Page 30 of My Secret Duke

I t never ceased to amaze Ivo how shocking the Ashtons could be. He almost admired them for it. They could never do anything without making a scene. Olivia was forever worrying about being talked about, but she really should just accept that nothing she did was ever going to change her family. She needed to embrace it.

He watched as the three sisters huddled together, no doubt discussing how to contain this latest disaster. Roberta was smirking and Justina nodding, while Olivia waved her hands around rather wildly. Just moments ago, he had been kissing her.

The memory sobered him. He had tried so hard to be her friend, to subdue his careless ways, to be a better man. He had fallen in love with her but never told her because he did not want to drive her away. Seeing her dancing with that fool Carey and knowing he was the latest in the dowager’s long line of “suitable” husbands for her granddaughter had made him unbearably jealous.

He understood that the pressures upon Olivia were profound. He had accepted that she was never going to marry him, so to have her hand him such an outrageous dare had left him reeling. But only for a moment. Despite the “better” Ivo informing him in a prissy voice that he must decline, he was damned if he was going to.

Maybe it was time he fought for what he wanted? Fought for Olivia? After all, what had he to lose that he wasn’t going to lose anyway if she married Carey?

He wanted her. He had wanted her from their first moment. Remembering their heated kisses made him ache, in his heart and his groin. This was his moment, and he wasn’t going to let it slip away.

The sisters had broken apart. Justina was returning to their grandmother, and Roberta was speaking to their brother. Olivia was alone, and this was his chance. He stepped up to her and leaned in, his voice low enough not to be overheard.

“I accept your dare.”

She looked up at him in surprise, as if she had forgotten. “Do you? Are you…?”

“Sure? God yes,” he said, heartfelt.

That made her choke back laughter.

He gave her a searching look. He had to ask, the man he was now demanded it. “You haven’t changed your mind? I would understand if you did.”

She shook her head. She had that mulish look that meant she was determined to see something to its end. “God no.”

It was his turn to laugh. “Then I will send you instructions of where and when. Don’t worry. I will be discreet. You are safe with me, Olivia.”

She tried to smile, but her lips were trembling. “I know I am,” she said softly.

Ivo bowed, and then went to join his mother and sisters. He could feel her gaze on him as he walked away. Soon, he would have her in his arms, in his bed, and once he had her, he was going to do everything in his power to keep her.

“No one will ever forget my debut!”

Justina was lying on her back on the bed, staring up at the canopy above. Olivia and Roberta lay on either side of her.

Olivia tried not to laugh. It wasn’t funny. How could their mother take precedence over her own daughter? But that was Felicia, wasn’t it? Selfish to the last.

Thank goodness she was going away for a long visit to the continent.

“I suppose she’ll come back eventually,” Justina said.

“Then we’ll face it when the time comes,” Roberta said.

She was being surprisingly mature, but ever since the horse riding lessons, Olivia had noticed her sister was no longer a child. She still behaved like one sometimes, but there were moments of real maturity.

“I suppose we could always go back to Grantham and hide. Imagine Mother strutting about the ton with her new husband!”

They all shuddered.

“I miss Grantham,” Roberta admitted. “I love being there. Being free. But I am quite liking London too. There are exciting things to do here too. Especially when my sister races the Duke of Northam along Rotten Row.”

Olivia couldn’t shush her soon enough and Justina lurched up from the bed with a muffled shriek. “What! Tell me. Tell me at once!”