“No,” Miss Fortune said, her expression filled with confusion. “That she’d taken on her brother’s illegitimate child as an employee?”
The words were incredibly bitter, shocked. She spoke them almost as if they were a betrayal. He asked, “You did not know?”
She shook her head. “She gave no hint to me at all. How did she even find me?”
Was it any wonder she appeared shocked and confused? And if what she said was true, then it was a betrayal. To withhold such details was truly diabolical. And now, to place such conditions on any sort of bequest was positively Machiavellian. “I do not know what my aunt was thinking, and I am quite sorry that you have been taken off guard by these things. But we must address the other matter… her desire for us to marry.”
“I have been poor throughout my life,” she said simply. “I can go on being so.”
“I cannot,” he stated baldly. “If it were only me, then I suppose I could manage. But there are people living on my estates—farmers who have grown too old and sick to actually work the land, servants who have been pensioned off by the family… If I do not pay the death duties on the estate—duties my father left no provisions for and no ready funds either—those people will all be put off the property and I cannot say what will become of them.”
“You can’t actually propose to go through with this insanity? We are strangers to one another!”
“Many people marry without knowing one another. My aunt was obviously quite fond of you. I can only presume that she spoke well of me to you. There are worse things to base a marriage upon,” he reasoned.
“Love? Mutual affection? An actual fondness for one another?”
“Those things are not without possibility. Not being present at the outset does not conclusively eliminate the possibility of their development. And barring that, there is divorce,” he said. “Presumably, there are laws being introduced in Parliament that would make such an undertaking more easily achievable.”
“I have no connections in society. I’m the bastard daughter of your marital uncle! It would make you an outcast in society.”
“I am already an outcast in society… My father squandered every last shilling in his possession. The entire world knows I have pockets to let. For myself, there are far more reasons to indulge her last wishes than to deny them. Regardless of any intent to go through with it, I think we should indicate to Mr. Fitzsimmons that we mean to do so. It will buy us a small amount of time to discern whether or not we can make a go of this. And it will stop the Dimworthys from breathing down our necks for the interim.”
“Dimworthys?”
“Can you think of a better or more appropriate moniker for them?” he queried.
“No. No, I really cannot,” she conceded. “How long would we have to make a decision?”
“I can assume that Mr. Fitzsimmons, with our tentative agreement, will provide us with the details.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Very well, I give my tentative acceptance of your suggestion to feign compliance for the time being.”
It did not escape him that the relief he felt was far beyond what it ought to have been, and he feared it had little to do with the terms of his aunt’s will.
Chapter Five
It was latewhen Caris sought her bed. As she walked down the corridor with Grace, neither of them spoke about the contents of the will. No doubt the questions would come once they were in the privacy of the bed chamber that had been granted them for the night. With everyone stuck there together, and with the Denworthy siblings claiming the most luxurious of the rooms, not that she had expected to be given such opulent quarters.
The door closed behind them and instantly Grace spoke. “Marry him. Do not hesitate, do not think. Marry him.”
“What?”
“He’s a viscount,” she said, as if that were the single most important thing about the man. “He is a viscount and you would become a viscountess and you would never have to work for anyone or be subservient to anyone ever again.”
“Except the husband I would acquire in the process,” Caris reminded her sharply.
“Do you truly think he seems the sort of man to bully and belittle you? Caris, you have only ever worked for Mrs. Denworthy and at the school! You do not know what it’s like,” Grace insisted vehemently. “I’ve been in several homes and quite frankly, the last one was the worst of the lot. Dodging lascivious men, servant and master alike… tolerating the pettiness and jealousy of other women in the house who resent us for being ofa higher station if they are servants or a lower station if they are not! Marry him. Spare yourself the indignities I have suffered.”
“Grace… I can’t simply marry him because that is a better option than working. A job I can leave but a husband I cannot!”
“And a fortune? I heard Amaris Denworthy and the eldest brother discussing it and the sum, Caris, is astonishing. Truly. You must at least think about it,” Grace said. “I’m going down the hall to the washroom. I’ll return shortly.”
“Be careful. I can’t think what the butler meant when he told us to stay to our rooms during the night—no matter what we might hear.”
Grace gave a little shiver. “He was an odd one to be sure. But this rambling monstrosity of a house would make anyone odd over time. Are you certain Mrs. Denworthy grew up here?”
“She said so,” Caris mused. “But oddly enough, she disliked speaking of her childhood—both her family and the home she lived in.” In fact, Mrs. Denworthy had grown stonily silent at the merest hint of her childhood home. Now, having stepped inside the daunting and ominous structure, Caris could understand why. And naturally she would have been reticent to speak much about them to her, as she’d known all along that Caris was her brother’s child. The betrayal of that deception cut deeply.
