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“Who says it is for you?” he quipped back.

Madeleine let out a bitter laugh and rose from her seat.

“Always a pleasure, Your Grace,” she wearily. “Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go back inside before anything else goes awry.”

She turned to walk up the steps.

“Madeleine, wait,” Percy said. There was no humor in his tone or boredom this time. Instead, pure earnest laced his voice, and she warily turned around to face him.

Annoyance and something marred his expression, as if he were struggling with how to move forward. It was odd, Madeleine realized, seeing him suddenly so unsure of himself.

“I can get away with being unmarried for decades,” he began. “You have another year or two at most. Let us be truthful. Your father will not allow you to become a spinster nor will your brother. This may be the only way to buy you time to find someone better suited than Mowbray and the likes of him.”

“In return, your presence on my arm will stay off the other ladies and their mamas until it is time for me to depart again.”

Though she didn’t know why, Madeleine’s heart twisted.

“You are…” she began. “Cecil said you had moved back to England permanently.”

“To England, yes,” Percy replied. “But to theton?No. This is a brief summer visit.”

He took a step toward her, and she did not fail to notice the way his eyes swept down to her bosom and lingered there.

“During our time together, I can help you assess better, more feasible suitors, and when we are sure we have a captured your gentleman of interest, I will make it so that you are the poor, darling young lady in need of a white knight, and I am the villain.”

“But that will ruin all of your prospects,” Madeleine argued though she didn’t know why. She could not actually consider this—could she?

“You truly put too much faith in theTon’smemory,” he retorted dryly. “When—ifI come back in a few years, there will have been so many scandals unfolded by then that our little tragedy will be completely forgotten.”

“You are still forgetting that I donotwant to be married,” she insisted.

Sympathy flashed through Percy’s eyes.

“I wish we could both pretend that you have that choice,” he said softly.

It might as well have been a slap to her face. That was the truth, wasn’t it. In the end, she had no real choice. Still, she shook her head.

“No,” she replied. “It is too risky. You could change your mind. You could get caught up in a scandal of your own. You could fall in love with someone before our plan is complete, and where would that leave me?”

Percy laughed.

“Love?You are still so very naive, Monkey. Though the way you wore this dress tonight had my mind telling me otherwise for a moment.”

“I am not that naive,” she whispered angrily.

He chuckled again and shook his head as if he did not hear her.

“I promise you this, my little Monkey, I will never do that.”

“Ever?” Now, it was her turn to ask.

With a small smile, he shook his head.

Madeleine snorted in amusement. “I suppose I could believe that.”

Percy cocked an eyebrow in reply to her response. “And how is that? What is it that you know about me that the rest of the world does not?”

“That you are irritating beyond measure,” she replied bluntly.