To Bed a Beauty (Courtship Wars 2)

He offered her a slow smile. “You are showing excellent judgment, my dear Roslyn.”

She responded with a barely muffled snort. “It would be the first time today,” she muttered. “My judgment thus far has been deplorable.”

Leaning back against the squabs, Roslyn shut her eyes. Her head suddenly felt as if it were splitting open, and she still had to face Winifred with the news of their betrothal-heaven forbid. Her resultant shudder had little to do with the damp chill of her gown.

“You will have to inform Lady Freemantle about our engagement,” Roslyn told the duke. “No doubt she will be ecstatic, but I don’t have the fortitude just now to endure her raptures.”

“Leave it to me,” Drew said blandly.

He settled back in the carriage seat, yet he was not as nonchalant as he strove to appear. He was honor-bound to marry Roslyn now. He’d chosen her for his bride, and he had every intention of following through-although given her fierce reticence, he’d decided it wiser to conceal his resolve under the guise of a temporary arrangement.

Still, his discomfort was not caused by the parson’s noose hanging around his neck, Drew mused. In truth, he didn’t feel trapped as he’d expected.

No, the trouble was he was being drawn in too deep. Roslyn made him feel things he’d never felt for a woman. His instinctive reaction was to pull back-doubtless a reflexive response to being considered prey for so long.

Granted, the pleasure of making love to her was so much greater than with any of his previous lovers, even the most skilled of his mistresses. She made passion new and exciting again. Yet Roslyn roused much more than a physical response from him. There was something so unexpectedly natural about the way he felt when he held her. Something so real and right.

A damned dangerous sensation, Drew acknowledged to himself.

He would do better to keep their relationship strictly carnal. And yet some part of him welcomed the change. Until now his life had been rather cold and empty, and yes, passionless. His aristocratic upbringing had left no room for sentiment. He’d been raised to be emotionally detached, to rein in his feelings.

With Roslyn, he couldn’t remain detached. Indeed, he’d never felt more alive than when he was with her. She was a delight to be around, whether she was arguing with him or writhing beneath him in ecstasy.

Drew frowned as he gazed out the carriage window. Despite his misgivings, he actually wanted marriage with Roslyn now. Or more specifically, he wanted the exhilaration he always felt with her.

Their marriage would not be based merely on convenience or even desire, he knew. He could imagine spending time with her even after they wed, sharing their day-to-day lives in addition to long lustful nights in their marriage bed.

His glance shifted to Roslyn as she sat beside him. His loins tightened when he remembered kissing her a short while ago. She had responded with mutual desire, her lips longing and hungry…

Drew fought the urge to pull her close now and resume where they had left off in the cottage. He didn’t want to push his luck.

He had obtained Roslyn’s agreement to a temporary betrothal. Now he had the much harder task of securing her hand in marriage for good.

Chapter Thirteen

I confess astonishment that the duke offered for you, dear Roslyn, since he is the most elusive marriage catch in England. I am even more astonishe

d that you agreed, given your distaste for convenient marriages. But I can certainly see your dilemma.

– Fanny to Roslyn

As predicted, Winifred was amazed yet thrilled to learn of the betrothal. The news even overshadowed the distress of having a thief invade her home. When Roslyn reported that they’d lost the culprit’s trail but planned to involve Bow Street in the search, Winifred merely nodded distractedly.

“You were brave to follow him, my girl, but I don’t like that you endangered yourself again. It is a wonder you didn’t break your neck-and it will be even more astonishing if you don’t catch the grippe.” She turned to the duke. “Your grace, it is so fortunate that you were there to rescue Roslyn from her folly. In any case, my brooch is safe, since I’d hidden it with my stockings instead of my jewel case. But now let us discuss your splendid news! I cannot tell you how happy that makes me. I had hoped you might be forming a tendre for Roslyn, but I wouldn’t let myself count on it.”

When Winifred proposed holding an impromptu dinner two evenings hence to celebrate their betrothal and to invite their closest friends, Roslyn would have politely refused, but the duke-or Drew, as she had to remember to start calling him-accepted with alacrity.

Lacking the energy to argue, Roslyn made her escape from the Park with the excuse that she needed to return home and change into dry clothing. The Goodey coachman drove her in the squire’s carriage, while the Freemantle butler arranged to have her gig delivered to Danvers Hall before nightfall.

Drew planned to borrow some dry clothing from her ladyship’s late husband’s wardrobe and use the Freemantle barouche to return to London, since it would likely be tomorrow at the earliest before his curricle wheel was repaired. But he promised to call on Roslyn the following morning to further discuss their betrothal.

Roslyn arrived home disconsolate and chilled to the bone. Much to her gratitude, the Danvers housekeeper, Mrs. Simpkin, plied her with hot tea and ordered a steaming bath filled for her, then bustled off to the kitchens to supervise the preparation of a special supper with her favorite dishes.

Comforted by the elderly housekeeper’s mothering, Roslyn soaked for a long while, so that her body was much warmer and her spirits a little higher by the time she emerged from the tub.

She had sent a message to Tess Blanchard asking her to call at the Hall as soon as possible since she had important news to impart. Roslyn wanted her friend to hear the news directly from her. And even more, she wanted to gain her advice.

Tess arrived in time for supper, and while the two of them ate in the small dining room, Roslyn told her about the disastrous afternoon that had led to her unwanted betrothal, not sparing any of the details, not even the part where she had succumbed to Drew’s passion and given him her innocence.