‘Hard to argue against that.’
‘He could make a good marriage and settle down as a doctor if he must continue in the profession.’
‘If that’s his choice, he may do so. I’m not stopping him.’
‘With his connections he could serve royalty, he could get an appointment at court.’
‘I imagine with your help that would be possible.’ She patted the earth smooth from where she’d ripped up the weed.
‘I see you understand. It’s not because I think any less of you– no doubt you are a good sort of woman in your own way, and I can see that he likes you– but in the long run he will make you both miserable. Society will not accept such an unequal partnership. I’m trying to spare you both future pain.’
Doubtless many would agree with him. She was all too aware of the cost of stepping outside what society thought of as acceptable behaviour. The problem for the viscount was that she refused to let that rule her fate. This was the freedom she had bought herself at great cost. She sat back on her heels. ‘Why are you talking to me and not your brother, sir?’
He pulled a face like one biting into a sour cherry.
‘Ah, I see,’ Dora continued. ‘Because you have done so already, and he’s rejected your advice. Well then, perhaps you should consider the matter closed?’
He clenched his jaw, an angry tick in the corner of his cheek, gathering himself for his next onslaught. Here it came:
‘Your client appears to be dead, therefore you have no excuse to stay. If you left, then there would be no “matter”, as you call it, open or closed. Consider it as doing my brother a favour.’
Did he really say that? She stared at him speechless, and he took that as encouragement.
‘Five hundred pounds, if you get in the carriage and go wherever you wish, as long as it is away from Jacob.’
The foils were off, were they? Feeling at a disadvantage on her knees, she got to her feet, calves prickling with pins and needles. Such verbal sparring needed to be conducted on the same level. ‘Lord Sandys, you appear to be labouring under a misconception. I am not, and never will be, for sale.’
He gave that supercilious chuckle of the man who knew better than the little woman. ‘Come now: we all have our price.’
‘Is that so? Then you haven’t found mine with that offer.’
‘All right. Eight hundred.’
‘Do you even hear yourself?’
‘A thousand– and that’s my final offer.’
‘You are impossible! I have no connection to you, and certainly no relationship that means I must obey your wishes to arrange my life to your satisfaction, and yet you assume you can order me to go away. Let me say this clearly so we have no repeat of this unfortunate conversation: I will not be bribed.’
‘You insist on ruining a good man with your attentions?’
‘Good day, sir. I have business elsewhere.’ Brushing off her hands, she took her basket and trowel and stalked past him into the house.
‘You’ll regret not taking my offer!’ he called after her.
She slammed the kitchen door on him.
* * *
William rode back to Levens in the Landau. The viscount seemed to accept that he would not be able to bundle Dora into a carriage with a sizeable bribe never to see Jacob again, but neither did he leave.
‘Have you and my brother quarrelled?’ Jacob asked as they walked to Ambleside later that morning to find out if any news had come through from Hawkshead. The irate viscount had been left to the soothings of Ruby. Jacob led Nero, as they planned to hire a hack and go to Cockermouth once their business in the village was complete.
Dora plucked a blackberry from a bramble that scrambled over a fence and dangled in their path. The berry was still tart and could do with a few weeks of sunshine to sweeten. ‘I wouldn’t say it was a quarrel. A difference of opinion.’ It would probably be best not to mention the attempt to bribe her. Jacob might well march straight back and punch the viscount on the nose for that.
‘The difference being?’
‘He thinks he can tell me what to do.’
