Page 19 of The Duke and the Accidental Bride

Of course, that would require Duncan and Miss Gouldsmith to play their role enough that they could fool the viscountess and everyone else into thinking that they were in love.

“That brings us to the next point,” Duncan continued, keeping his attention firmly on the viscountess. “The date for the wedding. Your wonderful daughter and I have agreed that wewish to wed as soon as possible. So, I shall organize the banns for the first available date, which should not be longer than a few weeks.”

“Perfect,” the viscountess purred.

“Hold on a moment,” Miss Gouldsmith spoke up suddenly. She had been quiet until this point, a blessing it had seemed, the slim chance that maybe she had changed her ways and resigned herself to this fate without seeing the need to argue.

So much for that.

“Is something the matter, Isabella?” the viscountess asked her daughter. Her smile was friendly but the look in her eyes spoke of a silent warning.

“Do I not get a say as to the date of my own wedding?” She fluttered her eyelashes. “This has all happened so quickly and I might wish to double check a few things first. If that is agreeable with you, Your Grace?” She fluttered her eyelashes again, the look behind them speaking volumes to her intent.

“Of course,” Duncan said. He shifted where he sat, bracing himself. “Although as we both discussed, best that the ceremony is scheduled as soon as possible, no sense delaying.”

“But what is the rush,” she said with a smile that was as mischievous as it was wicked. “It is not as if our love will faulterin that time. If anything, a delayed wedding might see it grow – giving us a chance to better get to know each other.”

“I think we know one another well enough.”

“Oh, there is always more to learn.”

“Which we will have the rest of our lives for.”

“Exactly, so why the rush?”

Combative. Argumentative. Purposefully frustrating. She was as Duncan remembered, and that was a problem that he could not ignore. Made all the worse by the way his eyes refused to behave themselves, constantly glancing at her in that dress, feeling his pulse quicken, and then looking away before he lingered for too long and lost control of himself.

Ordinarily, Duncan was not attracted to more curvaceous figures. But Miss Gouldsmith... his eyes strayed to her hefty bosom, he could not help but look at her curves, and the way she sat forward, pressing them together as if trying to lure his eyes and tempt him. Well, Duncan was only human.

He felt his heart begin to pound in his chest as his eyes strayed further. Sweat beading on the back of his neck. Legs tingling, up the thigh and toward his groin and --

No!Duncan could not allow himself to get distracted. And he certainly could not allow himself to rise to the bait and losecontrol. What he needed to do was get through this meeting, and then decide how he was going to deal with Miss Gouldsmith and her troublesome ways.

“Isabella!” the viscountess snapped, thankfully. “His Grace is correct. No sense delaying, now that the engagement is official. I am so sorry, Your Grace. She is just excited, is all.”

“Think nothing of it.”

“And another thing,” Miss Gouldsmith spoke up suddenly. She shuffled forward on the couch, pushing her beasts closer together. “I do not know how I feel about a June wedding. It is bad luck.”

“Bad luck? Whatever do you mean, girl,” the viscountess said.

“Well, I was speaking with my friend Charlotte about this, and she agrees that June marriages tend to yield the most unhappy of marriages. She was telling me of her sister, Audrey, married in June also. And her cousin, another June wedding, both of which have been nothing but calamitous and Charlotte cannot help but wonder if the month is the reason for it. Naturally, I thought this a little silly, but then I asked another friend of mine and --”

“Isabella!” the viscountess snapped. “What have I told you about listening to gossip? You are being silly, girl.”

“Am I?” She flashed her eyes at Duncan. “Just repeating what I have heard. I do wish for this marriage to be as wonderful andperfect as I know it can be and I would hate for anything to ruin it. Silly me, I suppose.”

She was acting this way on purpose. He was sure of it. As if she might be able to annoy him into cancelling the marriage. It might have been a good plan had she not underestimated how stubborn Duncan was.

Besides, it wasn’t as if he wished for this marriage either! He was doing it because he had to, because that was the sort of man that he was – one with honor! Regardless of how much she antagonized him, nothing was going to change. And she needed to realize that.

“I am sorry to hear of your friend’s sister and cousin,” he spoke, careful to meet her eyes and not look south. “But I am afraid that we cannot base wedding preparation, nor can we assume the future of our marriage, around something as tangential and unquantifiable as the month in which we are married.”

“I do not see why it would hurt.”

“We will marry as soon as we are able,” Duncan said sharply. “And that is the end of the discussion.”

“And I could not agree more,” the viscountess said.

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