Page 63 of A Virgin for the Duke of Thorns

Evie nodded emphatically. “Grandmama knows that Colin hates hunting.”

“So she must know that he was bound to lose this competition!”

Alice threw her hands up in frustration as she looked at all three of them. “Are you ever going to let me finish?”

Scarlett pouted and put on a sincerely apologetic expression. “As you were saying, dearest?”

“Well, since the Dowager Countess knows that Colin hates hunting and had set forth the rules regardless of that fact, then she must have expected something like this to happen,” Alice explained.

“She wanted to drive her grandson absolutely livid?” Phoebe muttered.

“Well, not really, but I suppose she must have considered that this could happen. Besides, it is all just a game…” Alice trailed off.

That is correct. None of this is real, just like my betrothal to Colin.

Although she had to admit that she doubted that Ethan’s ploy would ever accomplish… Well, whatever it was meant to accomplish, she could not help but feel a crushing disappointment when she saw Colin turn on his heel. Was he not even going to fight Ethan for her?

Apparently not, a bitter voice whispered in her head.

Apparently, she meant less to Colin than she liked to believe she did.

In that case, she was going to do her best to show him that she would not be cowed by his rejection. She was going to the ball with Ethan, and she would dance with him and do all the things that Colin had warned her against doing.

And if he tried to stop her, then she was going to give him a piece of her mind!

Phoebe let out a soft sigh, wringing her hands in distress. “I think we have all witnessed that His Grace possesses quite the temper, and fake betrothal or not, he will not like the idea of being cuckolded—even more so by his friend.”

Alice nodded in acknowledgment. He had not liked it when he saw her dance card filled with other names during the Salisbury ball.

He was going to like it far less to see her dance with only one person for the entire night.

But the words Ethan had spoken to her out in the gardens snagged at her heart. More than anything, she wanted Colin to find true happiness, and if there was anyone who knew him, it had to be his closest friends.

She would have to trust Ethan, trust in the words of a charming Wolf who was more than capable of lying through his teeth. However, for Colin, she was startled to find that she was willing to risk a lot more than she might be comfortable with.

* * *

To say that he was in a towering rage would have been an understatement.

Colin could not believe that Ethan would have the audacity to pull something like this. He had known his friend for many years, and Ethan had never gone between him and a woman that he had his eyes on. Even more so the woman that the whole ton had acknowledged to be his betrothed.

But it was not that thought that irked him to the bone. It was that he could not bear the thought of Alice in another man’s arms, even if it happened under the scrutiny of all the other guests of this damned house party.

Even for just one second.

“I suppose you just missed your shot there,” a sarcastic voice said from behind him. “Literally and figuratively.”

Colin whirled around to find Daniel wearing one of his infernal smirks. “I can see his ploy from a mile away,” he growled. “Whatever it is he hopes to accomplish, he will not be able to.”

“Oh?” Daniel remarked silkily, an eyebrow raised calmly as he walked towards him. “You are forgetting that this is Ethan we are talking about. You know just how charming he can be, and anyway”—he shrugged—“were you not the one who was always reminding us that this betrothal is nothing but a farce? That it was merely intended to suit both your interests and Lady Alice’s?”

His smile grew almost feral as he voiced the idea that Colin himself had feared in the darkest recesses of his soul.

“What if Lady Alice Barkley decides that it is in her best interest to have a real betrothal with our friend?”

“She would not!” Colin roared. “Alice would not fall for it.”

She was much too intelligent and forthright. She might enjoy his company, but a charmer like Ethan would only exasperate her in the long run.

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