A Fool Again by Eloisa James

see?”
    â€œNo,” Carola said. “I don’t. I think the look on Darby’s face indicated the depth of his feelings for you.”
    â€œI can tell you precisely who I would choose to marry,” Genevieve announced. “Felton asked me to marry him this very morning.” A tinge of triumph turned her cheeks pink.
    â€œDid you say yes?” Carola asked, with an irritating lack of excitement in her voice.
    â€œOf course I did!”
    â€œOh, well, in that case, congratulations, darling,” she said, hopping up and giving Genevieve a kiss. “Felton’s town house is only two streets from mine. So we can ride in the park together every morning!”
    But Genevieve heard the tinge of doubt in her voice as clearly as if she’d spoken it out loud. “How did your husband propose to you?” she asked.
    â€œTuppy?” Carola rolled her eyes. “He stammered. We barely knew each other, and I was truly horrified by the whole circumstance. Of course, he had spoken with my father beforehand, and my father had instructed me to accept, so there wasn’t much I could do.”
    â€œYou were horrified? Why? The two of you seem so happy together,” Genevieve said, thinking of Carola’s tall, rather bashful husband, and the way his eyes lit up when he saw his delicious little wife.
    â€œWell, we are, now, ” Carola said with a giggle. “But it took quite a few years. At any rate, how did Felton ask you? Did he go on his knees?”
    â€œOf course not,” Genevieve said. “Felton would never do anything so ungentlemanly. He merely commented that given his kiss of the previous evening, he rather thought that our intention to marry had been made clear to the ton, and that therefore he would send a message to the Times directly.”
    Carola blinked. “That was it? He didn’t say he loved you, or even ask you if you wished to marry him?”
    Genevieve felt herself turning a little pink. “No—that is—I rather think he considered that I had asked him. Because I told him to kiss me last night.”
    â€œYou asked him?” Carola said, stunned.
    â€œNot to marry me,” Genevieve said hastily. “Just to kiss me. Last night. And before he did so, he pointed out that such a kiss would indicate our intention to marry.”
    â€œSo this morning he didn’t say that he loved you at all? ” Carola asked.
    Unfortunately, she was echoing just the uneasy question that Genevieve had asked herself repeatedly during the previous night. “He’s not the sort of man who expresses himself in hyperboles,” she pointed out.
    â€œYes, but, while asking a woman to marry him—”
    â€œFelton considers propriety very important,” Genevieve said firmly, “and I must say that I agree with him. It was due to Tobias’s utter lack of civilized behavior that I found myself married to Erasmus Mulcaster for six years, and that wasn’t a happy marriage, Carola.”
    â€œI know, darling,” Carola said. “But are you certain that turning to a man who is quite so rigidly proper as Felton is the answer? After all, Tobias may well have changed in the interim.”
    â€œNo, he’s just the same,” Genevieve said dampeningly. “I could tell the moment I saw him last night. Just as wild as he ever was.”
    â€œThe only man who’s ever looked at me the way Tobias Darby looks at you is my husband. And my Tuppy could never be considered wild, Genevieve. I would suggest that you may be misinterpreting personal interest for a character trait.” She giggled—and there was no lady in London with as wicked a giggle as Lady Carola Perwinkle. “You must keep in mind that one doesn’t wish a man to behave in a civilized fashion at all times, Genevieve!”
    Genevieve colored again. She knew exactly what Carola meant, but she refused to comment on it. “Lucius Felton