Her Favorite Duke (The 1797 Club #2)(25)

Meg’s stomach clenched. “Oh God, I’m not ready. I’m not ready to face Graham, to face James. To face the future.”

Emma shook her head. “You think you aren’t, but you are stronger than you know. I think you told me that once.”

“The difference is that when I told you, it was true.”

Her friend touched her cheek gently. “I assure you, it is true when I say it to you, too. Now come.”

Emma linked arms with her and they left the chamber, walking down the stairs and through the halls to James’s office. Meg’s nervousness increased with each step and finally they stopped in front of the closed door. She expected Emma to simply ferry her inside, but she didn’t.

Instead her friend turned toward her, a renewed earnestness to her expression. “You were right when you said James and I had an odd start. Our pretended courtship, his vow to marry me to protect me from my father’s machinations…all of it could have pushed us far apart as we started our marriage. But I loved him, Meg. And he loved me. Once we admitted that, focused on that…nothing else mattered.”

Meg nodded slowly. She understood what Emma was trying to say to her. The difference was that she wasn’t entirely certain that Simon loved her. Or that he wanted her, truly wanted her, despite the searing kiss in the cottage.

All she knew for certain was that what was about to happen behind that big, mahogany door was not going to be happy or joyful or celebratory.

Because of what she and Simon had done, it was bound to be much, much worse.





Chapter Eight





As Meg entered the room, her arm looped through Emma’s, Simon staggered to his feet. He, James and Graham had been waiting for them for only a few moments, but it had felt like an eternity. Now he stared at Meg, her cheeks pale, her dark eyes downcast, and everything he’d ever felt for her swelled to the surface.

He loved her, as he always had. And he would marry her. She would be his. But this beginning, it would hang over them. Perhaps it would not be something they could ever overcome. The very idea that it wasn’t broke his heart.

He heard Graham clear his throat and turned to see his friend pace away, not looking at either of them. Meg lifted her gaze at last, looking first at the turned back of Graham, then her brother, and finally she swung her eyes on Simon. She caught her breath.

“Oh, Simon,” she gasped. “Your nose.”

Graham turned sharply at that statement and glared at Simon. Simon forced a half-smile for her and barely kept from a grimace at the pain that shot from the very injury that worried her. “It’s fine, Margaret.”

She stiffened at the formal use of her name and her gaze slid away as she blushed. Emma frowned in his direction, then guided Meg to James’s side and went back to shut and lock the door.

“This room has such a thick barrier,” Emma said. “At least those interested parties outside will hear nothing in here.”

Simon bent his head. Oh yes, they had already provided far too much fodder for the gossips.

“James,” Emma said softly, meeting her husband’s eyes.

Simon stared at the gentle encouragement that flitted between then. The way that his friend softened when he was with his wife. Their easy connection was deceptive, of course. Simon knew how hard-fought their love had been.

But now they were happy. He cast his gaze toward Meg and wondered…hoped…that perhaps one day that could be his own future.

“Let’s just get it over with,” Graham said, facing the others at last. “Stop dragging it out.” His hard tone and the way he separated himself from the rest of the room made Simon’s heart sink.

James cleared his throat. “Very well. Obviously the compromising position Simon and Margaret were caught in has changed the circumstances surrounding her engagement to you, Graham. Perhaps if it had only been you and me who found them as they were, we could have smoothed it over. But with Baxton with us and gleefully spreading his tale…well, that complicates things.”

“Complicates things,” Graham said softly. “That is certainly one way of putting it.”

“I think we all know what must happen now,” James said, ignoring the angry tone of their friend’s voice. “It is obvious that Graham and Meg must end their engagement. And Simon and Meg must marry.”

“And quickly,” Emma said with a smile of reassurance for Meg.

Graham folded his arms. “I have no quarrel with ending the engagement,” he said. “But perhaps you should ask the new couple if they’d like to marry. Arranging a marriage didn’t work out so well for you in the past, Abernathe.”

James flinched, for none of his closest friends called him by his title. He had always been James to Graham and Simon. Graham was clearly sending a message by saying otherwise.

“You are correct in that I had a part in this,” James said. “For which I apologize sincerely. I thought I was doing the right thing. Obviously I wasn’t.”

Meg shook her head. “You cannot take responsibility for me or for Simon, James.”

Her brother shrugged. “Still, Graham has a point. I don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past just to smooth over gossip. Meg, would you like to marry Simon? And Simon, would you marry Meg?”

Simon jolted at the question. The answer was so much more complicated than his friend would ever know. He wasn’t even sure he had the words to try to explain how deeply that question touched his heart. A heart he had tried to hide for so long, he wasn’t certain how to draw it into the light. Or if he should draw it out at all.