My Once and Future Duke (The Wagers of Sin #1)(85)

So it was a great surprise to hear a rapid knocking on the door, and open it to see Georgiana herself, flushed and flustered. “What—-?” she began, astonished.

“Sophie, listen to me,” said her friend in a great rush. “I’m not supposed to be here—-I promised Nadine all my pin money for the next month not to tell Lady Sidlow we came here instead of going to the lending library. Eliza wrote to me about you and the duke. Are you still in love with him?”

She blinked at the intensity of the question. “Yes, but Georgiana—-”

The other girl closed her eyes. “That scoundrel. You must refuse to see him again, Sophie, for your own sake. Trust me in this!”

“Why?” Sophie reached for her hand. “I was just writing to you—-about him. Georgiana, he asked me to marry him. Can you believe it?”

Georgiana’s eyes flashed. “No,” she said grimly. “I cannot. Oh, if only Lady Sidlow hadn’t refused to let me come to tea! I could have saved you—-”

“What?” Sophie asked when she compressed her lips into a fierce scowl. “Saved me from what?”

“From falling for him.” The plain--faced maid loitering several steps away coughed, and Georgiana flapped one hand at her in irritation. “Another minute, Nadine!” She turned back to Sophie. “I’ve been hearing little bits of rumor about Ware,” she said, low and fast. “Gossip that he would marry Lady Lucinda Afton, whose mother is such bosom friends with the duchess—-everyone knows both mothers are in favor of the match. But he rarely goes to balls, and no one had ever seen him dance with her, let alone show any other sign of interest, so I dismissed it. But we were at Gunter’s today, enjoying ices in the shade, and there he was!”

“Jack?” said Sophie in confusion, as Georgiana paused to draw breath.

“Ware!” Georgiana gave her a deeply disapproving look. “Don’t think of him as Jack. He was in Berkley Square just today with Lucinda Afton on his arm.”

She shook her head even as a shiver of dread crept up her spine. “It doesn’t mean he’s going to marry her.”

“I didn’t see him go down on one knee and propose,” retorted Georgiana, “but they were arm in arm. They sat on a bench in the square not far from Lady Sidlow’s carriage and talked for some time, quite cordially and intimately. He ordered an ice for her from Gunter’s. Lady Capet, one of Lady Sidlow’s gossipy friends who was with us, couldn’t stop remarking on it. She said Ware is very somber and proper, but there he was smiling and laughing with Lady Lucinda. Lady Sidlow said an engagement announcement was surely imminent, and I was so outraged I asked why she thought so.”

Sophie said nothing. The shiver had turned into a sharp chill. She folded her arms around herself and listened even as protests screamed through her mind. She knew Jack. He would never do something so heartless and cruel as ask her to marry him when he meant to marry someone else . . . a proper young lady of his own class . . . of whom society and his family would happily approve . . .

“Lady Sidlow said it was because his father caused Lady Lucinda’s father’s death,” Georgiana went on, “and that the Afton ladies have been under the duke’s protection ever since. She said there is a longstanding agreement that Ware would marry Lucinda. She’d heard it from Lady Stowe herself, who has pointedly discouraged other suitors for her daughter. Lucinda is quite an heiress and rather lovely, and normally she would have a number of gentlemen vying for her attention.”

“Then why hasn’t he already married her?” Sophie argued. “There’s nothing stopping him, if he wants her.”

Georgiana gave her a look of pity. “Lucinda’s much younger than he is. She’s only eighteen. I daresay he wanted to wait until she was grown and had her presentation at Court.”

Nadine the maid coughed again, with more vigor this time. Georgiana flung out her arm angrily. “One minute!” She turned back to Sophie. “I cannot stay—-we shall have to run as it is, to make it back to the lending library before Lady Sidlow’s carriage returns for us. Will you listen to what I said? Sophie, I can’t bear to see you humiliated and brokenhearted.”

“I always listen to your advice,” she said softly. “Thank you, Georgiana.”

Her friend gave her a hasty hug. “Goodbye. I hate to be the one to tell you, but I couldn’t wait. I’ll write more when I know more, and have Eliza send it. Goodbye!” She hitched her shawl back up her shoulder and hurried off with the impatient maid.

Sophie watched them go in silence. Georgiana was a reliable witness, and she wouldn’t have dared risk Lady Sidlow’s anger for anything less than a dire emergency. The trouble was, Sophie couldn’t believe it. It was impossible. Jack wouldn’t have lied to her that way. She would have to hear him admit it before she believed that he’d betrayed her that badly.

No. She gave herself a sharp shake. It was ridiculous. Georgiana must be mistaken. Jack had proposed and then made love to her all night long until she fell asleep in his arms. He stayed until morning, when anyone could see him leaving her house. He wouldn’t have done that if he intended to throw her over for another woman, if—-she staggered as something even more horrible struck her—-he had been engaged to Lady Lucinda all this time.

Breathing hard, she steadied herself against the door. She trusted him. She was mad to let rumor and a chance sighting at Gunter’s obliterate everything she believed about him.