Page 37 of Substitute Bride

He shook his head, so fed up he couldn’t even speak anymore. He gently urged Genevieve to her car, and eventually she drove off.

He returned to Rose, and they just stared at each other.

He obviously wasn’t thinking clearly because he said the first thing that entered his mind. “We might as well just get engaged to put an end to all this mess and make it clear that Genevieve is out of the picture.”

Rose blinked, taken by surprise but then obviously recognizing his wry tone. “Yeah, at least that would give people something else to talk about.”

James thought about that for a long time and started wondering if it was true.

The next day, Jill came home from school all confused because a friend had told another friend that Jill’s daddy was going to get married to her nanny. The girl had a picture of Rose in an old-fashioned lace wedding dress standing with James to prove it, which someone in her household had evidently printed off the Internet.

Jill wanted to know if that was true.

“I really can’t believe Grandmama did this,” Deanna said, leaning forward in one of the rocking chairs on the back porch of the old Beaufort home.

Her husband, Mitchell Graves, gave her a dry look with one arched eyebrow. “You’re really surprised?”

Before she could respond, Rose asked, “Are we sure it’s even Grandmama who spread the rumor?”

“Of course it was her,” Deanna replied. “Who else would it be? And who else would have had access to that picture. We know it wasn’t Kelly who spread it around.”

Obviously Kelly was trusted completely. She’d snapped a few pictures of Rose, James, and the girls on her phone that evening they were all playing dress-up—just because they were all having a lot of fun and they’d done such a good job with the ballroom. But Kelly would have died before she’d spread gossip about her sister.

There was no one else but Grandmama who could have shared the picture with the news that Rose and James were engaged to be married. Rose might have hoped for it to be different, but all the evidence made it clear. They’d traced the story back to her, and there was no reason to doubt she was the originator.

She’d told Rose she’d take care of the situation, and this was evidently her way of doing so.

James had been quiet since he and Rose had arrived at the house that evening to meet Deanna and Mitchell and wait for Mrs. Beaufort to arrive back home from her bridge game.

“I’m really sorry,” Rose said, turning to James and searching his expression for some sign that he was angry with her.

He didn’t look angry. He looked tired and withdrawn. In some ways it was almost worse. He had enough to deal with in Genevieve. He didn’t need her grandmother’s troublemaking added to the equation.

Mitchell was a very handsome man who was nearly always the tallest man in any room. Objectively Rose knew he was more handsome than James, although his classic looks and engaging smile looked almost boring next to James’s intelligently chiseled face.

Mitchell was naturally charming and had always been a clear-minded businessman. He’d been sympathetic when he and Deanna first arrived, but now he was looking almost thoughtful. “You know, not to make light of it, but it might not be a bad idea.”

“What?” Rose asked, not following his line of thought but starting to get a little nervous about it.

“Letting everyone think you two are engaged.”

“What?” Rose exclaimed.

At exactly the same time, Deanna elbowed her husband and hissed, “Mitchell!”

“I know it sounds off the wall, but your grandmother isn’t a stupid woman, and she knows this city better than anyone. I think she had a reason for doing this.”

“Of course she had a reason,” Deanna said, frowning indignantly. “She’s doing her normal harebrained thing of engineering rich marriages for us. She did the same thing with me.”

“I know she did,” Mitchell said with a little smile that was teasing and affectionate and clear evidence of how much he loved his wife. “And look how well it turned out for us.”

“But that was just lucky,” Deanna insisted. “It doesn’t excuse her manipulations. She loves us, but she’s stuck in the past, and that’s not always going to end up being the best for us.”

“I’m sorry,” Rose said. “But there’s no way we’re going to be pressured into some sort of fake marriage just to get the gossip about Genevieve and all the rest of the mess off our backs.”

“I don’t mean a marriage,” Mitchell said. “Just an engagement. A temporary engagement so that Genevieve won’t have a leg to stand on with whatever crazy-ass scheme she’s going with. You’d have control of the story then, and her manipulations wouldn’t have the power they do right now. How bad could that be?”

“How bad?” Rose choked. “It’s insane!”