The Unintended Bride by Kelly McClymer

But…. "Why would someone have given you Digby's name when I was the one summoned to the bookshop?"
    "Does that matter? It does not change the facts of the situation."
    No. It did not. The choice had been made for them by fate. He patted his cousin's shoulder stiffly. " All will be well. I will do what is necessary."
    "You will?" Simon seemed to relax as he nodded once firmly. "I would never have doubted it, cousin." He frowned. "No, it is Hero's intentions I fear. Let us both pray she is not as stubborn as her sister, or we may have our work cut out for us to get you to the altar without further scandal."
* * * * *
    Hero felt as if she had stumbled into a nightmare. Could there have been any worse savior for them than the duke himself? She loved her sister's husband dearly. He had been nothing but kind to her. But his notion of how to fix this mess diverged wildly from hers.
    Miranda had been overjoyed to see her alive and well, but no one had even given Hero a chance to change into clean clothes and wash up before the decision was made. She and Arthur were to marry.
    She felt the innate stubbornness that she had inherited from her father take hold of her. She looked her brother-in-law and her sister full in the eye, one after the other. "This is absurd. You cannot think to force me to marry a man because we were tricked into an unfortunate circumstance?"
    She took a breath. She was making the argument of her life and she could not afford to be less than compelling. "We can assure you that there is no reason for any hasty decision upon the subject of marriage." She looked at Arthur and felt herself blush hotly as she remembered the kiss.
    She might as well have not even spoken. Simon was adamant in his reply. "That argument is no more persuasive than it ever was." He glanced at Miranda as he spoke, and Hero saw an exchange of understanding pass between them. "You must marry."
    "To build a marriage on something so flimsy is more than foolish, it is heartless."
    "Is it so flimsy, then?" He stared at her, but she had a feeling his gaze was somewhere in the past. And then he snapped back to the present and his eyes bored into hers. "I don't understand why you even argue over the matter. You and Arthur get along well enough."
    "Get along well enough!" What an argument. "Is that what a marriage should be?"
    He sighed. "All I meant was that you both seem to enjoy puzzling around dusty bookstores and reading the writing of men long dead. I've seen marriages based on less do well."
    For a moment, though she had been relieved to arrive home safely, Hero wanted to return to the bookshop. It might have been preferable to dry up into dusty, neglected mummies than be foisted upon a man who had told her not that long ago that she should marry someone else. "But, we — we were innocent. It was a mistake."
    Or if not a mistake, then certainly a misunderstanding. Arthur did not want to marry her, no matter what he said now. His motive was her reputation. And who would speak of it, really? Arthur? Mr. Beasley? Certain not Simon, Miranda, or Hero. No, he was simply being chivalrous when there was absolutely no need to be.
    She ignored the tiny part of her that wanted to agree. What woman in her right mind would wish for a husband who married her out of a misguided sense of honor? She could only remember how certain Arthur had been that Digby was the right husband for her. Those words were not the words of a man who wanted to be her husband himself.
    Kiss or no, he had been clearly disinclined toward marriage. It was only the influence of those dratted books that had made him so bold. She could not hold him to a lifetime of marriage over one kiss. She would not.
    "You have spent the night alone with a gentleman, Hero. It does not matter what transpired between you." The duke's eyes swept over her disarranged hair, Arthur's loosened collar, and his lips tightened. "You will marry."
    "No — " Hero turned to Arthur. "Tell him what we agreed. Make