"Where's Alex?"

"He has gone to speak with my father." Emily purses her lips, and worry creases her brow.

I stop a few feet short, suddenly feeling like a wall has gone up between us. "Did you forget he had to give you permission? I had no idea. It doesn't work that way... in America."

She takes in a slow, calming breath. "I suppose in the excitement, I seem to have forgotten."

"Oh." I shrug because I can't think of anything else to do. "Did he say when he would be back?"

She nods. "In two days. It is a full day's ride to my father's estate. He will have to stop at an inn for the evening."

Wow. He's riding a full day each direction and staying at a hotel because of my interference. He cannot be happy.

"Well... how'd the, um, evening go? Did you enjoy yourself, at least?"

"Yes. We had a lovely meal by candlelight. He brought us a delightful picnic for dinner."

"Oh, great!" I say, with false enthusiasm.

For the first time, the conversation feels forced and uncomfortable, like we're two strangers. Emily's never looked this worried before. There's tension in her shoulders and face, and she's not bubbling over with excitement about spending an evening with Trent.

God, I really screwed this up. If Alex doesn't succeed...

Eventually, Emily is going to find out she trusted a complete stranger with her life. And I betrayed her.

I hate this.

"Okay, well, um, I'm going to go to bed. I suppose we'll learn more tomorrow," I say, filled with the desire to get out of her presence before I spill everything.

She nods and heads up the stairs. I follow her. We split up at the landing, each of us climbing the steps to our own wing.

I know one thing: I am getting no sleep tonight.

The next two days crawl slowly by. All I do is think of everything that could be going wrong, everything that could be going right, and everything in between.

And in between all that, I think of my life.

What if I'm actually missing in the twenty-first century? What if there are entire search parties, and my mom is a total basket case, and everyone thinks I got kidnapped? It was so hard to talk her into the class trip. She'll think it's her fault.

God, she would probably have to call and talk to my dad, too. And she hates doing that.

And if I pop back up and I've been missing for a month, what am I supposed to tell them? Oh, sorry, I took a vacation in1815. I got a little sidetracked with this whole arranged marriage problem. You know how that works. And I went to a few balls, and I wore corsets and stuff. Actually, the whole thing was sort of fun. So don't you worry about me! Really!

Eliza comes into my room when I'm already at the stool brushing my hair. It's got to be the first time I've beaten her to the task of waking me up and gotten out of bed on my own. I think she enjoys that part of her day the most, the way she rips off the blankets and throws open the drapes.

'"Is Grace's asked fer ye."

I freeze, the brush midstroke. "What?"

'"E wishes te see ye," she says, peeling my hand from the brush and resuming the untangling of my hair.

"He's back?"

She nods.

"Oh." I swallow. So now it's the moment of truth. Did he convince her father to consent, or is Emily's life officially ruined? Is he going to tell me that I screwed everything up and he was right?

I'm getting used to the whole process of dressing and I'm done too quickly for my liking. My walk to Alex's study is like the green mile. I wonder what he's going to say. This isn't going to be fun.

I step inside his study, but no one announces me, and he doesn't notice. So I just stare.

He's writing something. With a quill and ink. The well is sitting next to his right hand. He's so intent on whatever he's writing he keeps at it for thirty seconds before he sees me.

Long enough for me to see the way he narrows his eyes when he's concentrating and the way he purses his lips.

Long enough for me to wonder what it would he like to kiss him.

Oh God, where did that come from? I hate him. Hate him. There's no way I could possibly want to kiss him.

He looks up at that instant, and I do my best to just smile right at him and not give away my thoughts.

"Please sit," he says, rising. I nod and sit down in the same fancy chair as before. The door stays open.

I sit as erect as possible, my hands in my lap, my ankles crossed beneath me. Victoria must be rubbing off on me.

Alex comes around to the front of his desk and rests on it, crossing one ankle over the other as he leans back.

"What you did was overstepping your bounds."

I clench my teeth, hard, to stop from snapping back. I have to see where he's going with this before I get angry.

"You went behind my back and orchestrated one of the most ill-planned, riskiest schemes I've ever seen. I am shocked."

"But—"

He puts his hand up to silence me. "I won't tell you what I had to do to convince her father to consent to the new arrangement. You are lucky Mr. Rallsmouth will have the means necessary to support Miss Emily, as she will not be receiving a thing from her father from here on out."

All I hear is convince her father. "So it worked?" A grin spreads across my features and I jump to my feet. "She's going to marry Mr. Rallsmouth?"

Alex pushes off the desk behind him and stands in front of me. "Have you not heard a word I said? You made grievous errors of judgment. You—"

"But I was right! And thanks to me, she's going to marry the love of her life!"

He's standing right in front of me, inches away. "You were not right! You interfered and it was not your place!"

I clench my fists as my anger flares to match his. "You think nothing is my place because I'm some lowly, untitled girl! But someone had to do it, and you didn't care to!"

"You should not have gotten involved!" he growls.

"You should not have forced me to!" I say, jabbing my finger into his chest. "You should have been there for her when she needed you!"

In an instant, he closes the gap between us. His lips hit mine so fast I can't even close my eyes. His hands find a place on either side of my face and pull me close, and for two-point-five seconds, I'm lost somewhere between closing my eyes and standing there, frozen.

Somehow the eyes win out and I shut them, and my knees start to buckle as I press my lips into to his. I stop breathing and grip his sleeves with both hands to keep from falling straight over. His lips are warm and soft and...

And then I realize what's going on. Who I'm kissing. You're not a lady, he'd said.

It stings as much now as it did the moment he said it. He thinks I'm unworthy.

What am I doing? I reel back and knock into the wall with a loud crash that makes him jerk his eyes open.

"I, uh... " I stutter, then spin around so fast my skirts twist around my legs and I have to wait for them to swing around again before dashing out of the room.

Chapter 26

What the heck was Alex doing kissing me? Better yet, what was I doing enjoying it?

He's... arrogant and judgmental and elitist. He's convinced only a member of the aristocracy is worth his time. Or anyone else's, for that matter.

Gah! I'm so stupid! How could we have gone from screaming at each other to kissing?

My stomach twists in knots as I head straight to Emily's chamber. She's sitting in the large window seat overlooking the courtyard when I burst through the door. In less than three seconds, I'm plunking down across from her. "You're getting married," I say, trying to sound cheerful and normal even though everything is spinning around in my gut so fast I feel like I may actually puke.

She looks up and just stares, expressionless.

"It worked. Alex convinced your father."

She squeals and hugs me. She's beaming from ear-to-ear.

"This is wonderful!" She jumps up and does the most adorable dance, spinning around and around until her skirts look like a pinwheel. When she collapses hack on the window seat, I can tell she's dizzy. "How can I ever repay you for what you've done for me?"

"Huh?" I missed whatever she just said. I'm too busy holding my fingers to my lips to calm the tingles.

My first kiss. That was my first kiss. And he's a duke. I just kissed a duke. And I didn't even see it coming. I'd always imagined this slow-motion, front porch, end-of-the-first-date sort of thing. The anticipation, the nerves. But it was just... sudden and unexpected. This is insane.

"Something wrong?" she says, her hazel eyes soft and expressive, as if I'm about to unload the weight of the world and she'll gladly bear it all.

"I — I don't know. I'm trying to figure out what's going on with your cousin. Everything he's done up until now... and then... I just can't figure out who he is, that's all."

She just smiles and waits, like she knows I'll continue once I figure out what I want to say.

"It's just... at the dance at the Pommeroy's, he tried to tell this other titled guy that I wasn't good enough to dance with. He told the guy he should dance with a lady instead. Like I'm not worthy or something because I'm just some commoner."

Emily furrows her brow. "That is quite unlike him. I'm sure he meant no harm."

"But it was just so pompous, and every time I think maybe he deserves a chance or something, I think about it again and realize what a jerk he's been. Why would he tell Lord Brimmon I'm not good enough?"