Chapter 10

"The Duke of Dawford to see Lord Prouton," Aaron explained briefly to the manservant who answered the door at the Hoskins' house, presenting his crest-emblazoned card for the sake of appearances.

His presence could be no surprise and required no further explanation, he surmised, either to the Hoskins or their staff. The story of his kissing Dorothy Hoskins on the road outside was probably halfway across the country by now, carried in correspondence to various maiden aunts and country relatives not in London for the Season.

It was only nine o'clock in the morning and early to be making calls. However, Aaron hoped that this would allow the meeting to remain short and businesslike, without the chance of it slipping into a tiresome luncheon, tea, or dinner affair.

"Lord Prouton and Mr. Hoskins are in the front drawing room, Your Grace," the manservant said with a small bow, having placed Aaron's hat and cane on a stand in the hall.

Straight-faced but somehow also bursting with anticipation, the manservant led him to the overdecorated room he remembered too well from that fateful dinner. Patrick Hoskins had not met him in the hallway today. Evidently, everything was to be played by the book today.

"Your Grace, how wonderful to see you." Patrick smiled broadly the instant Aaron had been announced and the drawing room door closed behind him. "We are honored by your calling on us, although naturally, we have been expecting you."

With an effort, Lord Prouton stood up from his chair by the fireplace and extended a hand to Aaron, supported by his son on his other side. "Do come in and take a seat, Your Grace," he urged as heartily as he could. "Dorothy, ring for tea."

"Do not stand on my account, Lord Prouton," Aaron said swiftly, his eyes straying to the subdued young woman whose silence contrasted with the brimming enthusiasm of her relatives as she silently pulled on the bell. "I hope I shall not keep you overlong."

"It is not every day that I receive a call from a duke, Your Grace." Lord Prouton chuckled. "No, this is certainly no ordinary day."

"Then let us all sit," Aaron suggested reasonably, taking a place on the sofa and glancing again to Dorothy as the other two men followed his lead.

Today she wore a white muslin summer dress with a golden sash that again made Aaron think derisively of Patrick Hoskins' need to gild everything around him. This woman needed no gilding. Her rounded breasts strained temptingly against the low neckline of her gown, and the loose pile of her chestnut-brown hair complemented the rich cream of her perfect complexion.

Beauty aside, however, he could also now see that Miss Hoskins' eyes were red with crying. She gave her brother a resentful look as he directed her towards the seat on the sofa beside Aaron. She had probably drawn considerable admonishment, even punishment, from her family for the scandal her irresponsible behavior had engendered, even though they were doubtless all pleased enough with the eventual result.

"How does your mother fare, Your Grace?" Lord Prouton asked. "I understand that her health largely confines her to the house, but I do hope we will find a chance to meet Her Grace before long."

"My father can certainly be wheeled for some distance," Patrick chimed in.

"My mother is as well as she can be," Aaron told them shortly, inviting no family visits or further confidences.

He sighed to himself as he thought of his poor mother's confusion when he had taken her aside at breakfast and explained that he would soon be marrying Dorothy Hoskins. All trace of the young woman she had met in the garden seemed erased from her mind.

The Dowager Duchess's excitement at the thought of his marriage had then clashed repeatedly with puzzlement at the identity of his bride. She had even reproached Aaron for not introducing the young lady for her approval. He had accepted this without demur, suspecting any upset would soon be forgotten. Indeed, by the time he left the house, his mother was happily playing whist with Miss Hughes in the conservatory.

"I am glad to hear that." Patrick beamed. "Very glad, indeed. Of course, my own mother died many years ago, or else she would certainly have called on the Dowager Duchess before now."

Aaron regarded the man coolly at this ridiculous statement. It would always have been a minor breach of protocol for a baron's wife to call on a duchess without invitation, and downright rude to intrude on someone known to have withdrawn from Society for health reasons. When the theoretical caller was actually long dead and buried, the statement was too absurd to even respond to.

The arrival of tea masked Aaron's silence, and his eyes again strayed to Miss Hoskins. She had been staring straight ahead for some minutes, as though determined not to meet his eyes. At her brother's comment, her expression became scornful.

Well, at least they would start their marriage with one thing in common, even if that was only contempt for Patrick Hoskins.

When the maid had departed and Hoskins opened his mouth again to speak, Aaron held up his hand, deciding that it was best to move on quickly past all the meaningless trivialities.

"You know very well why I am here today, Lord Prouton, Mr. Hoskins. I am bound to ask for Miss Hoskins' hand in marriage and request the consent of?—"

"Consent, Your Grace? Of course, we consent! Don't we, Father? We're absolutely delighted. As soon as I saw you two together, I thought?—"

Aaron held up his hand again, more authoritatively this time, unwilling to listen to any more of Hoskins' babbling than absolutely necessary.

"I am aware of no reason to delay on either side. I therefore propose a short courtship and a small wedding as soon as it can be arranged."

He looked at Dorothy and frowned to see the distress on her face.

"Absolutely! That is just what we thought, isn't it, Father?" Patrick gushed, cutting off his sister just as she seemed about to speak.

"Very much so. You are a sensible man, Your Grace. Marry now and enjoy the Season with a wife at your side," Lord Prouton agreed. "There is no sense in waiting."

"Miss Hoskins," Aaron addressed her directly now, sensing that her family would not otherwise allow her to get a word in. "It is your consent that I am seeking today, as much as your father's."

"My consent?" she repeated with a slightly twisted smile, as though the idea was darkly amusing.

"My sister is honored by your proposal, Your Grace, as are we," Patrick cut in again. "Do be assured that we are all cognizant of the honor you do our family through your attentions to my sister. You have our full consent."

"In that case, you will not mind if I escort Dorothy into the garden for a conversation between the two of us before you and I look at the marriage contract. Marriage proposals per se should be a private matter, don't you agree?"

Aaron did not wait for any objection but rose and offered his arm to Miss Hoskins.

"Naturally," Patrick said, covering his surprise with another broad smile. "Dorothy can show you the way. It is perfectly acceptable for a betrothed couple to walk together with the approval of her family…"

After a moment's hesitation, Miss Hoskins rose and placed a small gloved hand on Aaron's arm, perhaps more eager to escape her brother's drivel than to walk with him.

Still, she would not raise her gaze to his, and Aaron felt a pang of frustration, wanting to again see those sparks of golden fire in the depths of her brown eyes.

Once they were out in the garden and sufficiently far down the path not to be overheard, Dorothy withdrew her hand and turned to look at him with her hands on her hips.

"You must withdraw this proposal, Your Grace. You cannot marry me."

"Have you gone insane?!" Aaron responded instantly and automatically, not having prepared for such a development in all his soul-searching and long, involved conversations with Nicholas. "You would be ruined, Miss Hoskins. I would be rightly branded a rake. No, it is impossible. We must marry."

"Indeed, we must not!"

"I am not prepared to lose my reputation, and I am not prepared for you to lose yours on my account," he stated with unmoving resolve. "Reputation is everything in our society, Miss Hoskins. You must know that."

This whole argument was clearly pointless, and he could not believe they were having it, there, now, in her back garden. Patrick Hoskins had evidently been very wrong if he thought his sister "cognizant of the honor" of Aaron's attentions…

"But you can't possibly want to marry me," Miss Hoskins declared, the eyes he had earlier longed to gaze into now trained on him with their full fiery power. "I certainly don't want to marry you."

"You cannot presume to know what I want, Miss Hoskins," he countered, facing her down with his own determination. "My position, my family, my honor, all demand?—"

"I know what you want," she interrupted him. "Of course, I know now. You showed me. I can see it in your eyes every time you look at me, no matter what you're saying or doing."

"What do you imagine you see in my eyes, Miss Hoskins? What do you think I want?" he demanded, conscious that they were once again so very close to one another, close enough that he could detect the rise and fall of the small golden locket on her chest.

"To kiss me," she said, raising her chin, as though daring him to deny it.

It didn't even cross Aaron's mind to try. She was in his arms again as soon as the words were out of her mouth. She let out a small moan as their lips came together, but it was a sound of encouragement rather than protest. Her hands were on him again, pulling him closer, running under his open jacket and over his back.

It came to his mind that they might be far enough from the house not to be overheard but certainly not to avoid being seen. He abandoned this concern as soon as it registered. It no longer mattered. Let the whole world watch, damn it all! At least that might drive the impossible notion that there was any choice now about their marriage out of his soon-to-be wife's head.

They were both flushed and gasping when Aaron did pull back some minutes later.

"You were right, Miss Hoskins. I do want to kiss you. I want it very much, and if I'm not very much mistaken, you want it too."

"I cannot help it," she said, standing there before him as locks of her chestnut-brown hair tumbled around her face, her eyes caught somewhere between desire and despair. "I do not know why, but I cannot…"

"Nor I," he conceded, leaning back in to steal one more kiss from those damp, pink lips. "But now we must compose ourselves before we return to your family. There is much to be arranged in the coming days, and I would rather not leave it to your brother."

Miss Hoskins nodded, closing her eyes for a moment and then beginning to adjust her hairpins with unsteady fingers.

"You're not going to call off the wedding," she sighed. "Are you?"

"No, Miss Hoskins, I am not," he told her firmly. "Even now, can you not see how dangerous it is for us not to be married?"

"Dangerous," she mused, her eyes now open but dreamy and distant. "Is that what that feeling is? Danger?"

"For now, yes," Aaron breathed, wanting this woman more than any other. "It is a danger to both of us while we remain unmarried. But once you are my wife, I will show you where it leads."

Having smoothed their clothes, he offered her his arm again and led her back to the house. She had fallen silent now and excused herself in the hallway, where Patrick Hoskins was waiting for them.

Aaron watched her go, hoping that she would now resign herself to the inevitability of their wedding. While this union was no longer something he would have sought more than she did, he had already determined to make the best of it. Life had taught him to accept those things that were not within his power as well as fighting ceaselessly for those things that were.

Dorothy Hoskins was younger than him and perhaps had not yet learned such lessons. The thought of her weeping at the altar, or—God forbid—on their wedding night was not something he could countenance. There would be, however, only a brief courtship to accustom her to his person and their shared future. It would be no easy task.

As he meditatively watched her go, Aaron realized that Patrick Hoskins' eyes were trained on him. The distasteful smile of satisfaction on his face resurrected Aaron's suspicions of watchers at windows.

"We should discuss the principles of the marriage contract, Mr. Hoskins," Aaron said in a business-like tone. "Before we pass matters to our lawyers."

"My father and I have naturally already given this some thought." Hoskins smiled brightly. "Perhaps you would care to join me in the study?"

Following his future brother-in-law towards the study, Aaron had already silently determined that his priority in the matter was keeping Lord Prouton and Patrick Hoskins at as far a distance as possible. If that meant accepting a smaller dowry, settling a large portion of his own wealth on his new wife, or covering the full wedding costs himself, these were all prices he was willing to pay.