Page 52 of A Stranger’s Gamble

She looked up at him. “How could you do this?”

“Why are you surprised? You knew full well that you came to Edinburgh with the express intent to get the marquess to agree to marry you.”

Sophie set the agreement on the desk. “That was your plan. Not mine. I will not marry him.”

“There is no good reason not to.”

“No good reason not to?” she exploded. “There are half a dozen good reasons not to. He is a pauper.”

“I thought you cared nothing for how much money a man had.”

She narrowed her eyes. “It is not that he has no money, it is that he is marrying me strictly for my money.”

“My money,” her father corrected.

“He is a pirate,” she snapped.

“I have never known you to listen to gossip.”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “This is more than gossip. It is well known he turned from buccaneer to pirate. It would not surprise me to discover the Crown intended to arrest him.”

Her father laughed. “Sophie, you are not prone to dramatics. If he was a pirate, where is all the money he stole from the Crown?”

“Exactly!” she cried. The man cannot manage money.”

“Why would a pirate pay off his father’s debts?”

“Now who’s listening to gossip? You don’t know that he paid off a single debt.”

“When have you known me to be a fool?” he asked. “Of course I know he paid off his debts.”

She shot to her feet. “I will not marry a man just so you can say your son-in-law is a marquess.”

Her father’s mouth thinned. “I had no idea you thought so little of me. But never mind that,” he added before she would reply. “Will you marry a man to ensure your well-being?”

She stiffened. “I do not need a man for that. I am tolerably good with money and will not squander your money when you are gone.”

“I see. When do you think this might be?”

“Not for some time, if we are fortunate,” she said with more of a bite than intended. “If I had no money, you would have reason to worry. But I am not destitute. I have a brain and will do quite well.”

“You will be alone,” he said.

She scoffed. “That is better than being with the wrong man.”

“I like Monthemer,” her father said. “He will give you children and care for you.”

“Children are a bother.”

“I cannot argue with that,” he muttered. “But I do not need to argue. He has signed the marriage agreement. It is settled.”

Sophie threw her hands up. “This is Scotland. I do not have to marry him if I choose not to.”

He leaned back in his chair. “You will refuse to give me grandchildren?”

Guilt pricked. There had been a time she wanted children. But marriage to Matthew had crushed that desire, and she hadn’t been able to resurrect it.

“Perhaps you should remarry and have more children,” she said. “You are not yet too old.”