his encounter with you—the other you, I mean.”
“The other me?” she