Page 19

“L et us walk,” Anthony said attempting to cool the inferno raging inside him. “Evangeline, move your feet now.”

His words shocked her into taking a step, and soon they were walking down the path.

Anthony usually kept his composure around those men, but today he’d felt the urge to plant his fist in their faces.

The anger from his youth was there, but there was something more now.

Cavendish had insulted Evangeline, and that had him seeing red.

“I’m sorry you were exposed to that.” He looked at her, taking in her tight expression. Was she about to weep? “He has gone, and I will not allow him to harm you again.”

She exhaled loudly. “I did not give him any reason to believe I wished to be the future Lady Cavendish, Anthony.”

It was the first time she’d willingly called him by his first name, and he liked the sound of it on her lips.

“I know that, just as I know it would have been he who bullied and intimidated you, Evangeline. Now tell me what threat he held over you.”

“He knew of our situation.”

Cavendish would use every means he could find to get what he wanted, and that had been Evangeline.

“I loathe that man. He calls himself a gentleman and yet he is far from that. He—he makes me so angry. How dare he speak as if he owned me?”

“So, your maidenly sensibilities are not upset then? This is pure rage?” Anthony asked, feeling his own mood lighten.

“We have had only a handful of conversations, and suddenly, because he has decided I would be a suitable wife and mother to his children, he is angry I did not fall in with his wishes. Beastly man.”

“Extremely.” The thought of Cavendish in a bed with Evangeline made his stomach curdle. “It seems our engagement has been expedited, however.”

She stopped, turning to face him. “I’m so sorry. That just came out of my mouth before I could stop it.”

He wasn’t sure what it was about this woman that he liked, but her forthright nature was definitely part of it.

“We had already decided we would become betrothed, Evangeline, but I think we should return shortly and tell your family, and then I must inform my aunts.”

“Oh dear, yes they should have known first.”

He let his eyes run down her neck to the soft swell of her breasts above the bodice, and felt his body respond to that…her. Her lovely eyes were filled with worry, and she trapped her full, curved lower lip between her teeth. He wanted to lean in and pull it free with his.

His mistress supplied his needs, and he’d never experienced the want to have more with another woman. Anthony had always believed that was because he couldn’t. That something had died inside him at Blackwood Hall. But right then, he wanted this woman, and that would never do.

“We shall walk for a while longer,” Anthony rasped before clearing his throat. “Then return to your family to tell them our news.”

He could not get out of it now, so he would see it through. But Anthony was a master at keeping himself distant from people. Evangeline would be no different.

“They will be shocked,” she said, once again taking his arm. “As will yours.”

“But mine will be ecstatic also, as they will no longer need to compile lists.”

“Lists?”

“Of suitable women for me to court.”

“No!” She gasped. “Really?”

“Really.”

“Who is on the list?”

“You were.”

“Me? That does surprise me, as I have little to offer. I’m too old, poor, and speak my mind.”

“You are,” he said, which had her shoulders stiffening. “In my defense I was agreeing with you.”

She harrumphed.

Looking around them, he saw they were receiving plenty of glances, and no doubt some had overheard the altercation with Cavendish and his slimy friend. They would be gossip fodder for days.

He would have to watch his old enemy closely. Anthony had a feeling this was not over with yet. The man had a mean, vengeful streak. He knew this firsthand. He would not have that turned on the woman at his side.

“Lord Hamilton.” Lord Medway approached with his wife.

“Miss Spencer,” Lady Medway said. “It is a lovely day for a walk.” The look in their eyes told Anthony they wanted the details of what had just happened with Cavendish. Normally, these two would never approach him, but clearly their thirst for gossip overrode their fear of him.

“It is lovely,” Evangeline said.

“We just saw Lord Cavendish, and he did not appear happy. Do you perchance know why, Miss Spencer?” Lady Medway asked, shooting Anthony a nervous look.

“We don’t know,” he said in a hard voice, which had them bobbing their heads and scurrying away.

“Was that necessary?” Evangeline said.

“I loathe gossip, and the only reason those two approached was for that. They usually avoid me, and I prefer it that way,” Anthony said.

“Do you like people fearing you, then?” She looked up at him. “Because if you do, your reputation has succeeded in ensuring that.”

He grunted.

“People will be shocked to hear that society’s biggest rogue, Lord Hamilton, is engaged. Surely you can allow them that.”

He’d not given enough thought to this. It had simply been a matter of getting her away from Cavendish and his aunts to stop hounding him.

Anthony had believed they would both win from the arrangement.

He wasn’t so sure now. The man he’d always been was not someone who bent to society’s standards.

He had no wish to change that because of his fake engagement.

“Let them be shocked. I’m not changing who I am.”

“As no one would expect you to. After all, you are a man with a title and long list of ancestors at your back.” The words came out with a bite to them.

“I can’t help who I am, Evangeline.”

“Neither can I,” she snapped back. “Or I would not now be fake engaged to you. I am tempted to flee back to the country and stay there until the season is over,” she muttered.

“I didn’t think you a coward, Evangeline,” he mocked her, and was rewarded, as Anthony had known he would be, with her shoulders stiffening.

“If you said that to another man, he would take exception and challenge you, Lord Hamilton. Because I am a woman, I cannot.”

He didn’t give in to the smile. “Of course you are right. Forgive me.”

“I would if I knew you meant it.”

This woman, he thought. Cavendish would have loathed her resolve and wit. He’d have broken her.

“Evangeline, if Lord Cavendish comes anywhere near you again, or says something to upset you, you must come to me immediately.”

“I can look after myself.”

“Don’t be na?ve. He is a dangerous man. Trust me on this matter; you cannot be alone with him. I must have your word. That man is dangerous and not someone you will win against.”

“I am not na?ve, and I’ll thank you for not speaking to me like that again.”

No one who wasn’t in his inner circle took him to task like that. It shocked him she had.

She looked up at him under the brim of her bonnet then. “What is between you and Lord Cavendish?”

“History, and nothing that concerns you.” The words came out coated in ice, and thankfully she heeded the warning in them.

“Very well, I will keep my distance from Lord Cavendish.”

A further three groups of people plucked up the courage to approach them. One held Lady Beasley and her daughter. Anthony remembered his aunts telling him she had hoped to be his future countess. He was suddenly quite happy to have Evie at his side and masquerading as his fiancée.

Evangeline handled the barbs thrown her way with ease, and Anthony barely spoke a word.

“That Miss Beasley would like to see me burned at the stake,” Evie said when the women left.

“Some say I am a catch.”

“Really?” She looked him up and down. “I thought everyone was terrified of you?”

“Oh, they are, but they’re not terrified of my fortune, and most fathers can overcome that if they can get their hands on it by foisting their daughters on me.”

“Charming.”

“Who is your favorite poet, Evangeline?” Anthony thought he should find something to discuss with her in a public setting.

“I don’t like poetry.”

“To not love poetry is surely a crime when you walk in society. What will people think, Miss Spencer?”

“That I’m a philistine with a forthright nature and am too old to change.”

He’d been in a rage not long ago and now he was barking out another laugh.

“And you.” She looked up at him, the sun picking up the gold flecks in her eyes. “Who is your favorite poet?”

“I like many,” he said.

“Favorite poem then?”

“Cyriack, this three years’ day these eyes, though clear,

To outward view of blemish or of spot,

Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot;” Anthony said.

“Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear.

Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year,

Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not,” she added.

“I thought you said you didn’t like poetry?” Anthony managed to get the words out of his dry mouth. She knew his favorite poem.

“I don’t, but my sister loves it and is constantly quoting it.”

“I believe John Milton is one of the greatest English poets of all time,” Anthony said as he turned them back toward the carriage. He rarely talked about his love of poetry to anyone, and yet he was doing exactly that.

“I think you and my sister will get along well,” she said. “She is constantly thrusting books in my direction and demanding I read them.”

“And yet?”

“And yet I would rather continue reading the tales of Captain Broadbent and Lady Nauticus.”

“You cannot be serious? That is utter drivel,” Anthony said.

“It is not drivel. It is entertaining, and escapism, unlike the long winded, boring poetry you and my sister enjoy.” Her eyes were sparkling now as she met his gaze.

Evangeline Spencer enjoyed a good argument. He tucked that away with the other things he already knew about her.

“You will get on exceedingly well with Toby,” he said as they reached the carriage.

“Oh?” She raised a brow as he held out a hand to help her inside. “Is he an intelligent and articulate man then?”

“You are a mouthy woman, Evangeline Spencer.”

“Thank you. I do believe that was a compliment.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Well, I will take it as such.”

She released his hand and settled inside the carriage. He helped her maid, then joined her.

*

Heathcliff Spencer could not have been happier when Anthony had asked to speak to him in private, upon their return to the Spencer house.

If he thought it was all a bit rushed and odd, the baron never said so. He had instantly given Anthony his permission to wed his eldest daughter. They then joined Evangeline and her sister in the small parlor to celebrate.

“It’s all very quick,” Prudence said, handing him a cup of tea and a hard stare.

“I mean, Evie never told me you two had even had a meaningful conversation, and we are close and share everything. Today you go driving in the park and now you’re engaged.

You’ll forgive me if I struggle with what has happened. ”

This Spencer was not quite as happy as her father, if the frown on her face was any indication.

“I have given my permission, Prudence,” her father said. “And what a wedding it shall be.”

The man reminded him of one of those long necked, bulbous vases his aunt Petunia favored. Large body, but very little substance from the neck up.

“We are happy,” Evie said and even to his ears it sounded forced. Anthony shot her a look, and she smiled. A full wide one that did not reach her eyes. “It is wonderful,” she added.

“I have never been this happy,” Anthony lied.

“It is as if I woke in the dark and now the sun has risen,” Evie said clearly to best him.

“Evangeline is what I have been waiting for my entire life,” he said solemnly. To ensure he got in the last word, he rose as she opened her mouth to spout another lie. “And now I must be off but will see you this evening at the Rothersham ball.”

Anthony bowed and headed for the door before she could stop him. However, he knew she would be on his heels.

“Prue is not convinced,” she said the minute they had stepped outside the door.

Anthony turned to look at her and noted that Prue’s face was pressed to the parlor window to their right.

“Perhaps this will do it.” He leaned in and kissed her before she could protest. Soft, he thought, and sweet. Anthony pulled back and looked into her dazed eyes.

“Behave yourself, and I will see you tonight.” He then walked to his carriage before she could speak, still clearly shocked over what he’d done.

He looked at her, raising a hand as the carriage rolled away, but she was still simply staring at him, stunned. Anthony knew exactly how she felt, because that simple kiss had left him reeling.