Barely a Bride (Free Fellows League 1)

Alyssa missed a step and would have stumbled if not for his smooth recovery. “Pardon?”

“You were a thousand miles away.” He smiled down at her. “And I couldn’t help but wonder what you were thinking.”

“You’re not a duke.” Alyssa said the first thing that came to mind. “My mother is terribly disappointed about that.”

“I noticed,” he answered. “What about you?”

“What about me?” she asked.

“Have you changed your mind?”

“About what?”

“About being a duchess?”

“Heavens, no!” Alyssa laughed. “The restraints placed upon me by my sex and my position as an earl’s daughter are quite enough, thank you. I can barely breathe as it is. I’ve certainly no desire to add to them by marrying a duke.”

“It could be that by marrying a duke and becoming a duchess, the restraints placed upon you would be greatly lessened,” Griff offered.

“Not if the duke in question has a powerful mother who, upon his marriage, would be relegated to the rank of dowager duchess.” Alyssa may not have seen the duke since he was in short pants, but she’d heard enough about his mother to know she relished control and the power her rank afforded her.

“And is that the state of affairs with the duke in question?”

“Most definitely,” Alyssa told him.

“She might take a fancy to you.”

Alyssa shook her head. “It’s possible, but not very likely. It’s been my experience that powerful women do not appreciate having their position usurped, and sharing the same house could prove to be a most unpleasant state of affairs for the usurper.”

“I see.” Griff pretended to ponder the problem. “In that case, might you consider marrying a viscount?”

Alyssa answered his teasing in kind. “Only if he comes equipped without a powerful mother and with a garden.” She smiled up at him.

“A garden?” He frowned. The mother he understood, but he was puzzled by her second requirement. “Like the Sussex House gardens?”

She shook her head. “Not like Sussex House gardens. They’re perfectly magnificent, that’s true, but I don’t want a garden someone else has perfected. I want to create my own.”

“You like to design gardens?”

“I like to garden,” she corrected, smiling. “Without an army of gardeners and a hundred years of tradition dictating what I can and cannot do. Unfortunately, I’ve been forbidden to dig in our gardens for the duration of the season.”

“And why is that?”

“A lady of impeccable breeding should not give the appearance of coming from yeoman stock.”

“That sounds as if it could only come from a mother.”

“My mother,” she agreed. “Which is why I’d prefer to marry a man who will provide me with a garden of my own and who won’t complain about my desire to dig in it.”

Griffin grinned. “In that case, I’m your viscount. My title isn’t as lofty, but it’s old and well-respected and it comes with an estate, a manor house, acres of parkland, and a rather overgrown and badly neglected garden and,” he added for incentive, “a generous income.”

“You forgot about the mother,” she teased.

“I have one,” he admitted. “Lovely lady. Very nice. Looking forward to welcoming a viscountess into the family.”

“Oh, well.” Alyssa managed a perfect imitation of her mother’s dramatic sigh. “The garden sounded too good to be true.”

“Did I mention the fact that my father is still very much alive and that he and my mother have a very large, very well-tended estate of their own in a county far away from the one in which my viscountess would reside?”