“I’m happy to hear that, Summersby.”
Ryan gave a nonchalant wave of his hand. “Ryan, please.”
“Well, then you must call me Michael. Agreed?”
“With pleasure. However, I must apologize for hitting you. I lost it for a moment there. I’m afraid it’s beginning to look rather horrid, if I may say so myself.”
“No matter. It hardly came as a surprise, you know. But, I dare say a glass of whiskey might do the trick.”
“To numb the pain you mean?”
“What else?” Michael laughed as he patted Ryan on the back. The two men had begun heading for the door. “After a few glasses, I’m sure I won’t feel a thing.”
“I must admit I can’t abide the stuff myself,” Ryan said—his hand already on the door handle.
“How about a glass of claret then?” Michael asked, ready to follow Ryan out of the room.
Alexandra blinked. This could not be happening. She didn’t want to marry. Not now, not ever. It didn’t matter if the man proposing to save her from spinsterhood was the most handsome man she’d ever laid eyes upon. Indeed, it didn’t even matter that she had begun liking him, even if it was only just a little bit. She quickly reminded herself how much he annoyed her and that he happened to do so the majority of the time. Like right now for instance. Without as much as a glance in her direction, he’d planned her direct route to the altar for her.
Never mind her opinion on the matter. Clearly that was of no importance to Michael or her brother. And now look at them. They were best friends all of a sudden.
Really?
Did they have any idea of how ridiculous they appeared to an observer? After all, that was what she’d become. She’d practically been forgotten and it simply couldn’t go on. She would have her say whether they liked it or not, and she rather suspected that it was going to be the latter of the two. Straightening her spine, she uttered one word just as Ryan’s hand pushed down upon the door handle.
“No!” she said.
Both men turned their heads and looked at her in puzzlement. They’d either forgotten she was there, or they couldn’t quite comprehend what she was talking about. Both possibilities seemed equally likely in that instance—so much so in fact that Alexandra decided to quickly elaborate.
“I won’t marry you,” she explained.
“Won’t marry him?” Ryan asked in a partially choked voice. “Alex, you cannot be serious.”
“Oh, but I am, Ryan. Indeed I am quite serious. I won’t marry his lordship or any other gentleman who offers me a life consisting of little else than making babies and putting on a farce of the perfectly bred wife. It’s not for me.”
Ryan simply stared at her. Michael, on the other hand, looked angry. Surprisingly so in fact. “Have you lost all sense of reason,” he ground out. “You must marry me, for the sake of your reputation if nothing else.”
“My reputation?” Alexandra offered him a coy smile. “Really, how is my reputation to suffer? Nobody has seen us, save for Ryan, and he’s highly unlikely to mention it to anyone. He wouldn’t risk tarnishing our good family name for anything in the world. That leaves you, my lord, and you hardly seem the sort to spread gossip. Least of all gossip in which you figure quite prominently yourself. Am I correct?”
Michael stared at her, his eyes darkening into black thunderclouds. Is it possible for a man’s head to explode? she wondered with a small amount of curiosity while she faced him without pause. Michael’s head certainly looked as if it were about to do just that.
“We spoke of the consequences beforehand.” His tone held an iciness to it that seemed to have a more immediate effect on Alexandra than his expression did. A slow sense of anxiety began to form in the pit of her belly—an odd sensation that she hadn’t felt in years—not since she was a child. “I told you I would court you, and you agreed. Don’t pretend you did not know where such a courtship would eventually lead.”
Alexandra shrugged her shoulders, hoping that the gesture would distract him from noticing the panic that was creeping through her. “And I told you that a courtship would serve us nicely. It would allow us to engage in certain activities that might otherwise be considered improper. The whole affair would naturally have been called off the minute we returned to England. That goes without saying.”
Michael and Ryan seemed equally appalled by Alexandra’s outrageous confession. Neither man said a word for a number of seconds. They simply didn’t appear to be quite capable of processing the magnitude of what her words implied. Alexandra on the other hand, felt oddly pleased with herself. She was certain that she’d just achieved two very important things. Number one, she’d made it very clear that she had no intention of ever marrying anyone, and number two, she’d painted such a despicable picture of herself that she was quite confident Michael would run screaming in the other direction.
Her mind was quickly returned to the present however, at the sound of her brother’s words.
“Have you no shame?” he asked, pinning her with an accusatory stare that was clearly meant to make her squirm. “You’re . . . you’re no better than a . . . a . . . !” His voice was shaky, his hands clenched tightly at his sides. “I cannot bring myself to say the word that comes to mind, for I will surely regret it.” He shook his head in disbelief, staring at her as if he was seeing her for the very first time.
It stung more than any blow ever would. Perhaps he was right in his assessment of her, as hard as that was to accept. She’d lusted after Michael for days. She’d set out to purposefully lure the man into bed without any intent of ever marrying him. Now, because she was a woman, she’d backed herself into a corner by doing so. Panic gripped at her insides. She needed a means of escape.
“I wish to challenge you.” Michael’s words were spoken with composed calm in spite of the rage that still flickered in his eyes. They hung in the air, hovering between them so clearly that Alexandra was certain she just might catch a glimpse of them at any moment.
“I beg your pardon?” Ryan asked before Alexandra could manage it.
“Your sister has offended my sense of honor by prohibiting me from doing the only respectable thing I might have done in this instance. She has deliberately trapped me in a way that is bound to cause a great deal of disgrace to my family. Who in their right mind will think that she’s the culprit? No,” he said, shaking his head as if to clear his mind of the whole entanglement. “Everyone will point an accusing finger at me, especially given my reputation. So yes, as unusual as it is, I demand satisfaction.”
“You cannot mean that,” Alexandra whispered, her whole body going numb.
This was the man who’d kissed and touched her so intimately a mere moment ago, now challenging her to a duel. It was absurd.
She stared back at him and suddenly realized with abrupt clarity how much she’d truly wounded him. He did his best not to show it. For that she commended him, but his eyes betrayed him. Was it possible that he’d really wanted to marry her? It couldn’t be. She was sure he’d have grown tired of her by the time they returned to London. He didn’t even like her, and he couldn’t possibly think that she liked him—even if she did . . . just a little. Still, there was something undeniable between them and as she’d pointed out to herself earlier, perhaps she did like him just a bit more than she was allowing herself to admit.
But marriage?
Why on earth would he want to marry her when he could surely marry any lady of his choosing? After all, his wealth and title went a long way.
Even if for some unfathomable reason he’d decided that she was the one, she had made her choice a long time ago. She’d witnessed the pain that her father had suffered when her mother had died. She and her brothers had suffered his emotional withdrawal for years—a depression from which he’d only recently begun to emerge. Indeed, it was as if she’d lost both parents at once, and it had been devastating.
Now that she finally felt as if she had her father back, she was faced with the fear of reliving it all over again. The pain of losing a parent was inevitable. It was bound to happen sooner or later if nature followed its natural course, but that hardly made it any more bearable. Already, she dreaded the day when it would happen once more. Her father was hardly getting any younger and watching him recently with the trouble his legs were giving him . . . it made her want to weep. He’d always been the strongest of men, capable of anything—her hero. Yet every day she saw him, she could almost hear the sands of time rushing through a giant hourglass, bringing her closer to yet another impossibly painful loss.
Why anybody might choose to put oneself in such a precarious situation—to open their heart and allow love in, only to face the inevitable dread of having it all snatched away in an instant, she couldn’t imagine. One would almost certainly outlive the other, to be left behind in constant heartache, and Alexandra couldn’t possibly imagine anything more awful.
As sorry as she now was for having wounded his pride and as shocked as she was at the turn of events, Alexandra knew that Michael had just given her a means of escape. Funny how such things worked out. If Ryan had applied just a little more force by threatening to tell her father what she’d been up to, she probably would have agreed to marry Michael without a second thought. Yet here they were. Michael had challenged her, and as unconventional as that might be, she had no intention of turning him down. She would have the choice of weapons, and she knew without any shadow of a doubt that she could beat him.
“Oh, but I do,” Michael smirked. He looked as though he was truly enjoying himself now.
Out of nowhere, Ryan suddenly laughed. In fact, it was closer to a howl. Alexandra blinked, her lips parting in startled bewilderment.
What the devil is so amusing?
“Oh, this is perfect!” Ryan chortled as he wiped tears of mirth from his eyes. “Absolutely perfect. Really, Michael, you must allow me to be your second. I wouldn’t want to miss this for the world!”
“You wish to be his second?” Alexandra asked with a note of disappointment clinging to her words. “I rather thought you might be mine.”
“So sorry, Alex, but I’m afraid Michael needs me,” he said, his apology didn’t sound at all convincing and Alexandra was getting more than a little annoyed about how much Ryan seemed to be enjoying the whole scenario. His anger at this unlikely turn of events had clearly evaporated. “Besides, you did bring this on yourself, dear sister. Now, it’s time for you to pay the price.”
A sparkle of mischief brightened his eyes. It was almost as if he was taking some sort of twisted pleasure in this calamitous outcome. This was one moment that he would very likely savor for the remainder of his days, she reckoned—the one instance when his sister who excelled at practically everything had finally been bested. It was infuriating enough to make her want to stomp her feet in protest.
Her mind snapped to attention at the mention of her name.