Page 64 of The Duke Meets His Match

“Indeed,” George said. It was the truth anyway.

Prinny polished off the rest of the tart and selected a shortbread biscuit. “You know, Aylesham,” he said after chewing and swallowing, “we had our man run a brief errand for us the other day. What with the early arrival of Prince Ernst Leopold and Princess Eugenia Augusta and theirenchantingdaughter Princess Sophia Augusta—well, we thought to do you a favor, what?”

“And what favor would that have been, Sir, as I have already informed you of my imminent marriage, to which you have agreed to attend?” George asked, feigning innocence but knowing full well where Prinny was headed with this.

“Come, man! You’ve seen the chit with your own eyes now!” Prinny exclaimed.“A German princess of the highest quality and everything a duke could want.We chose to give you every opportunity to receive the reward your prince and monarch wished to bestow upon you before you made a rash and unfortunate decision.” He gave George his most benevolent monarch look—a look George had seen as recently as last week and didn’t believe for one second now either.

“However,” Prinny continued, taking a moment to brush shortbread crumbsfrom his waistcoat, “our man was unsuccessful in his errand.” Now he looked up and directly at George, one eyebrow raised in accusation. “We sent him to obtain a special license in yours and the Princess Sophia’s names, you see, but he was informed it would not be possible, as a special license hadalreadybeen issuedto the Duke of Aylesham—that would beyou, of course—and a Miss Susan Jennings on theprevious Friday afternoon.” He leaned forward imperiously inhis chair, and George tried to ignore the dab of apple custard on his regal chin. “That would be the afternoon you were meeting withus,hereat Carlton House, declaring yourself betrothed,what?”

His Royal Highness was decidedlynothappy, but George refused to allow himself to get caught in Prinny’s trap so easily, despite his monarch’s steely look.“You know as well as I that a man can be betrothed and not have acquired aspecial license to wed yet,” he said with equanimity, hoping it would be enoughto appease Prinny for the moment. “The options are varied: banns, commonlicenses—”

“Thevery afternoonfollowing our meeting,” Prinny repeated. “Immediatelyfollowingour meeting.Directlyfollowingour meeting. And yet you had assured us that you werealready betrothedto Miss Jennings,what? And whilewe were not convinced, we allowed that we would not judge you to be dishonest anddishonorable to us. Your sovereign. Do you recallthat partof our conversation?”

“Yes, Sir,” George said.

“And so,once again, we will ask you: fully aware now that Miss Jennings is only recently arrived in London after spendingyearsin Lincolnshire,whendid the two of you form this tender regard for one another?” His eyes bored into George.

George stared back at Prinny, trying to find the words that would call his monarch’s bluff. Herefusedto lose the battle now. He refused to marry Princess Sophia, especially now that he’d discovered that marriage to Susan waspreciselywhat he wanted. After all his years of disappointment, he simplyknewit to be true. “Miss Jennings and I met last summer at the wedding of the Earl of Cantwell and Lady Elizabeth Spaulding. Our time together was insightful and passionate, and our connection has grown since then. In truth, I love her. I am not a young cub—I have searched the marriage mart for years, and I know my mind in this matter.”

Prinny’s countenance took on a gray tinge. “How delightful,” he said,sounding as though he were growling from the back of his throat. “You say you know your mind. Despite your claim in this regard, Aylesham,it is our wishthat you become acquainted with Princess Sophia Augusta.There are benefitsto us allfrom an alliance with her. Do you understand us?”

“I fail to see where it benefits me when I love another lady,” George said.

“The money!” Prinny exclaimed. “The family connection to royalty, thestatus amongst the other royals on the Continent, the governing alliances that can be formed, the land ... Need I go on?”

“What if I care not a whit for those things?” George asked. He suddenly remembered Susan’s reply to him when he’d tried this very tactic on her at the beginning of all of this:I never aspired to be a duchess. He was struck by the insight the thought now gave him into his own vanity and arrogance.

“Become acquainted with the princess, and look to the benefits that can be afforded to all of us! Wecommandyou!” Prinny nearly yelled, pounding his fist on the table and making the plate of tarts jump, his complexion having gonefrom gray to florid. “We hoped you would be pleased with your reward andcannot understand how you can choose a ... a ...” He waved his hand back and forth as if trying to grasp the right word out of the air. “Apresumptuous spinsterwho can barely be considered of any rank:MissJennings, daughter of a lowly viscount who’s been absent forever—and who shows up at our house uninvited.”

One couldn’t go about picking fights with one’s monarch, unfortunately, or George would be sorely tempted to plant a facer on His Royal Highness for his insulting characterization of Susan. He clenched his fists at his side instead.

“It wasIwho invited Miss Jennings to accompany me,” George said aspolitely as he could through teeth clenched as tightly as his fists, “as I concluded that, after yourhaving insisted upon attending our nuptials, it must surely have been anoversighton your part to exclude her.” He wouldnotallow Susan to be blamed for her presence here.

“Miss Jennings this! Miss Jennings that!” The voice of Prince Ernst Leopold cut through the conversation. George turned abruptly and watched the prince and princess storm their way under the canopy to join them. “Ve vere assured that our daughter vould be married to England’s most eligible duke—but ven ve arrive, ve find no such thing! Vee are appalled at the deceit!And vhere is our daughter?”

***

Susan had wound her way through the various groups of guests who weremingling amongst each other and had covered a great deal of garden but had been unsuccessful locating George thus far—how a lazy, self-indulgent monarch could have so many people willing to bow and scrape to him, she didn’t know—and then, finally, she noticed that an unusually large group of guests had begun congregating near an opulent canopy on the opposite side of the garden. Clearly, something was happening to create such interest, and Susan suspected it had to do with the Prince Regent’s royal visitors, and that had to mean that George was nearby. She hurried off in that direction.

The number of people near the canopy had multiplied further by the time she got there, which meant it was going to be difficult maneuvering through the crowd. She closed her parasol and began discreetly—or not so discreetly—pushing her way closer to the canopy, as the wordsmarriageanddukeandfraudswirled about her and people shushed each other so they could hearbetter.

Lord Frome materialized at her side. “Curious to see the results of your little mutiny against Prinny?” he murmured in her ear. “I fear you may have caused an international incident.”

“Don’t be absurd,” she answered, even though his words echoed her ownconcerns precisely and made her insides constrict. She might very well becomplicit in this uproar by having agreed to accompany George here today. She should have refused when George had asked, but she had been unable to say no to him, moved by his encouragement that she be the woman who had shown such bravado when she’d first met him.

The difference, of course, was that she hadn’t known he was the Duke ofAylesham when they’d first met. He’d merely been an arrogant gentleman in her mind. Here, now, Susan knew full well she was defying the ruling monarch of her country. She was interfering with visiting royalty.

She belatedly wondered if such things could be construed as acts of treason ...Could they? She didn’t think so, but what a time for that thought to occur to her!

She glanced at Frome, who was eyeing her with the satisfied look of someone who’d just witnessed his opponent’s comeuppance. “I’m so glad I didn’t marry you,” she said and pushed past him.

As she got closer to the canopy, she could make out some of Prince Ernst’sangry words and the Prince Regent’s impassioned replies. She finally brokethrough the crowd.

“George,” she exclaimed in relief and hurried to his side. He drew her next to him and placed his arm around her shoulder, but his attention was fixed on the exchange occurring between the two princes.

Prince Ernst was fairly vibrating with fury. “Vee travel all this vay, assured ofpromises byyou”—he pointed at the Prince Regent—“at risk of battles andsoldiers and all kinds of danger only to arrive and find our assurances arevorth”—he snapped his finger—“nothing!”

“Now, Ernst, as we have explained to Aylesham here—” the Prince Regent began.

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