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“I would prefer, My Lord,” he said in that imperious tone of his that brooked no argument, “if Miss Rutley were present for this conversation.”

Lord Drowton looked faintly confounded by this, as if the Earl had asked for something baffling but ultimately harmless, like he had asked to show the portrait gallery to his pet rabbit.

“Yes, very well,” he said impatiently. “Come along, Emily.”

Emily considered protesting—it was the principle of the thing, really—but decided to save her protests for the really important matters. She would give in to this command to join them; it was harmless enough.

She would stand firm, however, on the things that mattered.

She wouldnotend this meeting engaged to the Earl.

CHAPTER 9

She ended the meeting engaged to the Earl.

Miss Rutley, Benedict noted, looked positively mutinous as she signed the contract he had negotiated with her father—thoughnegotiatedwas perhaps a strong word. Her father had seemed almost desperate to be rid of her in a way that Benedict had found somewhat excessive.

Certainly, Miss Rutley had seemed destined for spinsterhood, even though Benedict wasn’t entirely sure why, given her admission that she’d spent several Seasons actively pursuing a match. Presumably she was more polite to the men she saw as potential husbands, and it wasn’t as though she was unattractive.

He stopped this train of thought before he could dwell overmuch on hownotunattractive he’d found her when she was in his arms the night before. She hadn’t been unattractive at all. She’d been soft and lush and pleasantly tall; he hadn’t had to bend at thewaist to reach that pouty mouth; she had opened so eagerly to him?—

This was very much not the time to be having those thoughts.

“Thank you very much, My Lord,” Benedict said, laying down the pen with a decisive click. He waited for the ink to dry before taking his copy of the marriage contract, folding it, and putting it into his pocket. It was, he felt, an eminently fair contract. The bulk of Miss Rutley’s dowry would be kept for her use, she’d be provided with a more than adequate allowance, and he would manage to avoid any further scandal.

“And you,” the Viscount said with a satisfied nod. “I assume, given the…nature of the thing, you shall be seeking a special license?”

“I shall,” he agreed as Miss Rutley gasped, “Wait, what?”

“Don’t be naïve, Emily,” her father snapped and despite his own personal quibbles with Miss Rutley and her persnickety ways, Benedict found this to be a step too far. She was, after all, going to be his wife—and soon.

“I understand things are all moving rather quickly,” he said to Miss Rutley in as calm a voice as he could manage. “But I wish to quell the talk. A speedy marriage is the most expedient way to do that.”

She slumped in her chair, nodding.

He found, oddly, that he didn’t like that.

Not that it seemed to bother her father.

“Excellent,” he said, rapping his knuckles against his desk in an unequivocal dismissal. “I’m sure the two of you would like to discuss things. Emily, show the Earl to the front parlor, would you?”

And just like that, the Viscount had washed his hands of the whole affair.

Miss Rutley did, as instructed, lead Benedict to the front parlor though they’d scarcely made it two steps inside the room before she whirled on him.

“Why did youdothat?” she asked, a plaintive note lurking beneath her exasperation.

He gave her a sardonic look. He’d used up all his patience for this morning.

“Youknowwhy,” he said.

She threw up her hands and started pacing furiously. Her tall figure, he couldn’t help but notice, was shown to particularly good effect while she was walking in the light fabric of her morning dress.

“This is ridiculous!” she exclaimed. “I am not some—some horse at a posting in that you can trade in when the one you had no longer serves. You wantedAmanda, not me!”

Benedict blinked. Curiously enough, he had not thought about Miss Amanda Rutley once, not this whole morning. Not the evening prior either, come to think of it, not since the moment his lips had touched those ofthisMiss Rutley.

Still, that was no longer important, and he told her so.