Page 3 of How to Catch an Heiress

Chapter Two

When the firm knock came to Chastity's door at four-thirty that afternoon, she hurried from the window she stared out of and sat on the couch. She schooled her expression into one of polite disinterest and bid the newcomer—her father, no doubt—enter.

The door opened and the duke stepped inside.

His eyes flicked from the dress laid out on the bed to her. “Tell me, Chastity, what have I done last month that would convince you that I am incapable of carrying out every threat I have made?"

She shrugged. "Nothing."

"Yet you sit there and aren't dressed for dinner."

"You can do nothing more to me than what you have planned," she said with an airy wave of her hand.

"Whether you marry today or the day after tomorrow matters not?" he asked.

She lifted her shoulders in another careless shrug.

A gleam entered his eyes. “Then perhaps the choice of groom might matter."

Chastity frowned. "What do you mean?"

"All actions have consequences, Chastity. You believe I will let your behavior go unchecked?”Dread slithered along the inside of her stomach. "The special license I have obtained does not specify the groom."

She forced calm. "The groom is Sir Stirling James. He has worked hard for the honor of carrying on your title. He is not about to give that up."

Determination glinted in his eyes. “I am the Duke of Roxburgh. Sir Stirling cannot stop me if I decide to marry you to another man."

Her heartbeat accelerated. "And what if Sir Stirling should decide he doesn't want me, what then? Will you force me to marry Lord Hathaway?"

Fury flashed in his eyes. “Aye.”

An answering anger swept through her. “Your three younger daughters have married. If I do not, the title will fall to Olivia and her husband upon my death. You have assuredthat the title will not die.They are happy. Why must you insist I marry?"

He drew back his shoulders. "My word still means something—even if yours does not. It was you who proposed this arrangement. It is your own fault that you didn't believe I could find someone to take up your challenge. I did. Therefore, Sir Stirling deserves his reward."

"Yet you continue to threaten me with marriage to Lord Hathaway—at the risk of breaking your own word to Sir Stirling."

"Aye, because you continue to defy me at every turn. Mark my words, if you try to thwart Sir Stirling, I will marry you to Hathaway."

"Mark my words, Father. If you marry me to Lord Hathaway, I will guarantee that you have no grandchild from our union."

His gaze sharpened. "Then his bastard will take my title."

She gasped. "You would rob Olivia of the title just to spite me?"

"Nae.” He shook his head. “It is you who would do that. I know exactly what you plan. You intend to avail yourself of all the advantages of my title until the day you die. Then you will leave the title to Olivia. It is unfair that you get the advantages and shoulder none of the responsibility."

"None of the responsibility?" she cried. "I have been responsible for your three daughters the last eight years."

He nodded. "Aye, and that was wrong. I should have remarried. But after your mother died I—" He broke off.

Chastity stared. She knew her parents’ marriage had been a love match, but she hadn’t considered that her father might have felt her loss as keenly as they had.

"You still miss her," Chastity whispered. "You never said anything."

He shrugged. "What should I have said? A father doesn't burden his daughters with the loss of his wife when they have lost their mother. I was wrong not to remarry." A strange look entered his eyes. "All of you girls—you in particular—would have been better off with the guiding hand of a mother."

She fought tears. "We did well."