persuade me to change my dissolute ways. And Williams promised to do whatever it took.”
“I promised my father, yes, but I did not agree to your terms.”
Mr. Northam’s smile held condescension. “You’re too far in to go back now.”
I glanced between them. Gregory’s fists were clenched at his side, his jaw muscle working rapidly. Mr. Northam looked completely at ease. He seemed to be enjoying every second of Gregory’s discomfort.
“You remember I mentioned our disagreement, don’t you, Miss Brinton? Where my lord believes women would choose him over me, title or no? Well, I promised that if he could win a kiss honorably from any woman of our joint choosing before I obtained that kiss through my own means, I would reform. You are the lucky woman he agreed to.”
I stared at Mr. Northam, too shocked to speak.
Mr. Northam pushed off the wall and walked to me. “Don’t take it to heart. It really has nothing to do with you at all. Just your lips.”
“That’s not true,” Gregory said, taking my hand. My mind churned but didn’t seem to be processing what had been said.
“No?” Mr. Northam asked, smirking at him. “Then why did you race to her house and demand an engagement from her father when you realized you were going to lose?”
“A wager?” I asked, unable to believe it. Yet Mr. Northam’s expression exuded truth. Gregory had said himself that he’d chosen me to end Mr. Northam’s games. I focused on Gregory. His expression was earnest, his eyes asking me not to believe it. Yet within them was the confession—what Mr. Northam said was the truth.
There had been all those times when Gregory had first arrived and I’d felt as though I was pure entertainment, that my life had been a game to him.
I’d been correct. He hadn’t been interested in me. He’d been trying to win a kiss.
My stomach knotted.
Pulling my hand from Gregory’s, I staggered a step away from both men.
Mr. Northam smiled. “Was he that convincing? Congratulations, Williams. Your skills must be improving. Have you been practicing behind my back? Leaving a trail of broken hearts wherever you go?” He laughed. “You know, if I hadn’t interrupted you just now, you might have won. Of course, it only seemed fair to interrupt, since a similar inconvenience occurred when I was just as close.”
I had almost let Mr. Northam kiss me. I had wanted him to. And Gregory. . . .
I felt unsteady, lightheaded. “This was all a joke to you. To both of you. I was a joke.”
Gregory shook his head. “No, Margaret. It was never like that.”
“Margaret?” Mr. Northam looked at me with interest. “I underestimated you, Williams. Tell me, Margaret, do you address my cousin as Gregory?”
The heat of embarrassment crept up my neck. What a fool I was.
Mr. Northam stepped in front of me. In a lowered voice, he said, “You blush beautifully.”
Gregory was between us before I’d opened my mouth to reply. “Get out, Northam. You are no longer welcome here.”
Mr. Northam laughed. “I will. But not before I win.”
He shoved Gregory aside, grabbed me, and kissed me, hard.
I pushed against him but couldn’t back away until he let me go. I ran my arm over my mouth in an effort to wipe away the taste and the feel of his lips on mine, though I couldn’t wipe away how Mr. Northam’s eyes gleamed with victory and amusement. “How does it feel to be kissed by a real man, Margaret?” He started humming the song he’d requested I play for him at the Hickmores’. The one Gregory had played last night.
I finally understood. That song was some sort of victory song for them. And I hadn’t even been the prize. I’d been the paper they’d used to make their boats, neither of them caring that I would eventually become waterlogged and sink.
Gregory’s fist connected with Mr. Northam’s smile. Mr. Northam hit a chair before falling to the ground.
“What is going on here?” my father roared from the doorway, his anger more severe than I’d ever seen. When his gaze found mine, though, the pain in his eyes stopped my heart.
“Father?”
“Margaret, an express has arrived. We are leaving.”
An express. The room emptied of air. “Alice has—” A lump formed in my throat and I couldn’t speak past it.
“No. Not yet. But there is not much hope. We must return home as soon as possible.”
Not Alice. My father must be mistaken. But the deadly reality showed in the sagging creases of his frown