Free A Chance Encounter by Gayle Buck Page A

conceive how a bogus engagement will aid matters in the least,” Lord Humphrey said impatiently.
    “Can you not, Edward?” asked Lady Cassandra sardonically. As his lips parted, she threw up her hand in a commanding fashion. “No, allow me to finish before you leap forward with all sorts of objections. A runaway marriage cannot simply be swept under the rug, my dears, no matter with what amount of discretion it is handled. The announcement of your hole-in-the-wall marriage will cause quite an upset within the family, and the particulars must at some point involve public scandal. It is simply too delicious a story to be kept close in the bosom of one’s family. I can easily bring to mind at least three relations who would spread the tale with all speed, though naturally with appropriate expression of horror and piety. It would be disastrous.”
    Lord Humphrey was brought up short by his grandmother’s comprehensive observations. “Aye,” he agreed gloomily.
    Joan glanced fleetingly at him. She thought that he must already be regretting his noble impetuosity toward her and it was an unbearable thought. She owed his lordship so much already. “What then do you propose by this false engagement, my lady?” she asked quietly.
    Lady Cassandra smiled at her approvingly, liking the young woman’s practical air. “Why, only that you shall arrive at Dewesbury as the viscount’s well-bred intended rather than his hurriedly acquired wife. I do not think that it would be wise to allow it to be believed that you married as a means to escape Miss Ratcliffe’s pretty hands, Edward.”
    At that statement, the viscount gave a sardonic crack of laughter. “Devil a bit. That is not far off the mark,” he said.
    Joan lowered her eyes, gazing unseeingly at her folded hands. She was surprised at how jarringly the viscount’s acknowledgment struck her. Suddenly she began to see the whole picture from a slightly different angle than before.
    But surely his lordship had meant it when he had said that his honor demanded that he should shield her from scandal. Surely she was seen by his lordship as more than a convenient excuse out of a distasteful alliance.
    Surely her own motives were not so despicably mercenary as she now perceived them to be.
    Thoughts of honor and cowardice swirled before her mind’s eye—whether hers or the viscount’s, she could not discern.
    Lady Cassandra was speaking again. “We shall insert a modest announcement in the Gazette so that the engagement will have formal and public recognition, not easily to be ignored, you see. You, my erring grandson, will have the opportunity to smooth over matters between your parents and Lord and Lady Ratcliffe concerning the outdated agreement involving yourself and Miss Ratcliffe. And Joan shall have an opportunity to win over the family to herself without the hostile consternation that an immediate announcement of your marriage would visit upon her head. In a few months’ time, there will be a proper wedding and the earl and my dear daughter need never know of the runaway match.”
    Lord Humphrey had listened first with skepticism but then with growing admiration and enthusiasm. “Ma’am, it is a brilliant scheme! Everything will seem to be aboveboard and quite respectable. The family shall take an engagement much easier than the dreadful draft that a runaway marriage would be to their consequence. We shall not have a whiff of scandal.”
    He did not say so, but he was greatly relieved. It had weighed more heavily on his conscience than he cared to admit that in order to do the honorable thing by Joan, he had to face the prospect of gravely wounding his parents and exposing them to the most distasteful of scandals.
    But now he thought that with a little luck and a silver tongue he might come off better than he deserved. His godparents were fond of him, he knew, and he thought that he would be able to bring them around as well. Then all would be comfortable and his