Twice the Temptation (24 page)

 
“I knew it wasn’t true,” she commented.

 
His eyes smiled at her even as he touched his lip again and winced. “Thank you.” He gazed at her for another moment, then cleared his throat. “So should I worry about a tree falling on us, or a sudden flood sweeping me out the door and down to the Thames?”

 
She shook herself. They still had a very large problem to deal with. Several of them, really. “I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure out how the diamond might affect my father’s luck, but it’s beginning to occur to me that I don’t know all that much about him.” She drew a breath. “When he jumped into the fight, I…I’ve never been so shocked in my life.”

 
“Dapney’s venom surprised me a bit, as well.” Connoll took her hand, stroking her fingers almost absently. “I want you, Gilly. I want to marry you. But I’ve presented my case. So have Dapney and Redmond. I’m not like them. I can’t prance about you like a poodle while you look for the perfect ingredients to avoid making any kind of mistake. I may not be a better man than either of them, but I’m better for you.”

 
God, what had she been thinking, encouraging Redmond and Dapney? That fight had been her fault, for stringing along men she’d already manipulated into becoming dependent on her supposed admiration. Connoll was right; she’d been ticking off items on a list of someone else’s making, and had never really looked beyond those items. This one had no imagination, while that one never lost his temper. And the one sitting beside her didn’t fit any list at all. He aroused her, intoxicated her, and certainly more than kept her on her toes. But because of that, she could see herself sinking into his life, spending her days wanting to please him. Would that leave anything for her?

 
“I don’t want you to order me about, or to completely control my life,” she said slowly.

 
“And I don’t want you doing that to me, Evangeline.” He frowned briefly. “I’m not some bloody damned tyrant. My parents loved one another deeply, you know. Recently I’ve begun wondering if that isn’t why I’ve never been tempted to marry. Just like you shaped your expectations because of your mama’s, I had an expectation of what I wanted to feel, of what sort of woman I wanted in my life, because of them.”

 
“And I’m that woman?” she asked, trying to sound skeptical rather than contrite and hopeful.

 
“I’ve kissed several women, as we’ve discussed. But you’re the only one I’ve asked to marry me.” Connoll blew out his breath. “Your father told me about your mother’s experience with her own father, and I can assure you that I’m not that man. In a marriage most rights, laws, advantages—whatever you wish to call them—belong to the husband. I can also assure you that I won’t use any of them to hurt or smother you. But—”

 
“‘Assurances,’ as you call them, are one thing. I prefer a guarantee.”

 
He shook his head, and a lock of his disheveled hair fell across one eye. Without thinking, she brushed it away.

 
“We’ve been acquainted for only a handful of days,” he said quietly, “but you know me. Probably better than anyone. I can’t give you a guarantee without proof. And until we’re married, I can’t prove anything but what you’ve already seen. Have some faith in me. If you don’t or won’t, then tell me goodbye.”

 
“I—”

 
“I’m not finished,” he pressed. “To be perfectly candid, I have faith in you. Faith that you’re smarter than
your mother, and that youknow what you’ve been looking for won’t make you happy.”

 
“This from a man with a bloody lip.” She ran a finger gently across that same lip. “As you know, I’ve been reading Mary Wollstonecraft. She was a very bright woman, very sure of herself and what she wanted. But I wouldn’t call her happy. I can describe my mother the same way. I’m not so certain what I want any longer. But I do know that I thought I would prefer comfort over happiness.”

 
He shifted. “Gilly, you—”

 
She flattened her hand over his mouth. “You got to be profound and eloquent. Now it’s my turn to talk.”

 
The fact that he didn’t protest said more than any of his words ever could. Still, she continued. Thinking aloud had never been one of her favorite things to do; she preferred to come to her conclusions in silence before she spoke them. But she needed to hear it, probably as much as he did.

 
Evangeline closed her eyes for a moment, trying to slow the hard, fast, hopeful beating of her heart.Faith . He was certainly right about that. She just hadn’t realized how difficult it would be when the moment came to demonstrate hers, newly forming as it was.

 
“When I’m in your company,” she continued, “I’m happy. It’s not just that you make me happy, which you do, but that I feel happier, lighter, since I’ve met you.” An unexpected tear ran down her cheek.

 
Connoll brushed it away with his thumb. “Are you finished being eloquent?”

 
“Yes.”

 
“Then I have two questions.”

 
Two?That surprised her; he always surprised her. “Very well,” she returned, wishing she had better con
trol of her voice, and knowing that he probably wouldn’t be fooled, regardless.

 
“You asked for a week to convince your mother not to object to me, and there are six days of that week left. Is she going to be the one to decide your—our—future?”

 
“I—” She cleared her throat. “I think I should wait to hear the second question before I answer the first.”

 
Nodding, Connoll reached for her other hand, clasping them both in his. His own fingers shook.Goodness . “Will you marry me, Gilly?”

 
She gazed into his dark blue eyes, seeing his humor and intelligence and quite a bit of worry there—worry that she would evade him or refuse him again.Faith . “The answer to your first question is no. And to the second one, I say yes,” she whispered unsteadily. “Yes, and yes, and yes again.”

 
Connoll laughed, drawing her hands up to kiss her fingers. “That’s handy, because my third question was going to be whether you would prefer a short engagement to a lengthy one, and now you’ve already answered it.”

 
“Very clever of y—”

 
She couldn’t finish her sentence, because he kissed her.

 
Chapter 13

 
“No! I refuse to allow this!”

 
Connoll sat beside Gilly on her parents’ couch and did his best to keep both his temper and his silence while Lady Munroe stalked about the room like a madwoman. She hadn’t sat down from the moment she and the viscount had walked into the Munroe House drawing room.

 
“Mama, I am nearly nineteen years of age. I’ve come into my inheritance, and nothing you say will convince me to change my m—”

 
“You are ungrateful! Ungrateful and obstinate.”

 
“She should look in a mirror,” Connoll muttered, and Gilly squeezed his fingers.

 
“Hush. No more brawls tonight, and especially not with Mama.”

 
“He makes her happy, Heloise,” her father said abruptly, from his seat across the room.

 
“What?” The viscountess whirled on him. “You have no idea what you’re saying.” She whipped back to glare at Connoll. “You put that diamond in my pocket, didn’t
you?” She began clawing at her gown. “I don’t have a pocket. Where is it? I demand you tell me at once!”

 
“It’s here, darling,” Munroe stated, lifting his arm. The diamond dangled from its chain, sparking in the firelight. “I have it.”

 
“You? But I put it—” Lady Munroe stopped, pinching her lips together.

 
“You put it in Connoll’s pocket yesterday,” Gilly finished, her voice admirably calm. “He found it and put it in a box to return to me. I put it in your reticule this evening, to teach you a lesson. It fell out and Connoll caught it, which is when the fight began. Papa took it from him to save us.”

 
“To save you?” she repeated, stalking up to the viscount. “How dare you interfere when you—”

 
Munroe stood. “It’s true that this is bad luck, isn’t it?” he asked, looking past his wife at his daughter.

 
“I think it is. There’ve been far too many coincidences for me to dismiss them as…well, as coincidences.”

 
“I agree,” Munroe said slowly, placing it on the end table. “I’ve been thinking about what bad luck would be to me.”

 
Your wife, Connoll thought silently, but continued to hold his tongue. Considering that he had proposed and Gilly had finally accepted, he was extremely curious about how the viscount’s poor luck might have affected them.

 
“Did it bring you bad luck, Papa?” Evangeline asked.

 
“It cost me my daughter.” He smiled. “That is the worst thing I could imagine, Gilly, losing you. My only consolation is that you’ve found the one good apple in the bunch of wormy fruit your mama’s been throwing at you.”

 
“Thank you, sir,” Connoll said feelingly. At least one member of the Munroe family had apparently been on his side all along.

 
“John! How dare you!”

 
“You haven’t given me any choice, Heloise.” He walked forward to kiss Gilly on the cheek, and to shake Connoll’s hand. “The two of you havemy blessing, if that counts for anything.”

 
“It does, Papa,” Evangeline answered, taking his hand and squeezing his fingers. “Thank you.”

 
“You don’t have mine!” Lady Munroe broke in. From her high color and wringing hands, she looked on the verge of an apoplexy.

 
“Mama,” Gilly said, rising, “you wore the necklace for an entire evening and nothing untoward happened to you. You had it in your reticule for over an hour tonight, and again, nothing happened.”

 
“What are you trying to say, Evangeline?”

 
“The Nightshade Diamond finds what you want least, and that is what it provides. For you, it didn’t change anything. It affected Connoll and me and Papa, but not you. To me that says that you’re already living what you want least.”

 
“That is not—”

 
“I want you to have it,” Gilly pressed, squaring her shoulders before she stepped over to pick it up and bring it to where her mother stood glowering. “I’m happy, and I’m fearful that this thing will ruin that. It doesn’t seem to hurt you, so I’m giving it to you. Do what you want with it. But I am going to marry Connoll. He is a good man.”

 
She took her mother’s hand and dropped the diamond into her palm, then returned to her seat. As she sat, Connoll could feel her muscles shaking, and he took her
fingers in his again. To stand up against the parent to whom she’d looked to for her entire life—it took courage. And faith. Faith in him.

 
“I love you, Evangeline,” he murmured, gazing at her.

 
Without warning she flung her arms around his shoulders, hugging him tightly. “I love you, Connoll,” she whispered into his ear. “Thank you for saving me from myself.”

 
He held her close. Thank God that Daisy had tired of his playing about, thank God she’d met Ivey. And thank God for that damned diamond, which he hoped never to set eyes on again.

 
“I suppose I shall have to accept this,” the viscountess bit out, closing her fingers over the diamond. “But I am not happy about it, Evangeline. And you will live to regret it. Mark my words, you stupid girl.”