Free Happily Bedded Bliss: The Rakes of Cavendish Square by Tracy Anne Warren

can weather almost anything, Lady Esme, most particularly a scandal.” Northcote’s voice was deep and surprisingly gentle. “But I believe your family worries that you will not fare nearly so well. Society can be a cruel place to those it believes to have broken the rules, especially young ladies.”
    His eyes turned a rich gold as they looked into hers. “Innocent though both of us may be of any overt wrongdoing, there are few who will pause long enough to even listen to an explanation. Nor is it likely that any of them will forgive the fact that in your sketch I was naked as the day I was born and that you were brazen enough to draw me that way. People prefer to think the worst and they are sure to believe that something lurid happened between us, however untrue that may be. Sadly as well, my own less than estimable reputation does nothing to alleviate that impression. Quite the contrary, in point of fact.”
    Esme felt the warmth fade from her cheeks.
    Dear God, when he laid it all out like that, no wonder my family was so upset.
    Her heart raced like a cornered animal, but one not yet quite ready to accept defeat. She turned a pleading gaze on her brother and moved closer for some semblance of privacy. “But, Ned, you promised. You said the decision to marry would be up to me and that I could choose whomever I liked. You agreed to wait until I meet a man I can love and respect, that nothing would be orchestrated or arranged like it was for you, regardless of how well your marriage to Claire may have turned out in the end.”
    A look of sorrow darkened Edward’s blue eyes, whose color and shape were so like her own. “I’m sorry, Esme. I know what I promised and I fully intended to keep my word. But that was before. You must see that you are ruined and that there is no choice anymore.”
    “But, Ned—”
    He took her hand. “Sweetheart, facts are facts. From the moment that page in your sketchbook landed out in the open where everyone could see, your fate was sealed. Marrying Lord Northcote is the only option. If you do not marry him, I don’t believe you will ever marry at all.”
    She frowned, thoughts racing in desperation. “MaybeI don’t care. Would it be so bad if I lived here with you and Claire and the children?”
    “Not at all. We would be happy to have you with us forever,” Edward said with sincerity. “But I worry that you will come to regret your choice someday, that years from now you will be sorry not to have a home and children of your own.”
    Edward gave her hand a squeeze, then let go. “There is also the fact that if you refuse this marriage, you will never again be received in Society. Lord Northcote is right that you will be an outcast, and for your sake that is something I cannot abide, not even if it means giving you over to the care of a man of Northcote’s questionable stamp.”
    Esme and Edward both glanced over at Northcote, who stood waiting in polite silence as if he were listening to them discuss the weather rather than debating the positives and negatives of Esme entering into a marriage with him.
    She drew in a quick breath, her mind awhirl. “I don’t know what to do. I need time to think.”
    “Unfortunately, time is not something of which we have a great deal,” Edward said gravely. “I cannot say for certain what our departing guests will do, but as you already mentioned, the Waxhavens will not hesitate to spread the news. As for Lord Eversley—”
    “Eversley? But you needn’t worry about him. He likes me, after all.”
    “He
did
like you. How he feels now, one cannot say for sure. As a gentleman, he may indeed hold his own counsel. On the other hand, I could not help but note that he departed this morning without asking to hear your side of the story.”
    Esme’s fingers curled against her skirts, remembering the shocked look on Lord Eversley’s face when he’d caught sight of her sketch of a naked Lord Northcote. Afterward, he’d avoided her gaze,