Undercover Duke

said in a grim tone, “You sounded rather sure of me. How do you know I won’t call you out?”
“Because you and I are civilized gentlemen. We don’t allow women to suffer alone for our actions.”
That seemed to catch Sir Noah off guard.
But Sheridan meant it. He’d seen that happen already once in his own family, with his half sister, Gwyn. Because of the unwitting interference of her twin, Thorn, she’d nearly been publicly ruined. Sheridan knew only bits and pieces of the story, but he’d managed to put it together to determine most of it. He didn’t want that for Vanessa.
“I doubt we are both bad shots,” Sheridan went on, “so if I agreed to a duel, I’d either kill you or you’d kill me. If I didn’t agree, I’d be branded a coward. No matter which of those occurred, I’d be leaving Mother embroiled in another huge scandal, and I won’t do that. I certainly won’t do it to Vanessa.”
“How chivalrous of you,” Sir Noah said. “Too bad you weren’t so chivalrous when you were attempting to seduce her.”
The baldly spoken words made Sheridan wince. He could offer no justification for what he’d done. There wasn’t any. “Can we get on with this, sir? I will need to break the news of our impending wedding to Vanessa, and I’d rather do it sooner than later.” In hopes that she took it better the earlier he offered.
Sir Noah’s stony expression softened a fraction. “So you mean to do the right thing by my niece.”
“Of course,” Sheridan said. “My God, what sort of man do you take me for?”
“I didn’t take you for the sort to attempt seducing young ladies in public gardens, but clearly I was wrong. I could be wrong about this, too.”
Sheridan stiffened, not enjoying the dressing-down by a man he’d come to like. “I find Vanessa hard to resist, I’m afraid.”
“I suppose that’s just as well, since you’re about to be married rather hastily,” Sir Noah said. “I pray she, too, finds you hard to resist. Because if she reveals to me that you were forcing yourself on her, I will be calling you out, scandal or no. And there will never be a wedding between the two of you, no matter the outcome. Understood?”
“Understood. I would never force anything on Vanessa.” In a weak attempt at humor, he added, “Besides, I have a funny feeling if I ever attempted it, she would cut me up and eat me for breakfast.”
Sir Noah didn’t utter even a hint of a laugh. “I daresay I would help her.”
Good God, was the dressing-down ever going to end? Vanessa would likely be growing angrier by the moment over the fact she had to marry him rather than her precious Juncker.
The very thought of that made his blood curdle. This was a nightmare. In trying to impress upon her the wisdom of not being alone with Juncker, Sheridan had somehow managed to teach her the foolishness of being alone with him.
It was one thing to dally with her; it was quite another to ruin her life. And possibly his. He didn’t even know if they would suit, although if they didn’t, it was entirely his own fault. If he’d wanted her so badly, he should have courted her properly. Whether they could make a go of marriage was precisely the sort of thing one sought to discover during courtship.
Even still he had no regrets. He wanted to believe it was because he would finally be in a position to question Lady Eustace about the past to his heart’s content. He could finally determine if she’d had anything to do with the murders.
But the truth was, he didn’t care about that at present. Or rather, he cared far more about getting to have Vanessa in his bed at last. Assuming she agreed to marry him. At the moment, that was by no means certain.
“If you don’t mind my asking,” Sheridan ventured, “how did you even find us?”
Sir Noah snorted, then began to explain just how Vanessa had slipped out.
Vanessa stood peering out the window of the drawing room, trying to catch a glimpse of her uncle and Sheridan. But no matter which direction she craned her neck or how high she stood on tiptoe, they were still as well-hidden from the road as she and Sheridan had been a short while ago, even after the lamplighters had come round. If only Mama had not been alerted, they might still be there.
The thought gave her a delicious warmth in unexpected places.
“Are you listening to me, girl?” her mother asked.
Vanessa jumped. “Yes, Mama,” she lied.
That launched her mother into another rant, this one about how ungrateful a child Vanessa was, and how she would rue the day she married Sheridan. But when Mama insisted he was only marrying her for her dowry, Vanessa had taken all she could.
She pivoted away from the window. “He can have every penny of my dowry if it means I get to leave this house. I don’t care about my dowry. I would happily throw it into his lap. I just didn’t want . . . I don’t want . . .”
Oh, what was the use in saying this was the last way on Earth Vanessa had wanted to gain Sheridan? That she might have borne having him court and wed her for her dowry, but having him forced into marriage because of a bit of enjoyment seemed utterly wrong? Especially since she had provoked him into it. If this had taught Vanessa anything, it was that using manipulation to get what one wished never ended well.
No, her mother wouldn’t understand Vanessa’s feelings. In Mama’s view of the world, a young marriageable woman should use her dowry as bait to fish out the highest quality of suitor possible. Indeed, under normal circumstances, if a duke like Sheridan were rich, he would be Mama’s idea of the perfect suitor.
But Sheridan was not only supposedly lacking in funds, he was Grey’s