Her Favorite Duke (The 1797 Club #2)(20)

But he hadn’t. Somehow he hadn’t.

“I should call you out if Graham won’t,” James said, shaking his head as he paced the small room. “Naked together in this tiny place?”

“What was I to do, let her freeze to death in her wet clothing in order to maintain some decorum?” Simon asked, glaring at James before he at last tugged his shirt on and began buttoning it.

“No.” James pressed his lips together hard. “Of course not.”

“Look, if either of you decide to call me out, it will be entirely understandable.” Simon sighed. “I would not deny you that pleasure. I deserve the consequences of my actions.”

“Of your feelings?” James clarified, facing him and spearing him with a glare.

Simon lifted his chin. “Perhaps those, too.” James’s eyes went wide as he stared, unspeaking, at Simon for what felt like an eternity. “You never wanted me for her. You loved Graham more, and I may have…I have…ruined that.”

James’s forehead wrinkled in what seemed like genuine shock. “Loved Graham more? Is that what you really think?”

“That is what is true,” Simon said softly. “I accepted that years ago, James.”

Which wasn’t exactly true. The fact that James wanted Graham as his true brother still stung occasionally. But not as much as losing Meg did.

“I chose Graham because you were still whoring around half of London at the time,” James said, raising his hands as if in surrender. “Great God, you and Roseford fucked women together from time to time, if I remember the drunken bragging correctly.”

Simon flinched. “Robert bragged. I did not.”

“Either way, you weren’t ready to settle down. I didn’t think you’d be open to the idea of an engagement. But Simon, look at me.”

Simon lifted his stare from the dusty wooden floor he’d been focusing on and made himself look at James. James’s face was softer now. The anger and disappointment were still there, but there was something strong above it all.

“What?” Simon asked.

“Not choosing you was never about a lack of love for you,” James said.

Simon nodded and a weight was lifted from his shoulders. Of course, another had already settled there and it was far heavier than the first. As if James read his mind, his mouth tugged down into a grim line.

“You know what has to happen now, I think.”

Simon caught his breath. The moment the three men had burst into the room, he’d known what would happen. If it had only been Graham and James to find them, perhaps it would have been different.

But it wasn’t. Baxton had been there, he had seen everything. Simon hadn’t fully allowed himself to process what that meant, but now it was unavoidable.

“Yes,” he whispered. “I’m going to have to marry her.”





Meg fussed with her buttons and blinked at the tears that threatened to fall. She knew it was wrong to leave the door open a crack and listen to them, but she had done it anyway. At least until she heard too much and she’d backed away and dressed.

She’d heard James yell at Simon about whoring through London. About…sharing women with the Duke of Roseford. That was when she’d moved away. The idea of that was very confusing to her, for she didn’t understand the logistics, but the meaning stung her. All the while that she had been pining for Simon, he had been moving from woman to woman, not even thinking about her?

Was she just another in that line? Was his kiss last night about her being just another warm body that he couldn’t resist? Was everything she thought was between them just a lie?

She shook her head. It didn’t really matter anymore. She had bigger problems out in front of her. A gossip who would spread this tale. A fiancé whose rage was palpable and completely understandable. The disappointment of a most-beloved brother. Those things were what she had to focus on.

Simon would have to take care of himself.

She took a long breath, then left the room. The two men stopped talking as soon as she stepped out, and she found herself looking at Simon even though she was trying not to do just that.

He was wrinkled and disheveled and his hair stuck up at odd angles. But he was perfect and beautiful, and her mind spun on the feel of his full lips on hers.

“Meg?” James stepped toward her and she pushed the other thoughts from her mind. His expression was gentler now than it had been when she entered the bedroom. He touched her cheek. “It’s going to be all right.”

Those words, those lies, broke her and she stepped into his arms. He smoothed his hands along her back as she said, “No. No, it won’t be. I know it can’t be. Not for a long time.”

He let her shake in his arms for a moment before he drew back and smiled at her. “We will work this out, Meg. I promise you, and you know I never break my promises. Now, come. Emma has been worried sick. There is a carriage just through the woods on the road, and you and I will ride back to the estate together in it.”

“A carriage?” she repeated in confusion. “Why a carriage?”

Some of the color left James’s face. “Each search party took a carriage just in case someone found you…hurt and the vehicle was needed to rush you to a doctor.”

Meg’s lips parted as she stared at her brother’s ashen face. “Oh, Jamie.”