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"And prove all of them all right?" he gasped in outrage.

"You, of all people know how the ton believes that I am the most nasty of all gentlemen, simply because I had the misfortune of being scarred in a brutal war. Now you want them to add the absence of honor to the list of my perceived vices?"

"There would not be any loss of honor. Everybody is aware of the grasping tendencies of members of her family. Remember the lady in question is a spinster. I believe this was her last attempt to snare a husband. Greedy as she is, she decided that she wanted a duke. I would not stand for this".

A red haze descended over his vision on hearing his mother disparaging Victoria, while it was true that Victoria might have initiated the kiss to set the scene for her ruination. She had not been alone, he was just as fault as she was allowing it. There was also the fact that he could not summon the feeling of anger that an aggrieved person should.

"I would advise you, Mother," he said with barely leashed anger " that you desist from disparaging my intended. I do not know where you got the idea that she was the one that forced me into proposing to her"

"But..." his mother started.

"I would have thought that you know me well enough by now to know that I cannot be forced into anything. If I proposed to Miss Hobbs, it was because I wanted to, not because I was forced to."

"I apologize, but I was just looking out for you, my son," she apologized in a mellow tone.

Anthony felt the prickling of guilt on his gut because of his anger earlier.

"Even if the lady in question had manipulated me into a proposal, I could never abandon her to the judgement of theton, apart from it being a smear on my honor, it would have been disrespect to Father's memory to do such."

At the mention of his father, he watched his mother's face and watched as her expression turned to that of sorrow. He knew that the subject of his Father was a sore subject for his mother but the subject at hand was important so he continued,

"Father and I might not have seen eye to eye on many issues,"

That was an understatement.

"but I strongly respected his sense of honor and responsibility, and if he were to be here with us today, I know he would never advise me to allow a lady become ruined on my account. I should know. He acted the same way when he was in a similar situation."

At his veiled statement, he saw his mother's cheeks turn red and she looked away in embarrassment.

Anthony hid his smile, because he knew he had won the argument simply by using that point.

* * *

His mother in her youth was in no way like the strict matriarch she was now as the Dowager Duchess of Devlin. She had been known among thetonof the cheerful, fun loving daughter of the Duke of Somerset.

She was also something of a beauty so she had a bevy of suitors that hounded her but for some reason she didn't accept any, leading to her having a second season. Apparently, she was holding out for the love she read in Lord Byron's poems.

He even went as far as threatening to arrange a marriage for her if she continued to remain unmarried after the end of her second season. She of course thought he was bluffing and continued attending the balls she enjoyed so much until a fateful incident that landed her literally in the arms of the man who would be her husband.

Having sustained an injury to her ankle in the process of trying to land as delicately as she could after being thrown off the barely trained horse she had stolen, she had been lucky her savior had been a gentleman physician who just returned from Edinburgh upon completing his studies.

The incident had set off a whirlwind romance that had wowed the halls of theton.Though her father had rejected at first due to him being a second son, he had accepted after his brother had passed in an accident thus making him heir to the dukedom.

* * *

Having heard this story several times, he always tried his hardest to reconcile the image of that young rebellious, reckless couple with the strict authoritarian parents he had, he finally agreed that time and responsibility did change people. The fact that he knew the story was from tidbits he heard from the old lady gossips of the ton and the story his father had told him in a rare alcoholic haze.

"Considering how your marriage came about, I wonder why you are so against this marriage?" he asked his mother, a mischievous smirk curving his lips

"That was different, your father and I loved each other. I cannot say the same for you and your intended. Do you love her?"

At that question he adjusted uncomfortably in his seat.

"That is hardly important. I just prefer to avoid allowing her to be ruined, I am just following the footsteps of Father after all," he replied with a smug smile.

"If you say so," his mother replied wryly, standing up to leave the room.

ChapterNine