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“Do forgive me,” he muttered without the slightest hint of contrition.

If he was to marry her, then he had to learn to acquiesce to her wishes on occasion, too.

He cleared his throat and walked over to her with the solemnest expression he could muster. He took her much smaller hand in his and held it up between them as he looked into her eyes.

“Lady Evelyn Fitzroy,” he murmured. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife of convenience?”

Her response was a brilliant smile. Thankfully, she had been sufficiently appeased by his display—even if his heart thudded strangely in his chest.

It is only the lust talking.Nothing more.

“Of course I will, Your Grace,” she responded sweetly.

If her limpid gaze made his normally sharp mind falter, that smile seemed to cause an odd warmth to spread across his chest.

Even if it looked fake as hell.

He immediately dropped her hand. “Does this mean that you will do anything I ask if I do so nicely?”

“Of course not.” She sniffed. “You may rely onyour loversto do that for you.”

I cannot believe I did that!

But she actually did it—she had managed to wrangle a rather decent proposal from one of the Wolves.

Heat rushed to her face as she dashed out of the study, pointedly averting her gaze from the matching looks of shock on the faces of Daniel’s butler and secretary, who had both been waiting for him at the door.

Was it from embarrassment or excitement? Evie was not too sure, as she was giddy withboth.

“My dear, you must be careful, or you will run into the wall,” a maternal voice teased her.

Evie looked up to find her grandmother looking at her with a mischievous twinkle in her blue eyes. Even at her age, Lady Wellington still stood with her back ramrod straight, herelegance undiminished. However, when she smiled, Evie never failed to feel the warmth of her affection.

“Grandmama,” she choked out. “I thought you would still be at Lady Gardiner’s tea party.”

“Oh, it was dreadfully boring.” The older woman sniffed scornfully. “You know how the Countess likes to put on such airs, when her scones are never any good.”

Evie could not help but giggle as she linked her arm with her grandmother’s. “Heavens, Grandmama! But surely, the tea must have more than made up for it.”

Lady Wellington made a face. “She tells everyone with an ear to spare that her tea is the finest from India, but I know good tea, and it certainly was notthat.” The older lady sighed and patted her hand affectionately. “But enough about my dismal experience this afternoon. Do tell me about your promenade, my dear. Have you had a wonderful time at the park this afternoon?”

Evie stiffened at the mention of the park. Had her grandmama already heard of her engagement?

As much as she believed Daniel’s prediction that Lord Sidmouth would waste no time spilling the news to the scandal sheets his sister wrote for, she had been hoping that the Earl might have been a little too embarrassed to shout the news to the high heavens. After all, it had not been so long ago that he was so certain he would be the one to marry her.

But even if Lord Sidmouth would not care to speak of it so freely, that does not mean that his companions would refrain from doing the same thing.

Her heart sank.

“Grandmama, I apologize that you had to hear the news from someone else,” she began in a quavering voice. “And believe me, it all caught me by surprise as well. Everything just happened so fast and?—”

She could hardly finish her sentence.

Her grandmother, however, looked extremely bewildered. “Whatever do you mean, dearest?”

Evie looked up in surprise. “Do you mean,” she rasped, “that you have not heard it yet?”

“What am I supposed to have heard?” The older woman looked at her in concern. “Evie, darling, you are scaring this poor old woman?—”