Page 6 of The Duke Who Dared Me
“Because he’s my oldest friend.”
His oldest friend andheroldest enemy.After her parents passed three years ago in a carriage accident, she was swept up into Percy’s purview, and he was far more interested in her daily activities than they ever were.
“I can find a husband myself.I’ve had several proposals.”
“And yet, you’re still unmarried.”He leaned forward, arching a brow.“They must know about the warts,” he whispered.
Verity growled.Very well, the teacup to his face would not be accidental.“I don’t need your help.”
“Listen, Percy is happily married to his wife, enjoying the blessing of a new baby.Or so he insists.”
“Colin is a delight,” she said over him.
“He doesn’t have time to manage you.”
“I don’t need to be managed!”
The words rang hollow in her ears.She could feel it in the way Percy had been avoiding her gaze these past few months.The way Marina’s polite smiles never quite reached her eyes.Verity was well on her way to being set on the shelf, taking up space in a home that had already moved on without her.
“He needs you married, Verity, so he can focus on his family and restore the Baxter family name.Your father's debts were significant.As you know.”
“You mistake my independence for loneliness.That’s a very male assumption.”
She felt like a child again, balling her fists and stomping.The problem, it seemed, was others viewed her as a child, treated her as a child, but never acknowledged she was a woman with a will and wants of her own.
“I don’t see why I must be married when you can sit there and declare you won’t be married.”
“I don’t expect you to understand.”
She jumped from her seat, pacing over to the wall of windows overlooking the gardens, dry and brittle, resting for the season until spring.“I understand plenty.They wish me gone.”
“As do I.”
Verity whirled around and strode up to him, smacking him upside the head.It only earned her a bored chuckle.
In all her years of knowing Alistair, she couldn’t ruffle his feathers.Not entirely, at least.He always managed to keep control of his emotions.But tomorrow was another day ripe with opportunity.Verity was determined to find a way beneath his skin and make him squirm.
“If you go around London hitting all your suitors, that may be why you haven’t become a bride.”
“I haven’t become a bride because, like you, I would prefer to remain single.”
“You mean you’d rather be a spinster.”
“I’d rather wait for the right man to call my husband than be auctioned off like some prized heifer at the market.”
That, annoyingly, earned her a guffaw.
“Listen, I am not in love with the task at hand either, but a promise is a promise, and your brother is a friend.I never break a promise to a friend.”
“You break promises to me all the time.”
“You aren’t a friend, Verity.”
She swooped down to sit across from him again, allowing her skirts to billow out around her.She must look like those silly porcelain decorations Cook always insisted on using when finishing a beautiful pie.
“At least we can agree on that.What am I then?”
“The bane of my existence.”
