Page 86 of Regency Whispers: Scandalous Matches

‘I am imagining.’

‘Good. You are introduced to a distant relative about fifteen years older than you,’ she said and held up a finger. ‘The age gap is not an issue you must understand. I am aware women are of higher value to society when they are young and beautiful and men when they are older and richer.’

‘I did not think you would be such a cynic, Miss James.’ Simon was surprised to find he was enjoying himself immensely. There was something freeing talking to this woman who was a total stranger and had no expectations of him at all.

‘Is it cynical to observe the truth?’ She pushed on. ‘This distant relative is unfortunate-looking, with a lazy eye, yellowed teeth and rapidly thinning hair that he arranges in a way he hopes will hide the fact he hasn’t much left. But you have been raised to appreciate no one can help how they look so you push aside all thoughts of their physical appearance.’

Simon pressed his lips together. Miss James had an amusing way of telling a story, and he urged her to continue. ‘I am channelling those very thoughts,’ he said.

‘Good. Then he reaches out and with a sweaty palm lays a hand on your shoulder. A fleeting touch you could forgive, but the hand lingers far too long, and all the while his eyes do not move from your chest.’

‘He is not sounding very enticing.’

‘Then throughout the evening he makes his horrible opinions known on everything from how the poor should be punished for the awful situations they find themselves in to slavery to how it is God’s plan for the lower levels of society to be decimated by illness that spreads more when people live in close conditions.’

‘I am beginning to see why he is vile.’

‘And he does all this whilst trying to squeeze your knee under the table.’

‘Your parents are happy for you to marry him?’

Miss James sighed. ‘Last year my sister...’ She bit her lip again, drawing his gaze for a moment. ‘I probably shouldn’t tell you this.’ Then she shrugged and continued. ‘Yet our paths are never going to cross again.’

‘What if I add in the extra layer of security by swearing I will never breathe a word of this to anyone.’

‘You are a man of your word?’

‘I never break an oath.’

‘Last year my sister was caught up in a bit of a scandal. Rumours of late-night liaisons with a married gentleman. For a month she and I were forbidden to leave the house, and my parents thought we might even have to leave Bamburgh and move elsewhere. Thankfully a friend of my father’s stepped in and proposed marriage to my sister to save her and the rest of our family from scandal.’

‘Did it work?’

‘Yes, although there are still a few people who cross the street to avoid my mother and me if we are out shopping. My sister is happy as mistress of her own home, living down in Devon, and she has a baby on the way. All things for a short while we thought she might never have.’

‘This has pushed your parents to make an unwise match for you?’

‘I think they are panicked. They are aware the taint of scandal can linger for a long time, and they keep reminding me I am already one and twenty. There are no local unmarried young men of the right social class so they decided they would arrange the only match that was assured.’

‘Could you not refuse?’

Miss James laughed, but there was no bitterness in her tone, just pure amusement.

‘We live in very different worlds, my Lord. I have no money of my own, no income, no way of supporting myself. I cannot even boast of a very good education so I doubt anyone would employ me as a governess. My value comes in marrying someone who can support me and any future children and remove that burden from my parents.’

‘Vile Cecil is wealthy?’

‘Moderately so. Enough to satisfy my parents. He is eager to be married and comes tomorrow to stay to discuss our engagement.’

‘He has not asked you yet?’

‘No, but that part is a mere formality.’ She closed her eyes. ‘So you see, this is my one last chance to dance at a ball with whoever I choose, to get a little tipsy with punch and to take ill-advised strolls along the terrace with mysterious gentlemen.’

‘Then, we must ensure you have the best night of your life.’

Chapter Two

Alice felt a little giddy with recklessness. She should never have spoken of the things she had told Lord Westcroft, but it had been liberating to talk so freely. She could be confident that after tonight her path would never cross with the earl’s again. In a few weeks she would be Mrs Cecil Billington, living a life of misery in some rural part of Suffolk where she knew no one except her odious husband.