Courting Magic (Kat, Incorrigible #4)(32)

Lucy fluttered her eyelashes and looked mischievous. “I was terrified,” she said primly. “He was ungentlemanly.”

Alexander snorted. I raised my eyebrows.

The Marquess lunged across Packenham’s fallen body and threw his arms around my cousin. “You are never—ever—to take such a risk again. Ever!”

“Mmmph,” Lucy said. “Mmmph.” She looked too tightly squeezed against his coat to manage anything more coherent in reply.

She still managed to lower one eyelid in a wink aimed directly at me, though.

The Marquess drew back and stared at her. Then he lunged again.

Oh, my. As the Marquess became most ungentlemanly indeed, I looked away as quickly as I could, feeling my cheeks turn red.

This time, Lucy certainly didn’t seem to be objecting to the impropriety.

“Ah,” I said. “Um.” The observers who crowded the gap in the hedge were all openly gawping now. “Perhaps—a bit of privacy might be in order?” I waved my hands at them as if I could shoo them all away like chickens. “Or—”

“Katherine Ann Stephenson!” The peacock feather in Stepmama’s hair quivered with outrage as she pushed her way to the front of the crowd. “What exactly is going on here?”

Oh, no. My shoulders slumped. “I…ah…” I looked around helplessly, trying to gather up my wits for a truly convincing story.

For once, I couldn’t think of a single explanation. Worse yet, both of my older sisters stood behind her, their faces set in obvious horror.

Of all the ways in which I could have publicly ruined my début, this might just have been the most spectacular.

The Marquess separated from Lucy with a gasp. And no wonder: he must have been absolutely starved for air, after the devouring way that he’d been kissing her.

“Mrs. Stephenson,” he said, straightening his cravat with a wince. “Mrs. Carlyle. Mrs. Collingwood.” His cheeks were flushed, but he nodded courteously to each of them. Then he put one firm hand on Lucy’s shoulder. “May I present my fiancée, Miss Lucy MacTavish?”

Angeline’s eyes widened. She darted me a quick look. I shook my head swiftly, pressing my lips together in a pointed message.

The Marquess, after all, knew Lucy’s real name already. No one else ever needed to find out.

Lucy let out a peal of laughter that filled the tiny clearing but only broke the tension for an instant. “Oh, Alistair,” she said to the Marquess, patting his arm. “You don’t really think you have to marry me now, do you? I wasn’t expecting anything of the sort. You know I can always retire to Scotland and simply forget about having a Season. Then you’ll be free to marry a viscount’s daughter.”

“No I won’t.” His smile looked as awkward as if it were a new move he would have to practice, but the look he gave her was unmistakably heartfelt. “I’d chase you all the way to Scotland, if that was what it took to make you finally listen to me for once,” he told her. “But I’d never stop asking you to marry me until you gave in. I couldn’t bear to marry anyone but you.”

“Really?” Lucy’s mouth dropped open.

Then she threw herself back into his arms in the most blatantly unladylike move I had ever seen.

I let out a sigh of pleasure that was more than slightly tinged with envy. Alexander stood just behind me. I fought not to turn and meet his gaze, but I felt him with every inch of my skin.

Then Angeline cleared her throat, breaking the moment entirely. “Ahem,” she said. “I’m sure we’re all extremely happy for you, my lord and Miss MacTavish…” She raised one eyebrow. “But perhaps you could also explain the rest of this situation?” She tilted her head toward me. “And how my sister and Mr. Harding…and the apparently unconscious Mr. Packenham…all came to share in your romantic moment?”

Lucy beamed as she nestled into the stunned-looking Marquess’s side. “It is romantic, isn’t it?” she said happily. “You see, Lord Lanham must have been planning all along to propose to me here in the garden, but he couldn’t bear to compromise my reputation, so he asked that we all meet outside as a group. But then he was unavoidably detained, and meanwhile, Mr. Packenham was most ungentlemanly, so Kat and—that is, what I meant to say was, Mr. Harding alone had to fight him off for both of us! Wasn’t that impressive of him?”

The onlookers whispered and rustled with excitement, jostling each other to get better glimpses of Mr. Packenham’s fallen figure. Behind her invisibility working, Mrs. Montrose was positively vibrating with fury as she struggled against her magical bonds, but in public, my stepmother had just visibly relaxed. Lucy’s version of the story had been perfect.

My début had apparently not been ruined, after all.

“Impressive indeed,” said Angeline. Her piercing gaze moved to Alexander, and then back to me. “And a very persuasive explanation,” she added dryly. “But if the happy couple wouldn’t mind returning to the ballroom at this point, I believe it’s late enough that our own family should return to our homes. Don’t you think so, Elissa?”

“Oh, yes,” Elissa said. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the narrow amount of space between me and Alexander. “Very much so.”

I hesitated.