Page 50 of Good Duke Gone Hard

“Come on Margaret. You couldn’t possibly have thought I wouldn’t ask about that. I saw you entangled on the garden grass floor for goodness sake. You are so lucky I was the one who first stumbled across you two. Can you imagine the scandal?”

Slowly, she shook her head. Then nodded. Finally finding her voice, she answered, “Of course I can imagine the scandal.” Then she mumbled, “It’s all I can think about.”

“Just tell me then,” Bella insisted.

“What’s to tell? You saw it didn’t you?”

“Well, there must be more going through your mind.” If it had been anyone else, Margaret might not have been so willing to share, but she did want to alleviate the burden that her thoughts had created.

“You know me, of course there’s more going through my mind. He wants…he wants to marry me.”

Bella stopped picking weeds. “When were you going to tell me?”

“I said no.”

“You want me to believe that you said no?” Bella repeated in disbelief.

“Well, yes. Why would I lie about that?”

“Why would you say no that?”

“Because he didn’t ask me.”

“Wait. I’m confused. Did he ask you to marry him or not?”

“He did. What I mean is, he said he was going to marry me. Wait, before you lunge at me–I can see you getting ready for an attack, Bella–he didn’t ask. He just assumed we would get married.”

“Why would he assume that?” Bella stared at her as Margaret let the silence ring through the air. “Unless…” And then for only the second time in Margaret’s memory, Bella blushed. “You didn’t. But we were there… How did you… When would… You didn’t! Did you?”

“Not then…” Margaret felt the heat crawling up her face now too. “But then later. We…did.”

Margaret watched Bella’s brows knit together as she mulled over this news. Then, as only Bella could be so pragmatic, she asked, “So what’s the problem?”

“He didn’t–”

“I know. He didn’t ask. I understand. You view yourself as his equal. You want to have a say in it. Blab blab blab. Great points. I agree. But life isn’t always like that, is it? He wants to marry you. And, my dear cousin, if anyone should know, you’re not growing any younger. So truly, I think the only question is, do you want to marry him?”

Margaret would have walked away or verbally attacked almost anyone else had they spoken to her this way, only a few could get away with it, and Bella was one of them.

She sat like a stump, just eyeing her canvas. A few minutes must have passed.

“Well?”

“I’m thinking.”

Margaret sat and thought for what must have been several more minutes, perhaps even an hour or two because when she looked up, she realized she had painted the profile of Jonathan’s face. Behind him was her leg wrapped in weeds in the pond.

Bella now stood beside her. She let out a low whistle. Margaret peered up at her.

“What are you waiting for? Just go to him.”

The ever-impulsive Margaret just sat for a full three seconds, maybe only two, and then she stood up so fast she knocked her stool over. She reached up to pat her coiffure into place, then pinched her cheeks. “Yes. Oh my god, you’re right. What the devil am I doing?”

Bella chuckled. “I don’t know.”

“What should I do?”

“I don’t know. But you do.”

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