The Marrying Season by Candace Camp

eyes were a piercing blue. “And that is as good a name as any in this kingdom.”
    “Perhaps you should have thought of that before you went into the library with a man!”
    “Careful, Dursbury.” Myles stiffened beside Genevieve, his voice hard. “You would not want to say anything you will later regret.”
    “I did not go into the library with a man,” Genevieve shot back. “I came in here by myself and he just happened to be here.” She swung around to point at Langdon, but he was no longer in the room. The door at the other end of the room stood open, indicating where he had gone.
    “Bloody hell!” Myles burst out. “I should have grabbed the cur.”
    “To what purpose?” Dursbury asked coldly. “To create even more of an uproar?” He gestured vaguely to the area behind him, now crowded with people avidly watching the scene. “I think this situation is bad enough already without you beating some fellow senseless.”
    “I think beating him senseless would do a great deal to improve things,” Myles answered. “One can only wonder why Genevieve’s own fiancé doesn’t want to do the job himself!”
    “Because, unlike you and Genevieve and her brother, I prefer to stay away from scandal.” He turned to Genevieve. “Whatever happened, it is quite clear you placed yourself in this situation, my lady. You were alone with Langdon. You have caused yourself to be the subject of gossip. And you have embroiled my family in scandal, as well. It is insupportable. Your behavior is not that of the Countess of Dursbury. I regret, my lady, that I can no longer in good conscience marry you.”
    After an instant of stunned silence, Myles strode forward. “I didn’t get a chance to give Langdon what he deserved. But I can bloody well give it to you.” His right arm shot out, catching Dursbury squarely on his chin and knocking him to the ground.
    Myles turned to Genevieve, offering her his arm. “Genevieve?”
    She stepped up beside him, twisting her engagement ring from her finger. Dropping it on Dursbury’s chest, she took Myles’s arm, and they stalked out of the room.
    Myles whisked Genevieve out of the house, pausing only long enough to tell a footman to inform the Earl of Rawdon that he was taking Lady Genevieve home. Genevieve, humiliatingly aware of all the eyes staring at her with avid curiosity, carefully kept her face a cool mask of hauteur. She would not give any of them the satisfaction of her breaking down . . . or even of looking as if she cared for their opinion.
    Myles handed Genevieve into a hack and climbed in after her. She sank back against the seat, the shame she had refused to show the world washing over her now that she was safe from prying eyes.
    “I am so sorry, Genevieve.” Myles took her hand, and Genevieve surprised them both by curling her fingers tightly around his.
    “Thank you.” She knew he must regret sending her the note that had caused her to wind up in the library, but there was no reason. “It was my own fault for going there.”
    “You couldn’t have known Langdon would be in there.” Myles scowled. “Dursbury’s a fool. Worse than a fool.”
    “Yes.” Genevieve tightened her grasp on his hand. “Promise me, Myles, you must keep Alec from attacking Langdon. Or Dursbury. It will only make the scandal worse. Grandmama will be humiliated.” Tears welled in her eyes.
    “Don’t worry about the countess. I am sure she is tougher than any of us. I shall shadow Alec if I have to. But my guess is Damaris will manage him.”
    That statement was enough to bring a faint smile toGenevieve’s lips. She was glad to go along with Myles’s attempt to lighten the mood. “She does have a way with him. No one else has ever managed it.”
    “Love does odd things to a man, or so I’m told.”
    “Come, Myles. Do not tell me that you have never been in love.” She cut her eyes toward him with the ghost of a roguish twinkle.
    “Oh, no, a hundred times at least,” he said