He rose to his feet. “I fear I must leave before my grandmother attempts to spy on us from the house across the way.”
Hyacinth’s eyes flew to the window in horror.
“Don’t worry,” Gareth said with a chuckle. “Her eyes aren’t that good.”
“She owns a telescope,” Hyacinth said, still regarding the window with suspicion.
“Why does that not surprise me?” Gareth murmured, walking to the door.
Hyacinth watched him as he crossed the room. He had always reminded her of a lion. He still did, only now he was hers to tame.
“I shall call upon you tomorrow,” Gareth said, honoring her with a small bow.
She nodded, watching as he took his leave. Then, when he was gone, she untwisted her torso so that she was once again facing front.
“Oh. My—”
“What did he say?” Lady Danbury demanded, reentering the room a scant thirty seconds after Gareth’s departure.
Hyacinth just looked at her blankly.
“You asked him why he asked you to marry him,” Lady D reminded her. “What did he say?”
Hyacinth opened her mouth to reply, and it was only then that she realized he had never answered her question.
“He said he couldn’t not marry me,” she lied. It was what she wished he’d said; it might as well be what Lady Danbury thought had transpired.
“Oh!” Lady D sighed, clasping a hand to her chest. “How lovely.”
Hyacinth regarded her with a new appreciation. “You’re a romantic,” she said.
“Always,” Lady D replied, with a secret smile that Hyacinth knew she didn’t often share. “Always.”
Chapter 14
Two weeks have passed. All of London now knows that Hyacinth is to become Mrs. St. Clair. Gareth is enjoying his new status as an honorary Bridgerton, but still, he can’t help but wait for it all to fall apart.
The time is midnight. The place, directly below Hyacinth’s bedroom window.
He had planned for everything, plotted every last detail. He’d played it out in his mind, everything but the words he’d say, since those, he knew, would come in the heat of the moment.
It would be a thing of beauty.
It would be a thing of passion.
It would be that night.
Tonight, thought Gareth, with a strange mix of calculation and delight, he would seduce Hyacinth.
He had a few vague pangs about the degree to which he was plotting her downfall, but these were quickly dismissed. It wasn’t as if he was going to ruin her and leave her to the wolves. He was planning to marry the girl, for heaven’s sake.
And no one would know. No one but him and Hyacinth.
And her conscience, which would never allow her to pull out of a betrothal once she’d given herself to her fiancé.
They had made plans to search Clair House that night. Hyacinth had wanted to go the week before, but Gareth had put her off. It was too soon to set his plan in motion, so he had made up a story about his father having guests. Common sense dictated that they would wish to search the emptiest house possible, after all.
Hyacinth, being the practical girl she was, had agreed immediately.