Page 27 of The Duke Meets His Match

George wasn’t a novice with the ladies and should have known better, but he belatedly realized he’d gone about this proposal in the entirely wrong way. He’d blundered badly, in point of fact.Dear Miss Jennings, I dislike you immensely and, therefore, wish to marry youwas hardly the approach to gain the desired result. Prinny’s threat had affected him more than he was willing to admit, as his approach to Miss Jennings clearly demonstrated.

He should have allowed himself a day to collect his wits and ponder the correct approach before speaking to Miss Jennings.

She had gestured to the chair next to hers, but he chose instead to stay by the fireplace. He clasped his hands behind his back and cleared his throat. “Miss Jennings, please forgive the abrupt manner of my previous words,” he said.

She sat there, hands in her lap, looking unimpressed and hostile.

He tried again. “We have not gotten off on the right foot, have we, Miss Jennings? Discovering you in the library at Cantwell Hall made me angry, as you know, but, on further reflection, I can see how you may have felt similarly upon having had your solitude interrupted.”

“Not exactly an apology,” she said.

“Perhaps not,” George replied. “In my defense, I can only say that the serious nature of the discussion being held was reflected in my reaction to discovering your presence.” Miss Jennings said nothing in reply, so he continued. “As to our abbreviated waltz, you were no more inclined to dance with me than I was with you, so the fact that we ceased to dance and instead took refreshment to Lady Bledsoe and Lady Walmsley seemed preferable to us both, in my opinion.”

From the look of annoyance on Miss Jennings’s face, George suspected he was only digging himself into a deeper hole than he was already in. He looked toward the window where Miss Jennings had stood and then beyond, toward Lady Walmsley’s small park, at the green lawns, trimmed hedges, andfreedom. If only he could climb through that window and disappear, leaving all the business of Prinny and Miss Jennings and marriage and the unknown Princess Sophia of Schönberg-Nusse behind.

But it was not to be.

George took a deep sigh. “Please allow me to explain myself one more time,Miss Jennings. I can see that I have chosen my words poorly thus far, but Icannot leave until I have explained things fully to you.”

“So you said earlier,” Miss Jennings said. “And yet, I am still waiting and have heard nothing that explains your offer or anything that would convince me to accept.”

He reluctantly sat in the chair next to hers. “I am caught in a trap, Miss Jennings, and I fear I have caught you with me.”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “A trap? What sort of trap?” she asked.

How much should he tell her? “I have just come from a meeting with thePrince Regent, during which he presented a plan to me that benefited himgreatly, and he was convinced it would be of benefit to me as well. Unfortunately, his plan requires I marry an individual of his choosing. In my effort to extricate myself, your name may have arisen.”

“Mayhave?” Miss Jennings said.

“Very well, I told His Royal Highness I was already betrothed, in the hopes that it would be sufficient to dissuade him from pressing marriage to a European princess upon me.”

“You told the Prince Regent that you and I were betrothed.”

“Yes.” After her previous outbursts, he was relieved that she was acting rationally thus far.

“And so, if I am understanding you correctly, to prevent yourself fromspending your life with someone not of your choosing, you decided to place usbothin that precise situation. A logical move if there ever was one, Your Grace.” The sarcasm fairly dripped from her words.

“I cannot explain why your name of all names came to mind, Miss Jennings. In all honesty, I thought offeringanyname would satisfy the prince and dissuade him from his plan.”

“But it did not,” she said.

“No.”

“There is more you are not telling me,” she said.

George shrugged. “He expects us to wed quickly and intends to be present at the nuptials,” he said.

Miss Jennings inhaled sharply, and George waited for the hysteria that was sure to follow. Instead, she clasped the arms of her chair tightly and closed her eyes. He watched her bosom rise and fall in an attempt to control her emotions.

Eventually, she opened her eyes. “There is a simple answer to this, YourGrace, at least for me,” she said matter-of-factly. “I refuse your offer and leave you to contend with the Prince Regent on your own.”

“True,” George said, hoping it wouldn’t come to that. Prinny would be incandescent with rage for having been lied to, and he would exact misery on George that could equal or surpass what marriage to Princess Sophia would create. Still, it had been worth the risk to try.

“And you have offered me nothing—beyond the formality of marriage—that would induce me to accept. No sort ofquid pro quo, as it were,” she said, again with sarcasm.

“Thequid pro quois implicit in the offer,” George said. “You will be the Duchess of Aylesham—”

“I never aspired to be a duchess.”

---