Page 8 of As the Earl Likes
Pursing her lips, she started toward Piccadilly without taking his arm.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, hastening to keep up with her long strides.
Jo realized she didn’t need to walk that fast. She wasn’t running from anyone or anything. “I don’t know why you’ve called today. We see one another at the Siren’s Call. That is the extent of our acquaintance. This is very strange.”
“Haven’t you just recently become friendly with my sister and her group of friends?”
“What does that have to do with you?” She sent him a sideways glance, realizing she was unaccountably irritated. Because she was nervous. He couldn’t actually have meant what he’d said last night.
“I only mean to suggest that our social circles now intersect, so perhaps our acquaintance is deepening.” He flashed her a smile that made her toes curl.
Why? They’d never done that before in his presence.
He’d never proposed to her before.
“You’re going to need to come to the reason for your call today,” Jo said, flexing her hands as she walked.
“I told you I would last night,” he repeated. “Right after I asked you to marry me. I’ve come to set forth the arrangements. If you’re amenable.”
Jo tripped.
Sheff caught her, not that she’d been in danger of falling. She pushed at him and stepped back. “You didn’t have to do that.”
He blinked at her, seeming surprised at her reaction. “I couldn’t let you fall.”
“I am not going to marry you.” There, she’d managed to get the words out. Why was she behaving in this manner? She was normally coolheaded, calm, and extremely rational. Apparently, a marriage proposal was just the thing to send her reeling.
She hadn’t expected that, but then, no one had asked her to marry them before.
“I don’t want you to actually marry me,” he said with a chuckle. “I misspoke somewhat last night. My apologies. I am in search of a pretend bride, and you are, without question, the perfect candidate.”
Relief coursed through her. She laughed, lifting her hand to her chest. “Thank God. I thought you were asking me to be your wife, and I couldn’t conceive of why you would do such a thing.” She lowered her hand and started walking again but at a more sedate pace.
“I would never,” he said, falling into step beside her. “I think you know I am a confirmed bachelor.”
“Well, perhaps you are unaware that I am also determined to remain unwed.”
“I’d suspected that, but hearing you say so makes you even more qualified to serve as my make-believe betrothed.” He sounded almost giddy.
Jo smiled. “What ridiculous plan have you concocted and why?”
“Given your attentive ear, I’m sure you know that my parents have long badgered me about marrying.”
“You’ve moaned about it on several occasions.” Jo heard a great many things at the Siren’s Call, and Sheff had made no secret of his parents’ desire for him to wed.
He laughed. “Just so. Misery does love company. This season, their fervor has risen to a near-deafening crescendo. I simply cannot tolerate another day of their harassment.”
“You poor thing. So, your plan is to pretend to be betrothed? How does that solve anything?”
“It means they will leave me alone, at least for the remainder of the Season. It also means my father, in particular, will mind his own business, which he largely prefers anyway, and stop bothering me and my mother about this issue.” He caught her eye for a quick moment. “Is it too much to want some peace for a couple of months?”
“Only a couple of months? Won’t they be right back to pestering you?”
“Perhaps. Or they may feel sorry for me for some time after you cry off.”
Jo stopped then and faced him. “I am not going to pretend to be betrothed to you, nor am I going to cry off.” She’d be squarely in Society’s sights then, and she’d be ruined forever. Not that she wasn’t somewhat tarnished already as the daughter of the owner of a gaming hell who openly consorted with a man who wasn’t her husband. Not to mention Jo’s father, the charming gadfly whom everyone liked but who was not truly accepted into Polite Society.
It wasn’t that she cared what Society thought. It was that she didn’t want certain doors closed to her because of what Society thought. Reputations mattered, and so far, she had a decent one, even if she wasn’t accepted in the upper levels of the ton. She didn’t want that anyway.
