He nodded to his uncle, who obediently began, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…”

Mayne didn’t hear any of the rest of it. He just looked down at the dark chestnut of his almost-wife’s hair. She was looking down at their hands.

“In sickness and in health,” intoned the bishop. Mayne tightened his hands on Josie’s. I’ll take care of you, he promised silently. I’ll protect you, and no one under God’s great earth will ever hurt you again.

After the ceremony Josie suddenly looked up at him. Mayne’s heart was pounding violently; he hardly knew why. She was terrifyingly beautiful, this wife of his. Her dark hair was carelessly bundled on her head and still damp from a bath. Her skin had the glow of pearls seen by candlelight. But Mayne knew it wasn’t physical beauty that made his heart pound.

It was the Josie-heart of her, the intelligence and wit that she had so often used against him on their trip to Scotland. What had happened to her was all his fault. Not only did he lose her at the racecourse, but he took off her corset, and taught her how to kiss. She transformed before his eyes, and those of the male half of London. It was mesmerizing, seeing that erotic beauty come to the surface.

It was his fault that some bastard raped her. The words, the grim truth of it, steadied him.

Was he supposed to kiss her? No! After her experience…He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it.

Something crossed her eyes, disappointment perhaps, but then she was turning to her sisters. Annabel was crowing with delight. Felton was at Mayne’s shoulder, smiling at him.

“It had to be done,” Mayne said in a low voice, because he was feeling a queer need to justify himself.

“For many reasons,” Lucius said, taking him in a rough—and wholly uncharacteristic—hug.

“An interesting night,” the Earl of Ardmore said, contenting himself with bowing to Mayne.

“In some ways,” Mayne said. He glanced over at the women. Annabel was laughing at something Josie had said, laughing so hard that she was shaking. He’d have to get used to that: laughter followed Josie wherever she went. “Has anyone discovered who the man in question was?”

Lucius’s face stilled instantly. “It may be that Josie has confided in my wife; Tess hasn’t yet told me.”

Mayne’s fists clenched involuntarily. “Tomorrow, then. I should accompany my uncle back to his lodgings.” The poor man had collapsed back onto the sofa with his eyes closed, and Mayne had to admit that he looked rather gray.

“Your uncle tells me that he drank three bottles of claret with his supper,” Ardmore said genially. “It’s remarkable that he’s on his feet at all. I think I should accompany him, don’t you?”

“Absolutely not,” Mayne said, and then the words dried in his mouth. Both men were looking at him with mockery in their eyes. “I collect that I was about to drive into the night without my wife.”

“One quickly grows accustomed to the state,” Ardmore said.

“Such a pity that Rafe isn’t here,” Lucius said.

“No doubt my mistake would have given him rare pleasure,” Mayne said. He turned to his wife. His wife! Could it be that he really had a wife?

And yet there was a young woman, shining chestnut hair, wide-flung eyebrows, laughing eyes, lovely lips: and the world would know her as the Countess of Mayne. The idea was so dumbfounding that he took the champagne thrust into his hand and drank it without thinking.

31

From The Earl of Hellgate,

Chapter the Twenty-first

We married in a simple ceremony, attended by my family and hers. I thought to break the news to the ton that a notorious rake was tamed by matrimony after the fact. It wasn’t until we were in the silence of our matrimonial bedchamber that I realized…Oh Dear Reader, I failed my dearest little wife when she most needed me.

A nnabel couldn’t stop laughing all the way up the stairs, and saying in a low, wicked voice, “Don’t ever challenge one of the Essex sisters!” But Josie was beginning to feel a deep, swelling sense of panic.

Mayne was downstairs.The Earl of Mayne.

And he had married her. Or she had married him, one or the other. Because—But she couldn’t think about because at the moment.

As soon as they reached Tess’s bedchamber, Josie turned to Annabel. “I have to ask you something terribly important. Did you tell Mayne I was ravished? Is that what he means by ruined?”

The laughter fell out of Annabel’s face. “Thank God you weren’t ravished.”

When Josie escaped from her hug, she asked it again. “But where did Mayne get the idea that I was, Annabel?” She looked to Tess. “Did you two tell him that so that he felt he had to offer marriage?”

“Darling, we would never do such a thing,” Tess said, with all the authority of an elder sister. “Never. That would be an untruth.”

Josie narrowed her eyes. “Then why does he think I’m ruined? Unless I am ruined, just because of that kiss. I was under the impression that there was a great deal more to ruining than a kiss.”

“Men,” Annabel said, “exist primarily to make mistakes. They don’t know it’s true, but it is. It seems that Mayne made a little mistake. He overestimated the unpleasantness of your experience. The truth is that he would never have married you unless he wanted to do so.”

But Josie was having trouble breathing. Couldn’t a marriage be annulled under these circumstances? Wouldn’t Mayne feel that the whole thing had been a hoax to trick him?

Tess wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “None of us married in a conventional way, Josie. And we’re all quite happy.”

But Josie was launching into full-fledged panic. “I must have lost my mind! He really thinks—he thinks I’ve been ravished. Oh my God. I married under false pretenses.”

“He’ll be ecstatic to find that is not the case,” Annabel said, obviously trying in vain to school her face to gravity.

“The two of you are quite blithe when it comes to morality!” Josie cried. “What was I thinking?”

“You were thinking that you wanted to marry Mayne—what is his given name?” Annabel asked.

“Garret,” Josie said.

“There! I collect you are the only woman other than Griselda who knows his real name. The truth is that you wanted to marry Garret, and he wanted to marry you. And never mind what excuse he offered for the business.”

“Lucius put forward the excuse that Mayne had jilted me,” Tess said.

“It just doesn’t seem the same level of seriousness,” Josie said with a gulp. “I lied—well, in so many words—I lied to my husband. In order to get him to marry me.”

Annabel gave her a hug. “It’ll be all right by tomorrow morning. I promise.”

“I have to make him fall in love with me. By tomorrow morning!”

Annabel sat down on the bed. Tess was curled into an armchair by the fire, but Josie couldn’t calm herself enough to sit down. She just stood in the middle of the room, feeling panic roaring through her like a tidal wave.

“I wouldn’t discuss the question of your ravishment until after the wedding night,” Annabel said, after a moment.

“That’s what I need to know about,” Josie said tightly. “The wedding night. I understand the mechanics of the situation.”