Her eyes widened incredulously.“But he felt no qualms about asking one of his neighbors for money in exchange for my hand in marriage to the eldest Harding son?”
He shrugged.“The two men were firm friends for many years.They agreed that Roxburgh Manor becoming part of the Wolfingham estate was a natural course of events.The joining of the two families by marriage even more so.”
Her nostrils flared.“So, all these years, I’ve failed to know that my fate had been decided for me while I was still in the cradle?”
His jaw tightened.“I believe?—”
“I find myself quitesickof hearing whatyoubelieve,” Julia scorned.
“You asked?—”
“But I am now tired of your answers,” she dismissed.
“I see,” he acknowledged mildly.“Roxburgh Manor aside, your grandparents’ fortune was not only fully restored but considerably increased before they died.Which is why you and Lady Amanda are now set to inherit fortunes of your own.”
“A fortune I did not know included, for me at least, a husband.”
“No,” he conceded quietly.
“Good God.”She now glared at her parents.“The house we believed to belong to Grandmama and have visited and stayed in so often has belonged to the Wolfingham family all these years.”She could not quite keep the horror of that realization from her tone.
“You are all still welcome to stay here for as long and often as you wish,” Wolfingham put in softly.
“Only with your permission,” she accused.“This whole situation is— I cannot believe you are any happier with this arrangement.”She eyed him suspiciously.“Why are you not as angry about this arrangement as I am?”
“I expect because I have known about it for far longer than you have,” he admitted.
“How long?”she demanded.
He released a long breath.“I be— My father felt it was his duty,” he amended when Julia gave him another glare, “to confide the arrangement to me when Arthur died and I then became the eldest son mentioned in the agreement between your grandfather and my father.”
Julia turned to frown at her pale-faced parents.“None of what you have said explains why no one in my own family has ever had the decency to tellmeof this archaic agreement before it was read out today by a complete stranger.”Now that the shock had faded somewhat, she was becoming too angry, tooinfuriated, to even offer the lawyer a look of apology for including him in her resentful outburst.
“Julia—”
“No, Mama.”She shied away when her mother would have reached out to grasp her arm.“I am nineteen years old, but this agreement was made between my grandparents and the previous Earl of Wolfingham when I was too young to raise any objection.”
“I am sure you must agree that it is a good connection, one that will instantly elevate you into being a countess?”the lawyer put in.
“It would only be a good connection if I had any desire to become the countess of the present Earl of Wolfingham,” she challenged.“Which I do not,” she added in case anyone had a differing opinion.
Masterson frowned.“I fail to see any disadvantage in the match.”
“Thedisadvantagewould be that I would becomehiscountess.A man who is known throughout Society for being a complete rake.”She gave Wolfingham a look of narrow-eyed dismissal before once again turning to her parents.“You have had all these years to tell me of this agreement between the Roxburgh and the Wolfingham families, and yet you have chosen not to do so.”She failed to hide the hurt she felt, despite her anger.
“We wanted you to have the pleasure of enjoying a couple of Seasons with your friends before the subject of a betrothal was even mentioned,” her mother defended.
“That was not kind of you,” Julia said heavily.
“In the beginning, we believed it would be Arthur that you married, not Nicholas,” her father put in softly.
“Arthur has been dead for ten years, and he was even older than Nicholas is!”
“Only by a few years,” her mother reasoned.
“I do not care who it was you thought I would marry, or what their age is or was,” Julia snapped, once again unable to contain her anger.“The situation as I see it now is that I appear to have been betrothed, for many years, to whoever is the eldest son of the Harding family, and that not a single one of you, not one, ever thought to tell me of it.An omission I will never forgive you for!”She gave them all another sweeping glance of contempt.“I have no intention of marrying Nicholas Harding, now or at any time in the future.”She turned on her heel and hurried from the room.
She had no idea where she was going, only that she needed to get away.
