My Fair Duchess (A Once Upon A Rogue Novel Book 1) (25 page)

He held out his hand to her. “I more than approve. I will have to beat the suitors away with a cane.” A stricken look crossed his face. “We are in dire trouble, Lady Amelia, for I do not possess a cane.”

Amelia chuckled, once again struck with how lighthearted Colin actually was. She set her hand in his outstretched one, and the warmth of his skin against hers, combined with the strength in the fingers that curled around her bones, sent a dizzying wave through her body. Sucking in a steadying breath, she said in as theatrical a tone as she could manage, “Whatever shall we do, Your Grace? Perhaps we should not go?”

“I’ve a cane we can take,” Lucy said from behind Amelia.

Colin and Amelia burst out laughing at the same time, their gazes locking. He winked and she winked back, and he grinned at her.

Turning, she waved her maid forward. “We are playing, Lucy. His Grace is certainly not going to have to defend me from rabid suitors.”

Lucy’s cheeks reddened. “Oh, yes. How foolish of me.”

“Nonsense,” Colin said with a gentle tone that made Amelia’s insides melt a little. The man truly cared for people’s feelings whether he admitted it to himself or not.

 Colin helped Amelia down the last few steps while his gaze remained on Lucy. “Lady Amelia certainly looks lovely enough to inspire dangerous devotion, so do not think yourself foolish. If either of you ladies needs protecting. I am not as soft as I appear.”

“Your Grace,” Lucy exclaimed. “You don’t look soft at all. Hard as a rock and chiseled like a boulder is more apt. I’ve no doubt you could protect us.”

Amelia had been thinking a similar thing, but it irked her that Lucy was apparently taken with Colin. Heavens, she clenched her teeth together. She was jealous, and she had absolutely no right to be. In fact, she should not be bitter over a man she did not want for herself. Yet, she was.

“Thank you,” Colin said to Lucy, interrupting Amelia’s inner dialogue. “I hope I can live up to your faith in me.”

The insufferable man liked Lucy’s comment a bit too much. When she was alone with him, she was going to tell him not to encourage her maid.

His gaze found Amelia’s, amusement dancing in his eyes and the slightest of smiles tugging at his lips. Though he looked at her, his faint smile faded and a smirk replaced it. “Lucy, go ahead to the carriage. We will be along momentarily.”

Amelia watched as Lucy bobbed a curtsy and scrambled to do Colin’s bidding. As soon as her lady’s maid disappeared out the door, Amelia turned on Colin. “You should not encourage her adoration of you.”

“Jealous?” He quirked an eyebrow.

“Certainly not,” she snapped, even though she was.

“You are changing, Amelia. Two days ago, you would have been truthful. Already you’re learning to play by the rules of the
ton
and hide your true feelings. At this rate, you will be begging for my hand in marriage by week’s end.”

Amelia stiffened. He delivered his accusation in a teasing tone, but the fact was she
was
hiding her true feelings, and that made him correct on that account. Was she changing? She was jealous of Colin’s attention to Lucy, and it was hard to think properly when the man’s presence set her senses on fire. She liked him as a friend, certainly, but did she care for him as more than that? Either way, she did not like him because he was a duke, and she could not let him think he was correct about her playing by the
ton’s
rules.

“You’re right.” She forced herself to stare at him without blinking. “I was jealous, but I have absolutely no reason to be. Flirt with her as much as you like. It is not my concern.”

 She swiveled away to make her way out the door, but Colin gripped her arm and stopped her flight. He leaned down, his lips coming very near her ear. “If we were to marry, Amelia, I would never cause you one moment’s worry. There would be no woman but you. Once I say my vows, there will be no dallying, not that there has been of late anyway.”

Her heart pounded in her ears as she looked at him. “I daresay you will make some woman very happy one day.”

He stepped away, his face suddenly unreadable, and then just as suddenly his jaw set and his nostrils flared, almost as if he were engaged in battle, but with whom? Himself? Not her, certainly.

In a low, steely voice he said, “If fidelity is all you require, then you’ll be ecstatic married to me.”

“You’ve more to give, Colin.”

He arched his brow high, in a mocking way.

“Do you think so?”

 “I know so.”

“Then you don’t perceive enough. I don’t want to have more to give.”

He said one thing, but his gaze locked on hers, and in her mind, he was beseeching her to help him realize he wanted to give more, and that was precisely what she intended to do.

Carriages and people strolling who wished to see and be seen crowded Hyde Park, but Colin managed to find a secluded spot to park his cabriolet on a side path that was surrounded on one side by tall trees and on the other by flowering bushes. Once Colin helped Amelia and then her lady’s maid descend, he led Lucy to a bench on which she could sit, and then he directed Amelia out to the main path to stroll among all the other lords and ladies of the
ton
. This was the best place to introduce her to men who held greater titles than Worthington, men who would trip over themselves to gain an introduction to her, which in turn would make her an Incomparable.

His gut twisted relentlessly, but he pushed on toward the path. If she changed, maybe these disturbing feelings would bloody well cease. Or he could feel the loss of who’d she had been so acutely that he never recover. He jerked to a halt, and then moved them off the path toward some flowers. He didn’t know what the devil he was doing, but his gut felt better.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“A slight change of plans,” he said, having absolutely no idea what else
to
say. And to avoid any more probing questions that would require him to know his own bleeding mind, he started pointing out flowers his father had taught him about. He was surprised to learn she knew just as much, if not more, about the flowers, as he did. He stopped in front of the water and leaned down to tell her about the pink flowering plant rising from the glassy surface. He touched the leaves, and a memory of the times he would come here with his father invaded Colin. His father’s unhappiness would fade for a bit here. “This is―”

“A great willow herb,” she said.

He glanced up at her, barely able to see her face as he squinted against the sun. “Correction. This is a great
hairy
willow herb,” he said, stroking a finger across the furs on the robust stem. “Can you see the hairs?”

Suddenly, she was beside him, kneeling. Her skirt lay partially over his trousers and her arm was pressed against his. Her fingers touched the tip of his where she had planted her hand against the ground for support. Devil take it, his body heated as if someone had turned the entire force of the sun on him. She was like the sun―beautiful, warm, and life giving.

“How do you know so much about flowers?”

She ran the tip of one slender finger up the stem of the flower. What would it be like to have those slender fingers wrapped around him? Offering pleasure and― He shoved the thought away, but his body was rigid and throbbing.

Sadness crept into her bright eyes. “My father used to have a beautiful flower garden, and he taught me all about flowers. Mother could not bear to look at it after he was gone, and she destroyed it one night.”

Her audible swallow spurred him to touch her and offer comfort. He placed his hand over hers. “I’m sorry. I could send my gardeners out and have a new, magnificent garden built for you. I would personally oversee it.”

She offered him a small smile that tugged on his heart. “I don’t think my mother would care for that, but that’s very kind of you to offer. Tell me, how do
you
know so much about flowers?”

“My father, as well. We had―still do actually―a magnificent garden, but he still liked to pile in the carriage and come for what he called a ‘grand outing’ here. We would stroll for hours and look at flowers, and he would tell me about each and every one of them. I think talking about the flowers gave him peace he was hard-pressed to find.”

“Is your mother the expert you are?”

Colin shook his head. “She never came. It was his time to escape her, you see.”

Amelia blinked at him. “Escape your mother?”

He nodded. This was the closest he had ever come to spilling his family secrets to a woman.

“I don’t understand.”

Suddenly, he wanted her to. He would tell her everything. “You see―”

“Aversley, whatever are you doing crouched there on the ground?”

Colin stiffened at the interruption by the deep male voice. He turned to see who it was and stifled his groan. The Marquessess of Edington and Shrewsbury stared down at him from some ten paces away. Both gentlemen were unmarried, well titled, and worth a great deal of money―exactly the sort of men whose attentions would help to make Amelia an Incomparable. Colin wanted to tell them to bugger off. Instead, he helped Amelia up and faced them.

“May I present Lady Amelia de Vere,” he said

Both men nodded as Colin turned to Amelia. She smiled graciously before focusing her attention on him. “Lady Amelia, this is the Marquess of Edington and the Marquess of Shrewsbury.”

The men surrounded her like vultures fighting over a dead carcass. Colin forced his unwilling legs to step back and let the gentlemen closer, but it rankled him to do so.
This is what I intended
he reminded himself. His mind, in turn, kindly whispered,
Coward
. He pinched the bridge of his nose and hoped no one else in the party would notice that he might be going slightly mad. That would certainly turn all the talk away from his mother once and for all, him becoming a raving lunatic. Leave it to a woman to unknowingly drive a man insane.

“Where are you from?” Lord Edington inquired of Amelia.

“Norfolk. Have you ever been there?”

That was it! Colin couldn’t stand here and listen to Amelia and these men trade polite banter anymore, but he did have to stay here. Glancing toward the water and then back to the group, he waited for the moment they all seemed engaged with each other, and then he strolled near the water but not too far away. He was determined to distract himself, so he tried to recall as much as he could about all the flowers his father had loved so much.

Intermediate laughter trickled to him, worsening his already darkening mood. Despite the fact that he knew it would probably make things worse, he glanced over his shoulder at Amelia. She had a smile firmly in place and her gaze was locked on the gentleman, as if raptly interested in what they had to say. Her playing her part perfectly snapped his control like a twig breaking under a heavy boot, fast and hard. His blood pounded through him. He knew good and well he was being unreasonable, but he didn’t give a damn at the moment.

Stalking over to the group, he interrupted Edington telling Amelia about a picnic he wanted her to come to. “We really must be going, gentlemen,” Colin said, barely keeping the snarl out of his voice while gently grasping Amelia’s elbow.

“We will see you at the Kendall’s ball tomorrow night, won’t we?” Edington inquired.

“You’ll see her,” Colin snapped, all his patience fleeing.

“I’ll make sure you are invited to the Banbury’s picnic,” Edington added.

“I can collect you for it, if you wish,” Shrewsbury offered.

“That won’t be necessary,” Colin said through clenched teeth. “I will be taking her to the picnic, and she is already invited.” Or she would be. And so would he. It was a simple matter of a quick note from him, changing his reply from
No
to
Yes
and checking the box that he had previously left empty, the one that would soon indicate that he would be bringing one guest―Amelia.

“Oh, very good. Glad to see you have it all in hand,” Shrewsbury said, giving Colin a look he would bloody well describe as challenging. The man wanted to challenge him for Amelia, did he? Colin would grind the little bugger into―

“Save a dance for me, too,” Shrewsbury said as the men departed. Colin blinked. He’d been so occupied with his thoughts he had missed the last part of the conversation.

He swung toward Amelia. “Did you agree to save dances for both of them?”

“Yes.” She watched him steadily. “Does that please you?”

The word
no
was on the tip of his tongue. He shoved the blasted thing down where it belonged.

“It is part of the plan, is it not?” she asked.

He pressed his lips together for a moment then spoke. “Yes, I suppose it is.” He extended his elbow to her, not liking the way she made him feel as if he was ready to explode. “Come.” No woman had ever had this effect on him. Amelia did. There was no use denying it. He needed to put order back into this day and stick to his plan for her. Every last detail of the thing―including never caring about her because to care was to be vulnerable, and he refused to be that. He’d just have to live with the consequences of his decision, no matter how painful.