Page 48 of Miss Ellis Unleashed

“You’re hardly going to refuse me,” he murmured, enjoying their banter even as he nodded to Abelton, who smirked to see Daisy hanging on his arm. Abelton knew they were engaged. Max had asked him to stand up with him when they wed.

“You never know. I might have to,” Daisy warned. “Other men might ask me to dance before you can, at this rate.”

He almost laughed at the ridiculousness of her statement. Daisy had refused him nothing since their first kiss, and no other man would come between him and his future wife tonight or any other night.

They’d left squabbling and disagreements over nothing far behind. He let Daisy have whatever she wanted, like reading the paper first in bed this morning, and he’d only read it after she was done, sitting by her side and sipping tea. He was prepared to accommodate his woman in all matters just to see her smile at him. His future duchess deserved the best, after all she would have to endure. She’d be helping him manage his wards, their difficult mother, and the duke, too.

He turned to her and bowed deeply. “Miss Ellis, might I have the pleasure of this dance?”

She made a show of inspecting her empty dance card before graciously accepting, handing him the card and a tiny pencil to scratch out his name. He wrote large, taking up the entire card, before handing it back to her.

Daisy studied his signature and then tucked the card away in his pocket. “Something to show our daughters when they are old enough,” she murmured.

She glanced up at him now with a playful smile and eased her gown off her shoulder. She still liked to play her little games. Always determined to tease him into a behavior meant just for her.

But he had a promise to keep right now and would not be so easily led astray.

Max led Daisy to the dance floor, and they passed Abelton, who smirked again because he’d always believed Max and Daisy were meant for each other.

They drew level with Miss Dawes, who regarded them steadily without smiling. Miss Dawes appeared not to be happy still, but Daisy only nodded politely. Though she had caught them kissing, Justine had not said a word so far. After tonight, he would not be so worried about the girl spreading rumors besmirching Daisy’s reputation. But as ever, it was impossible to know what the girl might do.

Before the dance even began, Max couldn’t help but twirl Daisy about the floor and pull her close to his chest. People stared. That was his intention.

“Now everyone has reason to look at us and wonder. How long do you think it will be before they start whispering?”

“They already are,” Daisy promised with a laugh. “But society has a short attention span. In a week, our behavior will be forgotten, and they’ll have moved on to the next scandalous couple to gossip about. I wonder who that might be?”

Yes, people were whispering and pointing now. He released Daisy to take their places as the musicians began. “You’re probably right about their attention being too easily diverted,” he agreed, and suddenly wished society might make a larger fuss of their union, for Daisy’s sake.

She’d been mislabeled a wallflower all season, on account of her lack of funds. On the eve of their wedding, she deserved to be thought a diamond instead. Although he had agreed about the small wedding, he wished it might have been more for her sake.

They’d never danced before but had no difficulty with the steps of their first set together. Max twirled about with Daisy and even enjoyed everyone watching him do it.

Daisy’s cheeks slowly turned pink, though, under the strain of so much scrutiny.

He stopped dancing suddenly and pulled her out of the way of the other couples. He raised her hand to his lips and pressed a long kiss to her knuckles, as he held her gaze.

Daisy appeared startled. “What are you doing?”

“What I should have done the moment we arrived. I want no confusion or doubt,” he promised. “I adore you, Miss Ellis.”

He said it loudly.

Proudly.

“I love you,” he said again, intending for everyone to hear.

Daisy swayed on her feet. Her eyes, though, rounded and filled with tears. “Since when have you become so romantic?”

“Only since the guardianship ended,” he assured her—and the crowd. “I always thought your previous suitors were fools not to stand up to me to be with you. But I guess they valued funds more than love.”

She beamed even as the crowd around them started to mutter about them, and loudly now, catching on that another bachelor had been well and truly caught in the parson’s noose. But society had to know he married of his own free will. Not out of obligation or for money or because he’d compromised her.

He’d chosen to put love first, and always would.

“Oh, you beastly man. You turn nice and now I’m moved to tears over you,” she complained, swatting at him even as he handed over a handkerchief.

A woman laughed at her complaint.