Chapter 21

CHAPTER21

The sun shone pleasantly on the gardens of the Irington Estate. The flowers that her mother had once cared for were in full bloom, and butterflies even fluttered amongst them. The air was filled with a fragrance that Amy felt no perfume could ever replicate.

It had been two days since their... tryst in the gazebo, and today, she was walking with Evan amongst the flowers her mother once loved so dearly.

They came upon the gazebo where they had met, and Evan smiled knowingly at her which caused Amy to blush a deep pink. Before him, she had found no reason to blush. Now, it seemed that she was doing it all the time.

"Shall we go in?" he suggested teasingly.

"Your Grace, you are making fun of me again," she reprimanded him. "Has no one ever told you that it is ill-mannered to tease a lady so?"

"No one would dare," was his irreverent reply. "Besides, I have already told you to call me by my name when we are alone. I would not want you mistaking me for another man when I..."

He let the sentence trail off with a devilish smirk.

She gaped at him before bursting into laughter. "You are absolutely impossible!"

"That is true. But you like me anyway."

"You wish!" she wrinkled her nose at him. "You are rather full of yourself. Somebody should bring you down a peg or two to teach you a lesson."

He stealthily encircled an arm around her waist and suddenly pulled her close, enticing a surprised shriek from her. She glared up at him like a schoolteacher reprimanding an errant schoolboy.

"You are getting bolder by the day, you know that?" she admonished him.

"As are you, my dear."

She flushed again, intensely aware of their proximity. If someone was to walk in on them in the garden at that very moment, how was she going to explain? It would be the biggest scandal to hit that Season, and she...well, they would never be able to escape it unscathed.

But would that be such a bad thing? Amy was finding that she liked spending time with Evan more and more. If she was to actually marry him...well, the thought did not bother her nearly as much as it did before.

In fact, she found it a rather pleasant idea. The only question was if he thought the same as well.

"You know," she said, coyly tracing patterns on the broad chest before her. "You have never really asked my father for permission to court me."

"That was because I thought you were not interested in the bloody pageantry of it all."

Well... he did have a point. She did use to find that mating dance between ladies and gentlemen rather exasperating, dancing around each other in circles and fluttering their fans at each other.

Still, they must both adhere to etiquette, or her father would be most incensed.

Not as incensed as he is about the thought of me becoming a spinster for the rest of my life, though,she thought to herself.

However, now that she thought about it, she did have to thank her dearest father for setting out the terms of their agreement. Without it, she would never have given the Duke of Leonbridge a chance—not that she ever went easy on him.

Thankfully, he was quite persistent, and now, he had all but won her over as she had mostly abandoned the thought of living out the rest of her life in a country home as a spinster, away from the maddening crowd of London.

"If it bothers you so, I will go to him first thing tomorrow morning," he told her.

She smiled happily up at him. "Yes, that would be for the best—unless of course you would have me entertaining other prospective suitors."

His blue eyes narrowed into a glare. "You would not dare."

"Your Grace," she smiled up at him, "you will find that I will dare do anything I please."

He let out a sharp bark of laughter. "That you do, and I find that one of your most endearing qualities."

"You do?" she wrinkled her nose at that. "Most would think it is one of my most horrible qualities. It is quite likely the very reason why gentlemen steer clear of me."

"Most of them are idiots, anyway. Why would you want to associate with them?"

"And, of course, you are not amongst them, for you are a paragon of the males of the species."

"Naturally."

Amy could not hold the laughter that bubbled up her throat at his words. It was true that she found most men to be miserable company—most other young ladies, too.

It was only with Esther and Evan that she felt she could have a truly mentally stimulating conversation.

They both made their way into the gazebo, and once they were hidden underneath the foliage, Evan tipped her chin up and kissed her softly. His lips gliding languorously over hers, and she snaked her arms up to his shoulders as she stood up on her tiptoes and met his kiss boldly.

Amy had always been a rather keen student, and she quickly learned just what drove him mad with desire.

Evan groaned and leaned his forehead against hers. "You are going to be the death of me, my dear lady."

"I still do not know why we must wait at all," she huffed.

He smiled at her petulance. "You are used to having your way all the time, and if it is not given to you, you would make it happen on your own."

"You make me sound like a spoiled child."

"No," he pecked at her lips. "You are someone who makes things happen, Amy Clarke, and heaven help anybody who dares to stand in your way."

His words left her speechless. Nobody had ever said such nice things about her. She looked up at him, searching for a hint that he might be joking or making fun of her again.

There was none of it. He was looking at her seriously.

All the things that others had found undesirable in her were the things that he loved about her. Amy felt her heart blossom in her chest at that discovery.

For most of her life, she had thought that her less than conventional beliefs made her unlovable, and for a long time, she even used them to shield her from further disappointment. However, Evan came and dismantled her defenses with every passing day until one day, she was going to stand before him completely vulnerable.

For once in her life, Amy felt like it was not such a terrible idea at all.

* * *

"Look at them! Just look at them, Dorothy!"

Dorothy Clarke looked at her cousin with much exasperation on her face. "You have been going about it so much for the past half hour or so, dear cousin. One would think you are loath to give up your only daughter for marriage!"

"Of course, I want her to be happily settled with a nice man." The Marquess of Irington looked visibly affronted at the insinuation that he was less than happy for his daughter. "However, I was hoping that she would not be with someone as..."

His cousin sharply raised her eyebrow at that. "You mean to say that you did not think your daughter would be able to catch the eye of the most eligible bachelor in all of London? Oh ye of little faith..." she grumbled.

"Well, it is not like that at all... I just hoped that her choice of a husband would not be someone like the bloody Duke of Leonbridge."

"Your pride must have suffered quite a blow that our Amy found a man with a better title."

"Nonsense! I am just afraid that... well, he is the bloody Duke of Leonbridge..."

"Yes, you have already said that before."

"And he has immense wealth and power at his disposal. What if he decides to bully Amy?"

His spinster cousin gave him a sharp look. "Do you honestly think that anybody can bully Amy?"

"She may act tough, but I know that she has a soft heart," Matthew argued. "And after what that Clarence did to her, I am just being prudent."

Dorothy calmly set her teacup aside. "Amy did not hold a smidgen of affection for Andrew Clarence, and we both know it. The only thing he has ever done to her is to solidify her belief that men are vile creatures and are not to be trusted."

The Marquess of Irington frowned at that. "It was a generalization and one that is not entirely true."

Dorothy smiled pleasantly at that. It was true that her niece could be quite resolute in her ways. It did take a rather strong woman to decide that she would rather become a spinster than marry someone who would only make her unhappy for the rest of her life.

In that aspect, they were both the same.

However, it was different for Amy, for she found a man who was willing to break the barriers she had erected around herself to be able to touch her heart. Dorothy had never encountered such a man in her lifetime.

"The Duke of Leonbridge is an exceptional young man," she pointed out to her cousin. "Not only is he tall, handsome, extremely capable, extremely wealthy, and with a grand title to boot—he is also the only one who dares to see through Amy’s walls and persist in getting to know her better. You and I both know that it cannot have been easy dealing with her."

The Marquess appeared visibly chagrined at that, for it was the truth. As much as they had gotten Amy to agree that she would not refuse anyone outright, they both also knew that she had her ways of making a suitor back off even without refusing him.

That the young duke was able to get past her defenses was a testament to his abilities.

"But," he said in exasperation, "he has not even asked me for permission to court Amy yet. What if his intentions are less than pure?"

"Oh, I think it would be much more entertaining if he has less than pure inclinations," Dorothy snickered. "Amy would certainly be happier for it."

The Marquess of Irington rolled his eyes at that. "How can you be so scandalous as a spinster?"

"I am a spinster, not stupid. Of course, I am well aware of all the components of a relationship between a man and a woman," she sniffed. "Just because I have not desired it for myself does not mean that I am blind to it." She took a scone off the plate and bit delicately into it. "It will not be long, though. You will soon find the Duke of Leonbridge seeking an audience with you."

"How do you know that?"

"Oh, I have my ways." Her blue eyes twinkled mischievously. "Mostly, I know that Amy will definitely put him up to it. That girl has a great degree of respect for herself—and of course, she cannot resist making him squirm just a little bit more."

Matthew shuddered at that. "Wherever did men get the idea that women are weak and submissive? You and my daughter have kept me on my toes ever since her coming out!"

"Well, somebody ought to do it, otherwise you would become complacent," Dorothy chortled. "Now, why don’t you sit down and have some tea. You have been making me quite dizzy for close to an hour already..."

Her cousin sighed and plopped down into an upholstered chair opposite her. She felt some pity for him as she knew it could not have been easy raising a daughter after his wife died when Amy was still quite young. However, she had to admit that Matthew did a commendable job, for the daughter he raised was neither vapid nor overbearing as was the case with most gently bred young ladies.

A man like the Duke of Leonbridge—well, he most certainly was not going to settle for just another young woman with a good background and a reasonable dowry. He already had all of that and more.

No, what His Grace needed was an equal—a woman who could stand up to him and match him in every way.

Dorothy Clarke was quite certain that her niece fulfilled all the criteria. However, not everyone in the ton was going to accept that, just as they had shunned Amy in the past.

Now that His Grace had his eye on her, it was bound to kick up a great storm, and Dorothy had the distinct feeling that she was going to enjoy watching it all from the sidelines.