Page 61 of A Spinster to Reform the Duke
“Marry me,” Lady Esther said again. “That is the price of my silence. Make me a Duchess, and no one will know of your dalliance with Lady Rebecca.”
Timothy looked between the women in alarm.
I cannot do that!
He had no intention of making Lady Esther his Duchess.
“What madness is this?” he snapped, rounding on Lady Esther. “I had no intention of marrying you before, despite my mother’s encouragement and your own, I certainly have no intention of doing so now.”
Lady Esther’s lips parted and she reared back, as if he had struck her across the face with the words.
“Very well, then I will tell everyone what I saw. She will be ruined before the night is out.” Lady Esther flounced toward the door, clearly intending to tell what she had seen.
“No!” Rebecca begged, moving off the desk. “Lady Esther, surely you would not be so cruel as to damage another lady’s reputation?”
“There will be no damage.” Timothy turned away from Lady Esther, keeping his focus on Rebecca. There was not a doubt in his mind what he was going to do. He had to do this, now, to save Rebecca from what could come of this moment. “Marry me, Rebecca.”
“What?” She snapped her gaze to him, reeling. “What did you say?”
“Marry me,” he said quickly. “Any whispers Lady Esther make are then worthless, are they not? No one could reproach us.”
Yet his voice died, even as he spoke, Rebecca was shaking her head.
No…she is saying no.
“Why not?” he asked, feeling his voice growing weak. Had she not declared just now she cared for him? That her heart was his? Had she not kissed him with passion?
“I will not marry for that, Your Grace.” She returned to formality, walking around him and heading for the door.
“But I –” Timothy thought she would have understood what his kiss meant, that it was a declaration of his own heart, but she didn’t. She was retreating him as a deer fled a hunter.
“I cannot marry for anything less than love, Your Grace.” She moved to the door, urging Lady Esther to the side so she could escape them. Timothy followed, unwilling to let this end so easily. “I trod that path before, I will not do it again. I will not bind myself to a man simply to save my reputation. I’d rather have the sullied reputation.”
“Rebecca, that is not what this is.” Yet his words fell on deaf ears.
Does she think so little of me?The thought cut deep.
As Rebecca hurried off, fleeing him down the corridor, Timothy turned to face Lady Esther. The look of triumph in her face was gutting, as if she was taking delight in the heart in his chest that was cracking open.
“Why do you smile?” he asked, his voice deep indeed.
“You know how to save her reputation, Your Grace. Wed me, and I will not speak of it.”
Timothy took a step closer to her, glaring down as he felt all the venom he could muster darken his voice.
“I would no more marry you than I would a garden statue.” His words made her reel backwards. “Do not speak of what you saw here tonight between Lady Rebecca and myself.”
“I cannot make that vow.” She ran off, hurrying past him, leaving Timothy standing there in the corridor with his hands over his face, wondering just what damage he had done to his and Rebecca’s lives.
Chapter Twenty
Why does she not say anything?
Rebecca looked away from across the lawn where she had been staring before toward the table that was being set up on the terrace with maids bustling around it, preparing for tea. Since the incident the night before, Rebecca had been on edge, prepared for Lady Esther to blurt out exactly what she had seen in the library.
Yet she had said nothing. Contrary to her threat, Lady Esther had stayed silent and not revealed what she had seen, settling for tossing glares Rebecca’s way every few minutes instead.
“Something tells me Lady Esther is not your greatest friend, sister.” Eliza appeared at Rebecca’s side, saying the words in a jesting tone. She had no idea the way it made Rebecca tense and look away from Lady Esther’s glare, staring out across the lawn again.
