Page 33 of A Virgin for the Rakish Duke (Romancing a Rake #3)

“Oh, well, I can see that it might seem like the end of the world. But it needn't be. Is the man beastly? Old? Ugly?”

“Young and handsome and a gentleman as far as I can tell,” Harriet said miserably. “Just not the man I would choose.”

“And who might that be?” the blonde prompted.

Harriet shook her head. “It does not matter. He is not here and by now knows that I am promised to another. He has no further use for me.”

“Then it is the Duke of Penhaligon,” Jane guessed astutely.

Harriet nodded after a beat, and Jane pursed her lips.

“That may not be the worst thing in the world that could have happened. He does have something of a reputation, and... wait. Were the two of you... did you...?”

Harriet did not answer as her face grew scarlet. Jane's jaw dropped, but a moment later, she was hugging Harriet fiercely.

“I'm sorry, Harriet. You took me by surprise. I did not expect it. No matter. You will not be the first woman to have her heart stolen by a rogue. Nor the last. Especially that particular rogue. There is no shame in admitting it.”

“He is not a rogue!” Harriet said fiercely, separating herself from her friend's sympathetic embrace.

Jane looked startled. Harriet was surprised at her own anger.

“I'm sorry, Jane. I do not know where that came from,” she sighed. “My emotions are so tangled.”

Jane returned loyally to her side. “There is no need for apologies, Hattie. Not with me. But we must do something about this. Now, I am going to say something that may sound controversial, but hear me out. Perhaps if this suitor is indeed young and handsome and gentlemanly, it is no bad thing that he has been matched with you?”

She watched Harriet closely for a reaction.

“You may not have wished to consider any man but your beloved Duke, but...”

“But, I do not know where I stand with him!” Harriet interrupted. “I believed that perhaps my feelings were reciprocated. I dared to hope that what we had been playing at was bordering on reality. But now, I do not know.”

“So find out!” Her friend gave her a nudge. “Write to the wretch and ask him outright. Say to him, ‘look here, there is a man my brother wishes me to marry, but if you tell me otherwise, I will say no and marry you instead’.”

Harriet laughed at her friend's bare-faced brazenness, at how clear-cut and simple life appeared to her.

“I could not! Neither say it aloud like that nor turn down Ralph's choice for me. He would cut me off if I did. Especially if it was to choose his roguish friend instead.”

“Would he, though?” Jane asked, pinching her brows. “Yes, he might be angry and be angry for a long time, but he is so protective of you, Hattie. I just cannot see how he could possibly do anything that might hurt you.”

Harriet considered this. She thought about every decision Ralph had ever made concerning her and what his motives were. Always protective. Stifling and smothering but still protective. He probably would not cut her off dead. Or even forbid her from Oaksgrove.

He might not speak to me for a few months, but elsewise, would his ire really be all that bad?

She felt a flicker of hope. Her despair had been such that it had dampened out rational thought.

“Do you believe that the Duke would marry you?” Jane asked.

“Yes!” Harriet's immediate instinctive answer was without thought, “—no, I don't know,” she finished after allowing thought to catch up to instinct.

“Well, that is perfectly clear,” Jane giggled, “but to hell with it. Maybe all that is left is to take a chance. Go to him, sweetie, and be prepared to be coming back to Oaksgrove heartbroken but at least certain.”

He may reject me because I cannot help him acquire his Opera House any longer. He may accept me because he has given up on owning it. Or I may find him in the arms of another woman because he never had any feelings for me other than his lust...

“For me, though, it would not be heartbreak because I would know that I was coming back to a husband-to-be. Who is he, by the way?” Jane asked, leaning close for this tidbit of gossip.

“Henri de Rouvroy,” Harriet replied, absently, thoughts still on Jeremy.

Jane gasped, leaping back. “ Henri de Rouvroy ? And you are not sure if you want him? He is handsome and chivalrous, from a noble family persecuted by the revolutionaries! His grandfather rescued aristocrats from the guillotine! Oh my, you will be the envy of the ton when it is made public!”

“Really?” Harriet blinked, surprised, “I did not even think about who he was.”

“He is wealthy and with estates in France as well as England. As his wife, you would certainly have the freedom to travel. Now that I think of it, his sudden appearance must be related to that woman who threatened you—what was her name?” She clicked her fingers.

“ Eloise ! Yes, she was a de Rouvroy as well. And with dark hair,” Harriet gasped.

Ralph has arranged a marriage for me that might just give me all the freedom that I was craving, while I thought that Jeremy was my only hope to obtain it... It is all there for the taking. All I must do is accept his choice for me. Do as I am told.

“Well, that puts a different complexion on things!” Jane said brightly, “Much different. As wife to Henri de Rouvroy, you would certainly have all the freedom you could ever desire. I thought you were engaged to some terribly tedious business acquaintance of your brother. Someone with the soul of a clerk and the mind of an abacus. If I were not deliriously happy with my beau, I would be quite jealous!”

Harriet glanced at the house. She thought she saw a movement at an upstairs window, a curtain twitched aside as though by someone watching her. Beecham would not allow himself to be humiliated twice. Harriet had run circles around him in London.

He will not make it easy for me to leave. But do I want to? Do I want the easy path of Henri de Rouvroy or risk the disapproval of my brother and potential scandal for the distrustful, rakish, and stubborn-as-a-mule Jeremy Cavendish…