An Interview With A Groom
London, England, still 1824…
Lulu quickly latched on to her foolish, foolish husband's arm when he dared to set foot in the house. "What are you doing? You don't step in, you step out!"
"What are you talking about, wife?" he demanded. "Elizabeth likes to go riding at precisely this time, and I've just finished hitching up her mount."
"It is us who had better mount," Lulu grumbled, dragging him out through the door. "Jason and Elizabeth have been arguing all morning."
Logan stopped and listened for a minute, picking up the yells coming from Elizabeth's private parlor. "You're right – let us leave immediately before they draw us into it."
So he took her small hand in his and gave her an unnecessary tug, and the two of them were soon sprinting off down the walkway and over to the stables, where at least the horses weren't completely insane and volatile unlike the present inhabitants of Scorpio Estate.
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"Honestly, Elizabeth, I don't know what to do with you!"
"How about thanking me? I've yet to hear you do that."
"Thank you? For having everyone believing a stupid lie?"
"It's not a stupid lie! It saved your life, didn't it? You'd be on a cart straight to the gallows if I hadn't announced-"
"Announced what?" he fired back, his eyes blazing as he towered over her. "That you were my intended?"
"Of course," Elizabeth shot back. "Why is this so difficult for you to understand? Either you marry me or you face your death. You offend me, Jason, by making the decision seem so difficult."
"I offend you," he muttered, turning on his heel and stalking down the hall. "I offend you. I need a damn drink."
She huffed and followed him, dogging his steps. "You always need a damn drink."
"Don't swear."
"You swear."
"I'm upset."
"I gathered," she muttered, almost crashing into his chest when he turned around abruptly before they had reached the parlor. "Euf!"
He reached out and steadied her, not particularly caring when his thumbs brushed the creamy skin of her shoulders. (God, how he loved current women's fashions.) After all, she was to be his. He could touch her damn shoulders if he wanted.
"Elizabeth…"
"Jason, I don't understand why this has to be so difficult," she cut in, not particularly surprising him. Elizabeth always cut in. "No, just listen to me. It's not that difficult, and it's certainly nothing to be upset about."
She was getting worked up now, and her words were coming faster and closer together as she tried to convince him out of his foul mood.
"You see, it's not that bad. Our engagement buys us time. I've already told Miss Amy Vining that the last thing Father did before he left for India was finalize our engagement, and once she knows something the entire ton knows it. So it's well publicized by now."
Jason groaned, prompting Elizabeth to quickly place her hand on his arm. "And if everyone knows of our supposed engagement, you are beyond reproach, Jason. Why do you suppose most everyone calls me Lady Scorpio? I'm not Lady Scorpio: Lady Scorpio was my mother. I'm just a Miss. But everyone's either afraid of my father or so in raptures over him that they've passed the title on to me for some unknown reason!
"Don't you see?" she asked excitedly, giving his arm a little squeeze. "If you're with me, they can't touch you. Even Lord Baldwin is too afraid to come after you. Have you ever heard of anyone suspending a warrant? It's unheard of! Except if you're dealing with a friend of a friend of the Prince Regent which, like it or not, is exactly what you are."
He had to roll his eyes at her reasoning, even though it was all true down to the last word. "Elizabeth…"
"And I only just sent a missive to my father at the Curry Post," Elizabeth added. "It will take several weeks for it to arrive, and then he'll know what necessitated our match. And then it shall take him at least a few weeks to return home to England. And during that time, the two of us will continue to stay on at Scorpio Estate, just as we were, without fearing Lord Baldwin's threats. And in that time, Prince George will also have received my missive – I made sure to write it on our official family stationary with our crest – and he will be prepared to give you his support and grant you and your men a full pardon once Father explains everything."
"But-"
"And we shall pretend to be the perfect engaged couple," Elizabeth rushed on. "We'll simply say that we didn't make our engagement public because we want to hold our engagement ball once Father returns home, since our match was entirely fortuitous and we couldn't possibly have arranged a ball before Father left."
"But-"
"It won't be a difficult illusion to maintain," she persisted. "Of course, we'll have no choice but to maintain it. The only way to get out of it would be for you to say that you caught me in a compromising position with another man – at least that way, you can cry off."
His eyes blazed again, making him look impossibly fierce and even angrier, if at all possible. "I would never falsely accuse you of something like that, Elizabeth."
"But that way we can get out of the marriage," she pointed out.
Her addition only fueled his ire. "Elizabeth, I would never ruin you. Not for anything."
"Very well," she sighed as if she hadn't just proposed something so completely out of the question. "I rather thought you wouldn't be willing to do that. And of course, that means we'll have to marry. We've already announced our engagement; there is no way other than what I mentioned to back out of it."
Jason swallowed roughly, lifting his gaze until he was looking directly over her head at the large doors that led out to the sunlit gardens. "Then we must marry."
"Well, yes, that's what I've been saying," she agreed quietly, troubling her lip as she watched him stare emptily out the door. They stood there like that for a long moment until Elizabeth surprised them both by taking his other hand in hers and giving him a little squeeze. Jason snapped out of his silent reverie and blinked at her, then looked down at their enjoined hands.
"It won't be the end of the world, Jason," she got out in a low voice. "We'll make it work, and it will keep you safe from anyone that would ever try to blackmail you or have you hanged. And I will be a good wife to you, Jason, I promise it. You won't regret marrying me."
Before he could open his mouth and say something – anything – Elizabeth's eyes widened in horror. "Oh! Unless you're in love with someone else!"
Jason's lips parted, and it took his mind a minute to kick into gear. It was amazing how her thoughts jumped and tumbled, one after the other, until she arrived at the conclusion that he was head over heels in love with someone else and thereby reluctant to marry her. "Elizabeth-"
Her eyes were shining, and she snatched her hands from his and began to wring them together. "Oh, of course, all this time I've been prattling on about – and the reason you didn't want to – Oh, Jason, I'm so sorry. I didn't even think that it was possible you had a woman-"
He snapped his mouth shut. Well, really, that was just insulting.
"-and I've been so selfish, thinking of how I may keep you safe and all the while there's-" she appeared to choke slightly on the words but recovered admirably. "There's another woman out there who needs you safe for herself. I understand, I understand completely."
And then she was off on another one of her whirlwind schemes, and Jason found that his head was beginning to hurt.
"I know what we'll do. There's only one thing to do. You'll have to cry off. We'll have to say that you caught me in a compromising position with…with…John O'Brien."
He gaped at her. "What?!"
"Oh, fine, then, not John? Gianni, then. Yes, yes, he'll do. No woman in her right mind can resist an Italian."
Okay, that was pretty insulting as well.
"We'll say that you caught me in a compromising position with him, and then you'll be free. You needn't worry about my reputation, Jason, I'm sure I'll recover. Or I'll withdraw to one of our country manors and live out my life as a spinster there. Or maybe I'll move to Scotland. I can do that, you know. And then you'll be free to marry the woman you…wish to marry."
That was about enough of that. There was only a certain amount a man could be expected to take, after all.
"Am I ever to get a word in?" he snapped, his hands curling into loose fists as he gave her a perfectly supercilious look. "Well?"
Her mouth opened and shut, leaving her looking quite like a fish. "I…I suppose if you felt you needed to, yes."
He snorted. "Good."
And then he grabbed her by the shoulders and, pulling her to him, crushed his mouth to hers. Elizabeth squeaked, but her half-protest was lost against his lips. He pulled her closer, letting her feel him against her body from shoulder to thigh, until there wasn't a breath of space between them. His mouth moved slowly over hers in hot seduction, orchestrated in such a way as to shut the little chit up but good. Before he was through with her, she'd realize how his friendship with her had changed, how he burned for her, and how she wouldn't be able to live without his touch anymore.
She had melted in his arms, and Jason surmised that it was quite possible that he was the only thing holding her up off the ground. Her small hands were settled hesitantly on his broad shoulders, almost as if Elizabeth didn't quite know what to do with them. She didn't quite know how to move her lips against his, either, but Jason didn't need her to. This was about showing her, once and for all, everything he couldn't capture in words.
She let slip a quiet moan, just a shade louder than a breath, and Jason could feel his blood swirling hotly. She had absolutely no idea how she made him yearn for her, how she drove him half-mad with that yearning until he was certain that he wasn't even himself anymore, but instead a man possessed.
The sound of hoofbeats outside the house, along with an older man's gruff laugh, caused Elizabeth to squeak again and jump out of his arms. Jason stared down at her, baffled, but recognized the wild look in her eyes to be nothing short of terror.
"My God," she whispered, not particularly caring that she had blasphemed in his presence. "It's Father. He's returned home early."
