Page 71 of When the Viscount Seduces
“No,” Gwen admitted. “I don’t love him.” She glanced toward Ellis, who gave her a quick, faint smile of encouragement. That small action bolstered Gwen more than anything else could have in that moment.
“Are you going to marry him?” Min asked.
“I don’t want to.” But Gwen also struggled with defying her parents. She wasn’t sure she could. And yet, she loved Lazarus and would do anything she could to be with him. She only hoped that would be possible.
A very pretty young woman with reddish-blonde hair approached them. Something about her was vaguely familiar, but Gwen didn’t think they’d met. The woman’s lips lifted in a brief, tentative smile. “Miss Price?”
“Yes,” Gwen responded as Min and Ellis looked toward the interloper.
“May I speak with you?” She glanced at Min and Ellis, but quickly refocused on Gwen, her expression expectant.
Gwen tried to think of how she might know this woman, but nothing was coming to her. Before she could think of how to respond, the woman added, “Please. It’s urgent. I would not bother you if it were not deeply important. Please.”
Her repetition of the word “please” along with the words “urgent” and “deeply important” gave Gwen pause. She could listen to this woman for a moment or two. “Certainly.”
Min’s jaw tightened and she took a step forward, as if she would block the young woman. Gwen looked to her and met her gaze. She gave her head a tiny shake and mouthed,It’s all right.
Gwen moved toward the unknown woman with a pleasant smile and walked with her along the edge of the ballroom. “I’m afraid I don’t know you.”
“I am Miss Melissa Worsley. My grandfather is the Viscount Haverstock.”
“My grandfather is also a viscount,” Gwen said. “How coincidental.”
“I didn’t realize that,” Miss Worsley murmured. “Do you mind if we step outside? I’ll be brief.” Miss Worsley walked out through one of the open doors, and Gwen had no choice but to follow her.
Actually, she did have a choice. She could abandon her and return to her friends. But she did not. There was a shadow in the woman’s eyes that provoked Gwen’s concern.
Outside, Gwen shivered in the night air. It hadn’t felt that cold after she’d left Lazarus’s arms.
Suddenly, she remembered where she’d seen Miss Worsley before. She was the young woman Lazarus had been speaking with at the park yesterday.
“I won’t prevaricate,” Miss Worsley said, her shoulders twitching as a cool breeze swept over them. “Forgive me for my frankness, and I do apologize for how this news will probably shock you. I am carrying Lord Somerton’s child.”
If Gwen hadn’t been chilled before, she would be now. Ice frosted her veins and cloaked her skin. She wrapped her arms around herself, but there was no warmth anywhere. She tried to think clearly, but it was difficult. Then it struck her—why was this woman tellingherthis?
“Who are you?” Gwen said, though she knew the woman’s name. What she should have asked was who she was to Lazarus. Except Gwen didn’t really want to know.
His hesitation and inability to offer for her crystallized and now made sense. Miss Worsley and her child were his “reasons.” He was going to be a father.
But he’d also said he loved Gwen.
The woman spoke. “I met Somerton at a house party last autumn.”
Autumn? And he hadn’t married her before now? Gwen felt sick. “I’m so sorry.” Lazarus really was a rogue, and a rather despicable one at that.
“It has been difficult,” Miss Worsley said quietly. “I’ve been ill. Indeed, I just told Somerton yesterday, and I did wonder at his hesitation. However, now that I hear he has been carrying on a liaison with you, I understand. I wanted to ask you to please let him marry me. I realize I am asking a great deal, particularly if you genuinely care for one another, but I need his protection.”
Gwen was relieved to hear Lazarus hadn’t known about the babe until yesterday. “I don’t understand why you didn’t tell him sooner.”
Dark pink stained Miss Worsley’s finely sculpted cheeks. “I confess I didn’t know until my mother worked it out. As I said, I was ill. I was also incredibly naive.”
Though Gwen wanted to tell the woman that she and Lazarus were not having a liaison, she realized it wasn’t really true. They might not have been meeting secretly to conduct a love affair at the Droxfords’, but they were now. Or they had been. Gwen realized that was over.
He had to marry Miss Worsley. There was simply no other acceptable outcome. Even if he loved Gwen.
Despite his behavior, her heart ached for him. How could it not when she loved him so? He’d carried a tortured look in his gaze, which she understood now. He didn’twantto marry Miss Worsley, and it seemed he might be trying to find a way out of doing so. He’d told Gwen that if she could wait, he might be able to marry her. What was he expecting would change?
“I’m dreadfully sorry for the position you are in,” Gwen said. “However, I don’t think I can help you. Somerton will choose his path.” But she could encourage him to do the right thing. To not be a rogue.
