Danvers.”
Her father and Lord Danvers both looked at her as if they couldn’t have heard her correctly.
“What did you say?” her father asked.
“I said I have no intention of marrying Lord Danvers, Father. It’s not something I want, nor is it something Lord Danvers desires. What happened last night was a mistake. A horrible accident not worth ruining his lordship’s future or my own.”
“I’m afraid you don’t understand, Petronella,” her father said in a harsh voice. “You don’t have a choice in the matter. Your future is already ruined.”
“But I do have a choice, Father. I’ve reached my majority and can no longer be forced into a marriage.”
“You obviously haven’t thought this through, Petronella. You are a ruined woman. You no longer have any prospects for a respectable marriage.”
Nella wanted to laugh. Was her father so blind he couldn’t see she never did have prospects for marriage—respectable or no?
“It’s my life you’re talking about. You’ve brought me up to know my own mind and achieve what I want in life. Well,” she said, turning to face him, “that is exactly what I’m doing.
“But—”
Nella turned her back on her father and moved to face the earl. “I thank you for your proposal of marriage, my lord, but I respectfully decline your offer.”
An uncomfortable silence stretched through the room. Nella watched, fascinated, as strings of tension corded along the young earl’s neck.
Her father swung around to glare at her with lips pursed tightly and a hardened look in his eyes. In her three and twenty years, she had seldom gone against her father’s wishes, but she could see the disappointment on his face. And the anger.
“If you will excuse me now.” Nella turned to walk to the door.
“Wait, my lady.”
Nella stopped and turned at the commanding tone in Lord Danvers’ voice.
“A moment, Lady Petronella,” Danvers continued, then turned to address her father. “Lord Shelton,” he said, seeming to stiffen his spine, “would you allow me a few moments alone with your daughter?”
The look on her father’s face indicated this wasn’t going as he’d planned and he wasn’t sure what to do. Finally, he gave a sharp nod of his head. “Of course, Danvers. I will be right outside should you need me.”
“Thank you,” the earl said, then remained standing until her father left. When they were alone, the earl walked to the other side of the room and stood before the window. “Would you do me a favor, Lady Petronella? Would you please tell me what happened last night? You see, I’m having difficulty remembering anything past receiving a note inviting me to…to meet with a…a certain female of my acquaintance.”
“You were drugged, my lord.”
“By you?”
Nella took a deep breath. “No, not by me. It was merely my intention to—”
“Then who?”
The name was on the tip of her tongue. How easily it could spill out and she would be rid of the horrid secret. But just as she would not wish to be betrayed, she could not wish to be the betrayer. There had to be another way to make him see there was an honorable solution to their dilemma.
“It no longer matters, my lord. What’s done is done.”
He turned and walked toward her. She hadn’t realized how very tall he was, but the closer he came to her the smaller in stature she felt. That was new, and she rather liked it.
“You realize we have to marry, do you not?”
“No, Lord Danvers. We do not have to marry. While I did not drug you nor have any part in the despicable ploy, it is still my fault you were put in this predicament, and I alone have the ability to save you from the consequences.”
“And if I don’t want to be saved from the consequences?”
Nella smiled. “Of course you do, my lord. This is not the time to be noble. Gallantry will not spare you…or me…from a lifetime of regret. Doing what only appears to be right will put us in an impossible situation.”
“You realize you’ll be an outcast if we don’t marry,” he said with a tilt of his head.
An outcast. She’d never used that word before, but she certainly understood it. The only difference between her current status and outcast is that she would no longer be among Society. Either way, she’d be invisible, just as she had always been.
Nella could do nothing but answer his accusation with another smile. What did he know of being an outcast?
“And you will be an outcast if we do marry, my lord.”
“If