Page 97 of Irresistible
Mary reached for Jess’s hand. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize. And here you aren’t even really married.”
“Come, my kitten,” Gil said with a forced laugh. “Let us go and find your cousin so we may give her our congratulations on her engagement.” That explained why they were here.
Jess watched them go and wished she could escape with them.
“Married?” Someone said the word quite loudly, but Jess had no idea who’d done it.
The whispers were already growing and spreading out across the ballroom.
Jess’s father came toward them, moving close enough so he could speak in a soft but thoroughly furious tone. “Will someone please explain what the devil is going on here? Why did those people think you were the Smythes and that you weremarried?”
Frantic that this would become the biggest scandal of the year—and it still might—Jess pivoted toward her father. “It is a long and complicated explanation, Papa. However, the important part is that Lord Fallin and I are betrothed. He was going to speak with you tonight.”
Her mother was probably going to see right through this nonsense, but it was the best Jess could come up with in the moment. She only hoped Dougal would go along with it. If he’d changed his mind and didn’t wish to marry her, he could cry off later, and while it would still be a scandal, it would at least happen in a far less public arena. Then Jess would go on to become a spinster and everyone would forget about her. As a viscount, he could find a woman he loved and marry her while no one would care that he’d once been at the heart of a great embarrassment.
Oh God, what had she done? Perhaps it would have been better to skulk away than to bear his rejection.
She was afraid to look at Dougal, but did so anyway. Once again, he was unreadable. He didn’t, however, refute anything she said.
A gentleman stepped closer to them. “Did I hear you say you were betrothed?” he asked, either unaware of his rudeness or not caring that he was inserting himself into their conversation. His gaze moved to Robbie. “And who is this?”
Dougal turned to the man, his features hard and unreadable. “You’re sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
The earl leaned on his walking stick. “Let us find a more private location to talk, shall we?”
“Yes, let’s,” Jess’s father said tersely. He offered her his arm, and, given that she’d never seen him so angry in her entire life, she accepted it without question.
As they made their way from the ballroom, she tried to ignore the stares and whispers, but mostly she hoped Dougal would understand.
Chapter21
Anger roiled through Dougal as they left the ballroom. He’d heard the whispers and seen the shock on people’s faces turned in their direction. Was it because of what Mary had said? Or was it because he was a Black man daring to wed a white woman? Couldn’t it be both?
“Try to take a breath,” Robbie whispered, moving to his side as they walked.
“I am.”
“Ye look as though ye’re readying to take someone’s head off their shoulders. Probably not the best impression if ye want to convince Miss Goodfellow’s father that he should allow ye to wed his daughter.”
Dougal shook out his shoulders, but it did little to relieve his tension. Had Jess actually changed her mind about marrying him, or was she only trying to lessen the damage?
Goodfellow, with Jess on his arm, led them away from the ballroom and did not stop until they found a small sitting room a good distance away. Presumably he wanted to be as far from eager eyes and ears as possible. Dougal couldn’t blame him. He couldn’t imagine a more disastrous spectacle than the one that had just occurred.
Not only were he and Jess now in the center of a massive scandal, they were in danger of being exposed as some sort of secret investigators. Speculation would run rampant, and the Foreign Office would distance itself from them. As they should. If Dougal’s career wasn’t already over, it would be now.
What he most wanted was to take Jess far away so they could talk privately. He completely understood why she’d said they were betrothed. What else could she do in that situation? Since she’d already refused him, he reasoned that she didn’t plan to actually marry him.
Da entered the sitting room in front of Dougal, and Robbie closed the door behind everyone. Moving to Goodfellow, Da offered his hand. “I’m delighted to welcome your daughter and all of you to our family.”
Dougal was so damned grateful for his father’s presence. He would have a calming effect, and the truth was that when an earl spoke, people just tended to listen.
“Your family,” Goodfellow said, swinging his gaze from Da to Dougal to Robbie. “And who is this young man?”
“My cousin,” Dougal said tightly. He realized acknowledging Robbie as a member of his family was also acknowledgment that he couldn’t share his father’s blood—as if that had ever been in question. However, claiming his Black family publicly wasn’t something he’d ever had to do, at least not in London, and for the first time, Dougal felt exposed. The double life he’d long led crumbled, and he realized—finally—that it had little to do with his work for the Foreign Office.
No, he’d spent years living up to the ideal of a white nobleman’s son. While hewasthat, he was also a Black cousin and nephew to good, working-class people. He wanted to be both and wouldn’t settle for anything else.
Goodfellow faced Dougal, his dark brows pitched low over his light blue eyes. His ivory face was splotched with red. Dougal didn’t have to know the man to recognize he was furious. “I am extremely disappointed in whatever has happened here. I expect a full explanation.”
