Swear by Moonlight by Shirlee Busbee

Author:Shirlee Busbee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2017-01-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

"You are the most underhanded, perfidious, wicked person I have ever known!" Thea exploded the minute she was alone with her betrothed. "How could I have trusted you? You lied to everyone—even your own mother. How could you? I thought that I had met the blackest-hearted beast in nature when Hawley Randall betrayed me, but you—!" Words failed her, and she shut her mouth with an audible snap that made Patrick wince.

In the shadowy darkness of the coach taking them to Thea's London residence, Patrick could not see Thea's features clearly, but he had no doubt of her feelings. He grimaced. He didn't blame her for feeling as she did either. His mother and Modesty had neatly boxed them in, and while he knew that he was innocent of all the crimes his seething bride-to-be laid at his feet, it was unlikely that she would believe his protestations to the contrary.

At least she had waited until they were alone to vent her rage, Patrick thought, and for that he was thankful. And she had not publicly contradicted his mother's announcement—for which he was even more grateful. He wanted to marry Thea. He intended to marry Thea. And while he would have wished to have arranged things in his own fashion, he was not above taking advantage of the situation. His mother and Modesty might have sprung as neat a trap as he had ever seen, but he had no inclination to escape from it. Not when he shared it with the dark-eyed virago who had captured his heart.

"You are vile!" Thea declared. "Vile and unprincipled and I will not marry you! Not even if you were the only man in the world. Not even if—!"

"Yes, you will," Patrick murmured, and plucked her from her seat across from him in the coach.

"Let me go!" Thea gasped, struggling to escape from his firm clasp. "Who do you think you are? Unhand me this instant, you blackguard."

She was a bundle of vibrating outrage, but Patrick effortlessly settled her on his lap. He sympathized with her feelings, but whether they liked it or not, they had been well and truly trapped by as clever a pair of conspirators as he had ever met. No amount of rage or fury was going to change things, and Thea had to realize that they were going to have to make the best of things. They would marry. On Saturday.

Stilling her efforts to free herself from his grip, he asked, "Would you believe me, if I told you I had nothing to do with what happened tonight? That my mother's announcement came as much as a shock to me as it did to you? Would you believe that my mother and Modesty put their heads together and duped both of us? That I am as innocent as you?"

Thea flashed him a look. "No," she snapped. "And you are reprehensible to try to blame two of the kindest, finest women I know for your own duplicity."

Patrick sighed. He didn't think she would believe him, but it had been worth a try.

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