Page 41 of The Duke of Kisses
She stared at it a moment, then lightly placed her hand on him, barely touching his sleeve as if it were made of something very toxic. “I understand congratulations are in order.”
David suffered a shaft of sheer panic. What had Miss Stoke told her? “For what?”
“Miss Stoke told me you are to be married.”
The hell she had. “We are not engaged.”
“Perhaps not formally, but she told me it was forthcoming.”
The racers were moving toward their vehicles, and since they were the second race, he started steering her to his phaeton. “She told you this just now?”
“Actually, she came to my meeting the other day about—” She shook her head. “Never mind what it was about. She came to my meeting, where I met her for the first time. She said she was going to become engaged to an earl. Then today she told me that earl is you.” She fixed him with an irritated glower.
Hell and the devil.
He couldn’t seem to stop thinking that. The curse was a litany in his head.
They’d reached the phaeton, and he pulled down the step and helped propel her up inside. He followed her and retracted the step before sitting beside her on the cushion.
David picked up the reins, allowing plenty of slack since they wouldn’t be going anywhere yet. The first racers were just positioning themselves at the start. A hollow sensation in his chest seemed to expand inside him. “She expects I will marry her. I promised my father as much when he was dying.” He heard the breath Fanny sucked in beside him and turned his head slightly. She looked up at him with a deep furrow in her brow. “He and her father were the best of friends and sought to unite our families. My father was so ill. I would have said anything.” Hehadsaid anything.
“You’re going to honor this promise,” she said quietly
He couldn’t tell if it was a question or not. “I’m not sure. I was… Until I met you.” He shook his head. “That’s not quite right. I planned to honor it even after I met you at Christmastide. But that’s because I never thought to see you again. Then when I encountered you in London…” He smiled. “It seemed Fate wanted to give us a chance.”
“You could also argue that Fate wants to give you and Miss Stoke a chance.” Her tone had softened a bit, but she was still rigid beside him.
“Yes, you could. And therein lies my dilemma. I want to be with you, and yet I feel I owe it to my father to see if Miss Stoke and I would suit.”
Fanny clasped her hands in her lap and looked down at them. “Do we even know if you andIwould suit?”
The first race started, and cheers filled the air. But David was immune to the excitement. He was entirely focused on the woman beside him. “You guessed three.”
She turned her head. “That’s the number of times we’ve kissed.”
“Exactly right,” he whispered.
“You think because of that, we suit?”
He clutched the reins more securely and gave the horses the signal to move forward. “I think because of that, we sharesomething. Don’t you?”
She exhaled. “I did. I do.” She pursed her lips and clenched her hands more tightly together. “But what of the promise you made to your father? If you don’t give Miss Stoke a chance, you risk harboring a regret that could tear you up inside.” She understood him so perfectly.
“How do you know me so well?”
“I don’t. Not really. I just know that’s howIwould feel.” She unclasped her hands and laid them flat atop her lap. “You didn’t promise me anything.”
No, he hadn’t. Nevertheless, he felt as if he’d let her down. He drove the horses to the starting line and brought them to a stop just as the other racers finished.
“Oh goodness, we’re next,” she said, sounding nervous. She clutched the side of the phaeton with her left hand. “I won’t fall out, will I?”
“Not unless you leap from the vehicle.”
She whipped her head around in alarm. “Why would I do that?”
He chuckled. “You wouldn’t. That’s the point.” He briefly touched the hand that remained in her lap. “I’ll make you this promise: you won’t fall.”
Her eyes narrowed skeptically. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You know how clumsy I am.”
