harm my sister, you…you…”
Knightsdale put a restraining hand on his wife. “Have you harmed my sister-in-law, Parker-Roth?” His tone was even colder. Parks knew he was a dead man if he answered yes, but he was not going to truckle to the marquis. He turned to Meg.
“Did I harm you, Miss Peterson?”
“No, of course not. Don’t be absurd.” Meg turned to look at her sister and brother-in-law. “You are all making too much of this. There is no need for me to marry Mr. Parker-Roth. Let’s just pretend this evening did not happen.”
“Let’s just pretend Lady Dunlee is not the world’s biggest gossip,” Lady Beatrice said.
“Lady Beatrice—”
“You know she’s right, Meg.” Lady Westbrooke put her hand on Meg’s shoulder. “Lady Dunlee will spread the story in a trice.”
“No, she won’t, Lizzie.”
Westbrooke coughed. “Thing is, Meg, she already has. Two fellows mentioned it to me in the ballroom. Were surprised Parks was such a wild…” He coughed again. “Well, the truth is, the word is out—be all over Town by morning.”
“And all over England by next week.” The marchioness scowled at her sister. “You have no choice. You must marry Mr. Parker-Roth.”
Meg’s mouth was set in a straight line. She was beginning to look as mulish as her sister. “You are working yourself into a pother over nothing, Emma—as you always do.”
Lady Knightsdale drew in an audible breath. Parks was certain her husband would have to hold her back from Meg. Surely this argument wouldn’t degenerate into the hair-pulling sessions his youngest sisters too often engaged in? He glanced at his mother. She gave him an intense look.
It was definitely time to intervene.
“Perhaps it would help if Miss Peterson and I could have a few moments alone to discuss the situation, Lady Knightsdale?”
“There is nothing to discuss.” Meg almost spat the words. Was she going to take her venom out on him?
He was shocked to realize he found the thought rather stimulating. In fact, a specific part of him was especially stimulated.
“Exactly. The decision is made.” Lady Knightsdale turned her scowl on him. “And we’ve seen what happens when you two are alone together. Come, Meg. We are leaving.”
“We are not leaving. I came with Lady Beatrice. I will leave with her.”
“Meg—”
Knightsdale put his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “I believe we can give you a few moments, Parker-Roth.”
“But Charles—”
“You are understandably overset, Emma, but I think we can trust the man not to ravish Meg in the five or ten minutes we’ll allow them alone. We’ll wait right outside in the corridor in case Meg needs help, shall we?”
“Well…”
Mrs. Parker-Roth had obviously had enough. She was perfectly polite, but firm. “There is no need for concern, Lady Knightsdale. You can trust my son to behave as a gentleman. I did not raise a complete cad, you know.”
The marchioness’s brows snapped down and she opened her mouth as if to flay Parks’s mother with her tongue, but stopped in time. She blushed. “No, of course not.” Her tone was stiff. “I meant no insult, of course. As my husband says, I am slightly overset. Please excuse me.”
Mrs. Parker-Roth smiled. “That is quite all right. Indeed, I know exactly how you feel. I had a similar experience with my eldest daughter.”
“You did?”
“Indeed. You must remember the incident last Season involving Lord Motton?”
“Lord Motton…” Lady Knightsdale nodded. “Yes, I do remember the scan—I mean, story.”
Mrs. Parker-Roth took the marchioness’s arm and started toward the door. “Oh, it was indeed a scandal, and at first my husband and I—and John, too—were very angry. But once we saw how happy Jane was, well, we couldn’t stay angry.” She laughed and shook her head. “Even at the time I suspected Jane was an active participant in her seduction—she is not a namby-pamby sort of girl, you know—so I couldn’t think too harshly of Edmund. And now we like him very well, especially as Jane is expecting our first grandchild.”
“Really?”
“Yes. So, I’d say everything turned out well for my daughter, and I believe everything will turn out well for your sister.”
Lady Knightsdale paused in the doorway to glare back at Parks. “I hope so.”
The marquis was the last one to leave the room. “Ten minutes, Parker-Roth,” he said as he pulled the door closed.
Meg exploded the moment they heard the latch click.
“Can you believe Emma? She’s always tried to run my life, but since she married, she’s become unbearable. I thought once Charlie was born—and then Henry—she’d be too busy to concern herself with my affairs any longer, but I was wrong.”
“She loves you.” As Mother loves me.
He could certainly sympathize with Miss Peterson on the subject of interfering family members.
What did Mother think of this evening’s drama? She’d dragged him to Town to find him a leg-shackle—was she pleased with Miss Peterson?
Was he?
It made no difference. He had compromised the girl past redemption. Lady Dunlee had seen to that—and after the rather heated…exchange they’d had in this room, he couldn’t even consider himself an innocent victim. What the hell had come over him?
The long and short of it was he had no choice. The Marquis of Knightsdale was not letting him out of this room an unengaged man—he just needed to convince Miss Peterson of that fact.
She sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers twitched to touch the silky length again.
He clasped his hands behind his back.
“I know Emma loves me. I know she only wants the best for me, which makes me feel even worse, but I can’t let her dictate my decisions.”
“No, of course not. I’m sure she doesn’t wish to.”
“Ha! You have no idea. She thinks I must be married to be happy. She’s been torturing me about it for the last three years. You should have seen the men she was throwing at my head. It was enough to drive me to Town for the Season.”
“Surely they couldn’t have been that objectionable.”
“They were ancient. Well into their dotage.”
He laughed. He couldn’t help it, her expression was so horrified.
