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Chapter Thirty-One

Jumping the gun…

A s it should have, Caleb thought. Upon finding out that, on the eve of one’s wedding, the marriage was simply a cash grab with no true feeling behind it at all, why wouldn’t she feel cynical and jaded? Though he was relieved to hear that she had no unresolved feelings for Williams, more relieved than he cared to admit. In fact, one aspect of their arrangement still bothered him greatly. He was, after all, marrying her for money as well. It was his own rather than hers, but it still played a part in his decisions. Oh, it was not entirely the reason, of course. He had some time still and options had he wanted to continue his search for a bride… but she was the only woman he’d had any real interest in since his arrival in London. Indeed, the moment he’d first laid eyes on her, he’d simply known that she was different in some way. And that she was for him.

“I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” he offered. “I wish that we could take our time, get to know one another, and do this all in the more usual fashion.”

Marina shook her head. “No. If things hadn’t happened the way they did, we would not be here. I had made a decision, you see, to never marry. To never take that kind of risk ever again… I was only remaining on the marriage mart for appearances. Choosing to be a spinster is somehow more of an embarrassment to a family than winding up that way due to lack of interest from others.”

“Never? You truly had no inclination to wed?”

She made a sound of dismay. “Had we not been forced into this situation, I don’t think we would ever have reached this point… and I should hate to think that we would not be on the cusp of saying our vows. When I think about how close you came to being killed—I told you that you had become important to me, Caleb, but it’s more than that. I could not have anticipated feeling this way. I never imagined this might be the outcome.”

His breath seized in his chest. “Are you saying that you love me?”

“No,” she said, after the slightest hesitation. “Do you want me to say that?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “Because I rather think that I’ve fallen in love with you… When I was locked in that cellar with everyone else attempting to meddle in our lives and halt our wedding, I wasn’t thinking about the inheritance or even the scandal, truthfully. Beyond how it might impact you, of course. It was you I thought of, Marina. How hurt you might be, how embarrassed or disappointed—and the idea that I might ever be the cause of such feelings for you was completely abhorrent to me. I realized then just how much you had come to mean to me… that you are vital to me, even.”

“I’m afraid to put a name to it,” she admitted.

“Then we won’t. Not yet. We’ll tidy up this mess,” he said, indicating the dried blood on his forehead, “and see what sort of damage has been done. Then we’ll get you home.”

Marina moved toward the washstand and poured water into the basin there. “Have you any bandages?”

“I have a stack of perfectly pressed cravats,” he offered.

“Your valet would never forgive you… or me,” she said.

“I don’t care,” he said. “If I never have to wear another one of these blasted things, I’ll be quite happy. I much prefer the countryside where I can eschew such trappings… or the coalfields where I can discard the facade of gentleman altogether.”

She smiled then, the corners of her lips turning up in such an enticing manner that he realized how truly risky their current situation was.

“I should send you home,” he said. “I can rouse my valet to tend these wounds… this is a situation that—well, innocent as it may be, would certainly never appear that way to others.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him, an unknowingly and unintentionally seductive pose. “Do you mean to shout it from the rooftops, then? To tell the world that I was alone with you in your bedchamber prior to our marriage? We’ve already, at least in the eyes of the ton , been caught in a terribly compromising position. I could hardly be worse off for it.”

He chuckled softly. “No. Of course not, but if it were discovered, seduction would be assumed.”

“Would that be so terrible? We are to be married later today, after all. Not every married couple says their vows first.”

Caleb felt the blood rush from his head directly to other parts of his anatomy. Parts that had little to do with maintaining honor or doing the right thing. “Marina, that’s a very bold statement.”

“It is… but I meant it,” she said. “Why should we wait? We are both determined on our course of action. Unless, of course, you are reconsidering. Given the degree of trouble that has been caused for you simply by virtue of deciding to marry me, of all people, one could hardly blame you.”

“I’d do it all ten times over,” he replied. And the degree of truth in that statement was staggering.

“Then let’s tend your wound and see what happens after,” she suggested softly. “I’m not so naive, Caleb, that I walked into your house with no notion of what might occur.”