Page 39 of Duke with a Lie (Wicked Dukes Society #4)

R hiannon led the Earl of Carnis into the gardens, gathering her courage for the difficult conversation that was to come.

“It is a lovely day,” she said awkwardly as they crunched along the gravel path together.

In truth, it was desperately dreary, but she didn’t have an inkling of how to tell this man that she no longer had any intention of marrying him. If only he knew how wretchedly she had betrayed him, he would not look at her with such tender regard as he was now.

“It looks like rain,” the earl pointed out.

So it did. She sighed and continued on with him, staring grimly ahead, trying to find the ideal part of the conversation in which she could throw him over.

“You are quiet this afternoon,” he observed. “Is something on your mind, my dear?”

She glanced back at him. Reginald was a handsome man. He was tall, if not as tall as Aubrey, and as a skilled horseman, he was in excellent shape. His hair was dark and thick, his eyes were a pale shade of blue, and he was an honorable gentleman.

Yet when she looked at him, she felt nothing.

When he spoke, heat didn’t unfurl in her belly, and when she placed her hand in the crook of his elbow, she didn’t feel as if she might catch fire. She could scarcely imagine him kissing her on the lips, let alone placing his mouth in places far more scandalous—and pleasurable.

“There is something that has been concerning me, yes,” she said at last, wishing she felt something for him.

Wishing she had fallen in love with him.

Reginald wouldn’t have broken her heart.

Reginald wouldn’t have walked away from her.

He would have loved her in return, this she knew.

But perhaps something was inherently wrong with her, because she had ruined everything she had with the earl for a handful of days with a man who was incapable of love.

For an illusion that didn’t even truly exist.

“Perhaps we should sit,” Reginald suggested, gesturing to a nearby bench.

“Yes, perhaps we should,” she agreed.

They strolled to the bench and seated themselves upon it, the damp air of the day making her shiver.

“Are you chilled?” he asked solicitously.

She pulled her wrap more tightly about herself, his concern heightening her guilt. “I am well.”

“You could take my coat,” he offered.

What a wretch she was. Any woman in her place would have been overjoyed to be the future Countess of Carnis. Just not her.

“No,” Rhiannon said hastily. “That won’t be necessary.

Reginald, the thing that I wish to speak about is…

” Her words trailed away as she lost her nerve and then regained it, holding his gaze unflinchingly as she spoke again.

“I am in love with another man, and I am very sorry, but I don’t think I can marry you after all. ”

“I suspected as much,” he said.

She could not have been more shocked if he had sprung up and danced before her.

“You did?”

He gave her a thin smile. “Lady Heathcote paid me a call.”

She recognized the name at once, recalling the beauty with the bountiful curves who had been throwing herself at Aubrey every chance she’d managed at Wingfield Hall, the one who had been in his lap that horrid day at Villiers House. But why in heaven’s name would the woman pay a call upon Reginald?

“Lady Heathcote?” she repeated, confusion giving way to misgiving as she considered why indeed.

Reginald cleared his throat. “I gather that the viscountess was a…fellow guest at a house party at which you were also a guest.”

She inhaled, shocked. “I…I don’t know what you’re speaking of.”

“Don’t lie to me, if you please.” He took her hand in his, holding it in a firm grip as he gazed into her eyes.

“I may be an exceedingly proper man—too proper by the measure of some, perhaps—but I am not a stupid man. Lady Heathcote was adamant that you were in attendance. She said that she saw you unmasked with the Duke of Richford. The two of you were riding bicycles.”

Shock swept over her. Instinctively, she drew the hand that he wasn’t holding over her mouth. Dear heavens, Lady Heathcote must have been spying on them. It had been plain that she had wanted Aubrey for herself. She could have him now. He had made it equally clear that he no longer wanted Rhiannon.

Lady Heathcote’s words returned to her, stinging and vicious. Can you not see Richford wants a woman and not a mere girl?

“Lady Heathcote was concerned that you had perhaps acted with impropriety with the duke, given the nature of the house party and the fact that the two of you were often alone together,” Reginald continued, his expression dour.

“Please, you need not say more,” she begged. “Now you must see why I cannot marry you.”

“Has Richford offered for your hand?” Reginald pressed, unsmiling.

She barked out a bitter laugh. “Of course not.”

“I would like you to know that my offer still stands.”

“How can it? I have just told you that I love another, and you have admitted to me that you are aware that I have been…improper with him.” The words were difficult for her to say.

But she had to say them.

Her brother had often scolded her for being wayward and headstrong, for never considering the consequences of her actions. Well, she was considering them now. She had no other choice but to do so.

“I would be lying if I said that I wish you had not placed yourself in such a position,” Reginald told her solemnly.

“And I count myself to be many things, but a liar is not among them. The blame for this, I place solely upon your mother. It has been more than apparent to me that she has allowed you to run wild. I can assure you that as your husband, I will be a model for you. I will be more than happy to give you the guidance you require.”

She stiffened. “I am not sure that I require guidance. I am a grown woman.”

“A grown woman who has made terrible errors in judgment,” Reginald pointed out. “Errors which could prove ruinous in the eyes of society.”

As he said the last, his grip on her hand tightened incrementally.

A new kind of astonishment took over her. “What are you saying, my lord?”

“I am saying that you need a husband, and I am willing to be that man. To be candid, I sincerely doubt any other will have you, knowing what I do about how you have lowered yourself.”

“Lowered myself,” she repeated, tugging at her hand. “I do not like the tone this conversation is taking, my lord. Perhaps it is best for you to go. I am sorry, but I cannot marry you.”

“Of course you can.” His taut smile returned, and for the first time, she saw the hardness and the flinty determination behind it.

“Someone needs to take you firmly in hand, and I am pleased to do so. I cannot say I hold you in the same esteem I once did, given your unsavory confirmation of Lady Heathcote’s scurrilous gossip.

However, I am being more than magnanimous in willing to accept a soiled bride, perhaps one who will even bring another man’s bastard to the union. ”

She gaped at him. Had the earl gone completely and utterly mad?

“I have already given you my answer,” she said more firmly, again tugging on her hand to no avail.

“There is only one answer, Lady Rhiannon,” he told her, his voice low and seething. “The answer is that you will marry me. If you refuse, I will have no choice but to make my knowledge of your lack of honor fodder for common gossip.”

Had she thought Reginald meek and mild-mannered? If so, she had been as wrong about him as she had been about Richford. The Earl of Carnis was furious that she had forsaken him for another man. That much, she could see.

She reeled. “Are you saying that if I don’t marry you, you will ruin me?”

“My dear, you have ruined yourself. I am the one who will save you. But only with you as my wife. If you disagree, my sole recourse is to make certain that you are no longer welcome in polite society. Before I am finished, not even your brother will be allowed to know you.”

“Whitby would never disavow me,” she protested, horrified by the very notion.

“Wouldn’t he? I beg to differ. He is marrying a divorced woman.

The scandal is already tremendous. Only think of how terrible it shall be for him and his new bride when word spreads that his sister has whored herself for his friend.

” Reginald paused. “Whitby has no inkling any of this has occurred, has he? You were beneath his nose for the entirety of that filthy house party, and he never knew it. How guilty he will feel. But naturally, he shall have to put his wife first. Perhaps he might send you to the Continent. Or banish you to the country. Certainly, he can never know you again.”

Her mind could scarcely grapple with the reality before her. Boring, kind, handsome Reginald was blackmailing her into marrying him. Using the threat of her own ruin and banishment to force her into becoming his wife. Her urgent, instant reaction was to slap him and tell him no.

But the reality of everything his warning entailed terrified her.

She knew that her brother would do everything in his power to keep her from being banished from polite society.

In the end, however, the choice wouldn’t be his.

And he was newly content, having won Lady Miranda’s hand and love.

Rhiannon had no wish to jeopardize their future or their happiness.

To say nothing of what would happen if Rhys were to discover that Richford had taken her virginity.

No, she couldn’t do that to Rhys. Learning that she had given herself to Richford would destroy him.

She swallowed hard against the bile rising in her throat. “Very well, Lord Carnis. I will marry you if that is what you require.”