Page 36 of A Problem Princess

“I don’t know. I haven’t been in England long enough to discover who has designs on which duke.”

He asked far too casually for the way he tensed, “It’s been settled, then? The palace has selected the duke you’re to marry?”

“Not yet.” She prayed every night that time would never come, but she might as well have asked the sun not to rise for all the good her wishful thinking did. “But everyone knows that’s why I’m here.”

“Do you have any say in the matter?”

Very little.“I can’t be forced into marriage against my will.”

His expression hardened beneath the shadows, as if he recognized her answer for the dodge it was. “Do you have any say in which duke, then?”

Even less.She couldn’t bring herself to answer that at all. “I trust Uncle Ernest to make the best match possible for me.”

He exhaled slowly and folded his arms across his chest, pulling the kerseymere jacket tight over his broad shoulders. “So you don’t know which duke, if any of them, you’ll be marrying?”

“No.”

“If you don’t know, then how would anyone else?”

“Perhaps one of the royal dukes was discussing me, and the woman thought for certain…” Her shoulders slumped in frustration. “You don’t believe me.”

“I believe you give the royal mistresses too much credit. The people who want you dead are not your rivals for a duke’s bed.”

Hope seeped out of her, and she slumped against the wall behind her. “So we’re back to the beginning, with no idea who would want to harm me.”

“None.” He shook his head. “For all we know, your attacker could have simply been a madman. We don’t even know if he wanted to target you specifically or if he simply came upon you and acted opportunistically.”

She searched his face. “You truly think that?”

“I don’t think anyone connected to the dukes was behind it.”

She should have been happy for that, but it didn’t put her at ease.

Neither did being so close to Clayton in the darkness. She was breaking a thousand unwritten rules by being alone with him like this, and if anyone found them, she’d be placed on the first ship back to Monrovia.

But she needed his comfort. He was her only ally, and she could trust him with her fears and secrets.

Someof them.

“You’re probably right,” she acquiesced. Then she grimaced. “In any case, after yesterday’s garden party, the royal dukes are probably all running away from me as quickly as possible.”

A confrontation over a foundling wasn’t at all what the British royal family wanted in a bride who should have been demure and never drew unwanted attention to herself. Uncle Ernest had most likely stayed behind tonight in a desperate attempt to repair the damage she’d caused.

Yet she didn’t regret what she’d done. The choice between her royal duty and rescuing an abused child… Well, there had been no choice.

“You did nothing wrong,” he assured her.

She leveled a disbelieving look at him. “Princess Sophia called that little girl an unwanted urchin. They’ll never forgive me for defending her.”

He muttered under his breath, “Princess Sophiais an unwanted urchin.”

Cordelia’s hand flew to her mouth to stifle her laugh. Even in the darkness, she saw an impish gleam dance in Clayton’s eyes. Oh, that rascal!

“You came to the aid of a defenseless child,” he told her. “I thought you were absolutely wonderful for it.”

Her heart skipped at that unexpected compliment.

“So does little Elizabeth.”