Page 7 of It's All About the Duke
“How does this punish you? You certainly deserve to be reprimanded for all your misdeeds, but this penalizes me, not you.”
His brow furrowed a little. The first sign that she was beginning to make inroads into his good nature and get under his skin. He took a step closer to her. “Surely youcan’t expect that it’s going to be easy for me to take on the responsibility of finding a young lady a husband.”
“All you had to do was say no.”
“I would have if it had been as simple as stating one word,” he countered. “Believe me, I have little appetite and even less desire to be in charge of anyone. Especially a lady who would rather root around in the garden and cut flowers instead of sitting in the drawing room learning how to paint them.”
Marlena stood her ground. “I enjoy being in the garden, and thankfully Mr. Olingworth had no problem with me doing so whenever I stayed at his home in the Cotswolds.”
“That was different,” the duke insisted. “You were a young girl then. In the countryside. Now you are in fashionable London. Young ladies are supposed to let the gardener, scullery maids, or someone else cut the blossoms and herbs. You are the last person who should be doing it. You’re a properly brought-up young lady with distant relatives who are nobly born and you should act accordingly.”
“Which also means I am not destitute,” she argued firmly, thinking he was mistaken if he thought she would so easily fall into whatever it was he wished for her. “I have an inheritance, small though it might be. I’m quite capable of finding my own husband without your help.”
“And as you know,” he said, his eyes narrowing in annoyance. “Someone must look after your interests until you make your debut in Society and decide on who that man will be and wed him. Olingworth chose me because he doesn’t have to worry about me gambling away your dowry before you can decide on a husband. He knows, and so will all of Society, that I’ll be beneficial to whomever you agree to make a match.”
“All of Society you say?” she questioned slowly, thinking carefully on his words. “Is that what this is about? Is it important toyouwhat thetonthinks aboutyou?”
The duke scowled. She wondered how he could do it and still look so incredibly handsome. Almost from the moment she first looked at him she’d felt as if her legs were melting from beneath her.
“I ceased caring what Society thought of me long ago.”
“It doesn’t appear so to me,” she maintained, giving more credence to her suggestion.
“Then you are wrong in your estimation of me.”
“Somehow I don’t think so. It sounded to me as if you want thetonto know how good you are being to the poor relation of an earl who had most of his lands confiscated by the King before I was born because he dared to criticize him for his exorbitant expenditures.”
“The earl did it in public, Miss Fast. That wasn’t wise.”
She agreed it wasn’t. She grew up hearing over and over again how dearly the earl’s cutting words to the King had cost his family. But whether or not the duke cared about his standing in Society, it was a valid argument for her to explore as to why he—a known rake—had decided to be Mr. Olingworth’s replacement.
“Maybe you think that by becoming my guardian you will somehow get forgiveness from Society for your secret admirer letters and regain favor in their eyes.”
“Want their favor?” The duke grunted another attractive laugh and leaned in close to her. “Hell would have to freeze over before I’d welcome that sentiment.”
Suddenly, with no forethought, Marlena smiled sweetly at the duke and said, “Miracles do happen, you know.”
He surrendered a slight nod of admiration for her comeback, but said, “Only for the saintly, Miss Fast, and that’s not a group I’m ever likely to be included in.”
Unfortunately, she didn’t suppose she ever would be,either. In fact, she had some nerve taking him to task for his past misdeeds while she wrote an anonymous scandal sheet about him and others under an assumed name. Though she’d never admit it to him, some might say they were two peas in the same pod on the vine.
“I don’t know your previous guardian well,” the duke continued, “but my father did. He held Olingworth in high esteem.”
“And what about me? Did you ask about me? Were you curious to find out more about me before or even after you accepted responsibility for me?”
“I have to admit I wasn’t. I trusted Olingworth that you were highborn and in desperate need of a sponsor so that you might make your debut, enter Society, and make a match.”
“Desperate?” The word came out almost as an oath. She was infuriated. If there was one thing living with her cousins had taught her, it was not to be desperate. It was to stay strong and find an answer to whatever situation you were in. “Mr. Olingworth would have never used that word concerning me. I may have lost my parents when I was a babe but I have never been desperate.”
“I didn’t know that you had been orphaned so long.”
She could see that her words surprised him and hoped she hadn’t revealed too much about herself to him.
“Though we met long ago, you and I have never really talked. Even I know that you lost your mother before you entered Oxford and your father only a few years ago.”
“From the newsprint and gossip sheets no doubt. I know very well that titled gentlemen are written about more than others. However, I’ll concede that perhaps it was Mr. Olingworth who was the desperate one. For you to continue your life and not be held up by his illness any longer. I am keeping my promise to him to do this forthe respect I have for his and my father’s years of friendship.”
“You?” she asked with an exasperated breath of incredulity. “Respect? You who embarrassed twelve young ladies their first Season?”
