Merely the Groom (Free Fellows League 2)

“You are getting a second chance.” Colin leaned down and tilted her face up, lifting her chin with the tip of his index finger so he could look into her extraordinary blue eyes. “If you want one. For, you see, Miss Davies, I didn’t come to call upon you, I came to ask you to marry me.”

“You want to marry me?” Gillian wasn’t sure she heard him correctly.

“I do,” Colin answered.

“Why?” she asked bluntly, reeling from shock.

“What difference does it make?” Lord Davies interrupted. “The viscount wants to marry you. Smile prettily and accept the man’s proposal.”

“I can’t just smile prettily and accept the man’s proposal, Papa. No matter how much I would like to.” She looked at Colin. “Papa confided my predicament to you, but was he completely forthcoming? Did he explain that I’m no longer a…?” She blushed and tried again. “You understand that I’m ruined and could be carrying another man’s child?”

Colin was gallantry personified as he looked Gillian in the eye. “Society’s definition of ruined and my definition of ruined differ widely. Once we’re wed, any child you carry will be ours. Yours and mine.” Colin surprised himself with his honest declaration. “And while we’re confessing, you might as well know that if you decide to wed me, some in the ton will delight in accusing me of fortune hunting.”

“Is it true?” she asked.

“Well,” Colin gave her a lopsided grin, “I’ll be the first to admit that a fortune would come in handy, for I’ve nothing to offer you but my name and title.” Colin wiped his palms down the sides of his buff-colored trousers.

“And a ruined society miss is ripe for the picking,” she replied bitterly.

“Unfortunately,” he said. “But that was never my intent in coining to meet with your father.”

“Until Papa, no doubt, offered you a very large dowry.”

“Which I did not seek,” Colin told her, his Scottish burr thickening with every word. “But would be a very great fool to refuse.”

Her blue eyes flashed fire. “And you’re no fool, are you, Lord Grantham?”

“That remains to be seen, doesn’t it, Miss Davies?” he answered in kind.

“Be reasonable, Gillian. That’s the way these things are done. You know it as well as I, and there’s no reason the man shouldn’t get something in return,” Lord Davies intervened. “Especially when he’s risking his reputation and his good name in order to save yours.”

“To save my good name, Papa? Or yours?” she demanded.

“What difference does it make?” Lord Davies asked. “You’re my daughter. They’re one and the same.”

“It makes a great difference to me, Papa. I should like to know if the man you selected for me to marry wants your fortune more than he wants me.”

“If you had asked that question of the man you selected to marry, you wouldn’t be in this position now, Gillian.”

“Papa!”

“It’s true,” her father declared.

“I thought he loved me,” Gillian murmured. “I thought he wanted to marry me.”

“He lied,” her father pointed out. “He told you he loved you and married you after he married two other equally unfortunate young women. Lord Grantham, to his credit and to his detriment, told you the truth. He didn’t come to me seeking a fortune or a bride. He came to discuss my investigator’s findings and explain the situation.” Lord Davies looked at his daughter. “I chose to hold him responsible and to force his hand into accepting a marriage he did not want.”

“But Papa, he’s innocent...” Gillian protested.

“So were you, Miss Davies,” Colin answered gently, “when someone used my assumed name in order to prey upon you. I don’t believe that was a coincidence, and I intend to see that the wrong he did you in my name is corrected.”

“At what cost to your personal life?”

Colin grinned.

“I have no personal life.”

“At all?” She was curious in spite of herself. “No young lady pining for you?”