The Rake's Wicked Proposal

Lucian’s mouth thinned. ‘No doubt in response to the fact that Sebastian has already informed her it is his intention to call, along with Viscount Rupert Enderby and Lord Gideon Grayson!’

‘That will be pleasant.’ Grace kept her voice deliberately neutral.

In truth she had very much enjoyed the company of the three other young men the previous evening, finding their light-hearted banter a distinct contrast to the ever-increasing darkness of Lucian’s mood.

Lucian’s mouth thinned as he nodded acknowledgement to yet another gentleman who only had eyes, it seemed, for the beautiful young woman riding at Lucian’s side. It had been this way since the two of them had first appeared in the park together this morning. Unsurprisingly so, when Grace rode with an elegance and surety—even side-saddle—that was much to be admired.

Grace’s appearance at Lady Humbers’s ball the previous evening seemed to have garnered her many admirers. Amongst them his own brother Sebastian, as well as Sir Rupert Enderby and Lord Gideon Grayson. Those three young bucks had claimed their single dance with her, and then remained within Grace’s circle of admirers for the remainder of the evening. Much to Lucian’s annoyance.

Grace’s smile was warmly mischievous as she glanced across at him. ‘I am sure Sebastian has only decided to call in order to annoy you.’

Lucian was absolutely positive that Sebastian meant to annoy him; his younger brother had been doing just that for most of his life! No, it was the presence of Rupert Enderby and Gideon Grayson that had irked Lucian.

He could not in all honesty say that Grace’s behaviour towards the two men, or the other half a dozen or so young gentlemen who had requested a dance with her during the remainder of the evening, had been in the least familiar. It was Lucian’s own feelings of resentment towards those gentlemen, though completely unjustified, that mystified as well as irritated him.

He eased the tension from his shoulders with an effort. ‘As it happens, it was Sebastian’s friends Sir Rupert Enderby and Lord Gideon Grayson who were instrumental in bringing to my attention the subject I wished to discuss with you yesterday evening.’

Grace frowned her puzzlement. ‘But I had not even been introduced to those two gentlemen at the time…’

‘You misunderstand me,’ Lucian rasped. ‘It was a conversation I overheard between those two gentlemen that I wished to discuss with you.’

Grace’s brows rose. ‘You seem—angry, My Lord?’

‘Not with you this time, Grace.’ He sighed before proceeding to tell Grace the gist of the two young gentlemen’s conversation the previous afternoon. ‘Such speculation was only to be expected, I suppose, when our betrothal happened so suddenly. Although I intend to find out exactly who was responsible for instigating such a rumour,’ he concluded grimly.

Grace looked troubled. ‘Perhaps someone at the inn…?’

‘I find that highly unlikely, when I paid the innkeeper a vast amount of money in exchange for his silence on the subject of our first meeting!’

Grace could not help agreeing with the unlikelihood of the innkeeper having broken his oath—not because of the money Lord Lucian had paid him, but because she seriously doubted that any man, innkeeper or duke, would deliberately choose to oppose a man who projected such an aura of danger as Lord Lucian!

She wrinkled her brow. ‘Then perhaps my aunt’s maid?’ She trusted the silence of her own maid implicitly. ‘Household servants very often do know much more than we give them credit for,’ she added ruefully, remembering all the gossip she had heard on her frequent visits to the kitchen in the sprawling manor house she had called home for the first nineteen years of her life. And which she hoped to call home again some day…

Lucian shot her a hard glance. ‘I had Francis Wynter more in mind. Especially as I was made privy to another piece of gossip yesterday evening that indicated you had rebuffed Francis’s proposal in favour of the second son of the Duke of Stourbridge rather than a third son of another!’

Grace’s initial denial froze on her lips as she realised that such an action sounded very like something Francis Wynter would do. But why would he do such a thing? For spite? Because Grace had rebuffed all of his own advances towards her, both before meeting Lord Lucian and since? It seemed a distinct possibility!