Rook had come onto the terrace and announced, “We’ve agreed to a settlement.” After which, he’dcalled for his carriage and ushered her along with her family into it.
Now they were on their way back to the hotel, and those were the first words her brother had uttered since they’d begun the journey. Somehow Leonora wasn’t surprised that Rook wouldn’t take what she and Sam had decided that morning would serve as her dowry.
“Then what are we to give him as the settlement?” she asked.
Sam lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. “Nothing. He doesn’t want anything.”
“Therefore, we’ll still have the shares so we can have investors.”
“Only mine. He demanded we not sell yours.”
“He can’t order us about when it comes to the business,” Mama said. “It belongs to Sam. I’ll damned well let him know that.”
“He won’t like it,” Sam said.
“As though I give a fig what he won’t like. This marriage will come about on our terms. We’re the offended party here. He took advantage of a young, innocent—”
So now, she wasyoungand not on the shelf? “He didn’t take advantage.” How many times was she going to have to say it before they listened and accepted the truth. “I wanted—”
“We won’t need investors,” Sam interrupted.
Leonora had the feeling she wasn’t going to like this. “Why not?”
“Because he says once you’re married you can have as much of his money as you want, to do with as you want.”
“Ah, that’s more like it,” Mama said triumphantly. “Well done, Sam.”
Although Leonora suspected Sam had, in truth, had very little to do with any of this, a suspicion that was confirmed when he shifted in his seat like a schoolboy who’d gotten caught cheating on an exam.
She turned her attention to the buildings passing by. She didn’t want Rook’s money. What she wanted more than anything, she suddenly realized, was his love. How were they to ever get to that point, if they were forced into a marriage neither wanted? If it was more to her benefit than his? What was he getting out of it? A wife he’d never wanted. The terms for marriage made it an uneven exchange. To work properly, machines needed to maintain a balance. Like a pendulum. They placed pennies on it to add weight when it needed to be slowed; removed them when it needed to swing faster. Otherwise, the clock wouldn’t keep the proper time.
She suspected a marriage worked in much the same way, required a delicate balancing. How could they achieve that if the only thing he was getting was her?
Chapter 21
Much later that night, Rook became the Earl of Elverton, a title with no respect, no honor. If he could have avoided taking it, he would have. But no provision in the law allowed a man to turn away from the responsibility thrust upon him at birth.
However, he felt the weight of the obligation to return dignity to the title crushing him.
As he swigged scotch in his mother’s favorite room, the one of bright yellow that apparently didn’t suit some complexions, he tried to bring forth a pleasant memory of his father, but it seemed for most of his life they’d been adversaries more than anything. The earl had resented any good fortune that befell Rook... as though he’d deemed his heir unworthy of even a scintilla of happiness.
He rather feared his father would have taken delight in his son’s current predicament.You see, lad, you’re no different than me. You’re ruled by your cock.
Except his cock would be faithful. He’d never stray from his marriage vows.
His mother had stood stoically silent as the earl had been taken away to be prepared for his funeral. Now occupying a nearby settee, she sipped her cognac. “Ioften thought he’d have been happier if he’d been infertile... or impotent. I don’t know why he became so unlikable over the years. Or perhaps, I simply stopped making excuses for him, saw him as he was rather than how I wished he was.”
“For what it’s worth, you were in his life the longest so he must have held some affection for you.”
Her laugh was caustic. “Yes, well, I think it may have been because I was the least amount of trouble.” She held silent for a while before saying, “I assume you’ll let Aiden know his father has passed.”
“I’ve already sent word to Aiden and Finn.” Although he certainly hadn’t referred to the man as their father. Rather he’d merely writtenThe earl has departed this world.He’d rather wished he’d had Nora’s writing machine so there would have been more distance between him and the words, to let the uniform letters make them appear less personal.
“It pleases me that you and Aiden have become friends.”
They were more than friends. They were brothers in the truest sense of the word. “Surprisingly, for two lads raised apart, we have a lot in common.”
For several minutes, only the crackling of the fire on the hearth and the ticking of the clock on the mantel could be heard. He suspected, like him, she was recalling how Aiden had come back into her life. Serendipitously. The earl’s evil ways had taken him away and they had returned him.
