A Gentleman's Vow (Saints and Sinners 2)

Stapleton looked around them. “This is a joke, surely. A means to amuse me.”

“I would not make the request as lightly as that. I am serious. I would like to marry Jessica, if she will have me.”

The duke stared at him a full minute, in which time Gideon gave thanks that no guns were within easy reach. The duke turned away and walked off a short distance, not toward Stapleton, however. He was walking deeper into Quigley Hill.

Gideon watched him go, assuming he needed time to gather his thoughts. He would return soon, so Gideon waited nervously for his response.

He did not wait long. The duke rushed toward him, bristling with indignation. “Let me understand you. You ask today if you can court my youngest daughter. A girl you have known her whole life.”

“Yes.”

“When you waved her goodbye in January, did you know you would offer for her after her season?”

“No. I had no intention of doing so.”

“No intention of doing so then.” The duke advanced another step. “But you did think about her in that fashion, without the intention of offering for her.”

He shook his head. “I always believed Jessica would end the season a married woman. I thought I would not see her again before that day came.”

“So as soon as she returned, unmarried or betrothed, you…what? Suddenly decided you were done being a bachelor and had to have her?” The duke poked him in the chest. “I trusted you!”

“I never overstepped my bounds while she was not out.”

“But afterward, after the expense of her presentation and an unsuccessful season, you have?”

“I kissed her, and so it is only right that I act like a gentleman and make my interest known to her father.”

“Where did you kiss her?”

“In the garden.”

The duke balled his hands into fists. “And what did my daughter do to make you think you had the right to kiss her?”

“Jessica did nothing wrong.”

“Forgive me if I do not agree. Jessica never caused me trouble before you came along.”

Gideon gritted his teeth. “I have been here all along, soothing her childish tantrums, explaining matters she didn’t understand when you were too busy to give her your time. I took away the bottle you intended to drown yourself in when your wife died,” he added for good measure. “She’d never been kissed before.”

The duke snorted and shook his head. “So of course, she accepted her lessons from good old Uncle Giddy without a word of complaint.”

Gideon clenched his hands at his sides now. Nothing Stapleton said was anything Gideon hadn’t already thought about himself in the past day. “You make it sound like I forced myself on her! I certainly did nothing to harm her.”

If Stapleton knew the truth, that it was Gideon who was pursued for kisses, he might be more understanding. The duke adored his youngest and would not like to hear that truth.

Stapleton blinked, drawing back. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to imply that you were like him.”

Gideon controlled his temper. Being compared to his father was the highest insult. Stapleton had known his father, and the brutish nature he’d hidden behind closed doors from almost everyone. “Accepted.”

Stapleton shook his head. “No. You may not court my daughter.”

When he gave no further explanation, Gideon reeled back a step, even though he’d expected that answer on some level. He was without a title, without a great fortune to his name.

He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Well, then. Thank you for hearing me out.”

“We’ll just forget the matter,” Stapleton announced.

“Of course.” He bowed his head to hide his dismay and gestured for Stapleton to leave.