Page 47 of Desire and Discipline
7
Oliver
Properly dressed for the day, Oliver sat in the parlor with Anthony and Evie, jiggling his foot as his nervous energy ran rampant while he waited for Diana. He’d run down the previous evening’s events for them, with some glossing over of the intimacies they did not need the details of, and had been unsurprised at Anthony’s amusement and Evie’s censure.
After all, Evie had resisted marriage to her husband under just such terms.
To be perfectly honest, Oliver did not expect Diana to say yes—yet—he just had not wanted her to leave before he could convince her to. Desperate times called for desperate measures and all that. Though, if she had accepted that she needed to marry him to avoid ruination, he would have been perfectly happy with that outcome.
If he’d had to continue faking illness to keep her in the house, he would have, but her reaction had opened another avenue for him.
“You appear far too pleased with yourself,” Evie said, shaking her head and narrowing her eyes at him. She slouched on the couch, the way she often did when she was completely relaxed. While she could appear the perfect lady when she desired, it was not her natural state.
Oliver preferred when she was acting the proper lady she should have been brought up as, only because when she was not, it was a reminder of how long it had taken him to find her after her parents’ death. She should have never been on the street in the first place, yet she had, for far, far longer than any child should be. Must less a girl child.
He thanked every deity he could think of that worse had not befallen her than what she’d gone through, but he did not like to be reminded of how he’d failed her. Not that he would ever tell her so because he wanted her to be comfortable more thanheneeded to be comfortable. It was the least he could do for her.
“I am pleased with myself,” he answered her. “Miss Rutherford was going to leave in the middle of the night. Now, she’s not. You should be pleased, too.”
“I might be pleased that she did not disappear in the night, but that does not mean I approve of your tactics to leverage her into marriage.” Evie huffed. “You could not have justaskedher?”
“She might have said no.” He shrugged as Evie rolled her eyes. “She was determined to leave. If she left, convincing her to return would be much more difficult than convincing her to stay, so I did what I had to do.”
“Men,” Evie muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. Her husband chuckled. Anthony was the perfect man for her—steady, lethal, and strong enough to stand by her side. Oliver had not thought that she would ever marry, but she’d chosen the right man.
There were a few more long moments of silence before he heard footsteps approaching the open door, and he sat up straight. A pause in the steps, then Diana appeared in the doorway, and both Oliver and Anthony got to their feet. Something inside Oliver relaxed.
Despite her promise to come and speak with them, part of him had still worried she would bolt.
“My lords. My lady.” She was starkly formal, utterly rigid as she strode into the room. Rather than moving to a seat, she came to a halt several feet away from the furniture, folding her hands in front of her as if she expected to remain standing.
“Oh, do sit down, Diana,” Evie scolded as she sat upright, waving her hand and thankfully saving Oliver from having to give the order. He was not sure Diana would have listened to him at this juncture. “Anthony, close the door, please. We do not want to be interrupted.”
Oliver waited until Diana was seated in the armchair beside his before he took his own seat again. The expression on her face said that she was not pleased with having to sit next to him, but the only other alternative was the couch where Anthony and Evie were sitting, which would have been unnecessarily crowded.
“Now, then. Diana, you wish to leave the household?” Though she kept her tone even, Evie was playing the part of the perfect lady of thetonnow, and the imperious way she spoke made it clear she was not thrilled with this development. Since that was all to Oliver’s benefit, he deemed it best to sit quietly and let his niece take the reins of the conversation for the moment.
“I think it best. The Marquess is fully recovered, and my services are no longer needed.” Diana was just as firm as Evie in her statement. She really would make a fantastic marchioness.
“If he is fully recovered, then why was Sylvie running through the hall shrieking that he was dying this morning?” Evie asked, causing Diana to glower at her.
“Because he pretended his heart was giving him trouble.”
“How do you know he was pretending?”
“Because the moment I turned around after I went calling for help, he was no longer clutching at his chest, and he was clearly feeling perfectly fine. He only did that to… to…” Diana’s voice faltered. She had not been looking at him, but now the way she avoided looking at him was pointed rather than because she was focusing on Evie.
“To… trap you into marriage with him?”
Diana huffed and held out her hands in front of her in a helpless gesture.
“As ridiculous as that sounds, yes.”
“Why does that sound ridiculous?” Oliver asked, deciding it was time for him to speak up.
Finally, she turned to look at him, her exasperation with him written clear across his face.
“Because why would you want to marry me?”
