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Anger poured into Eden’s torn heart. “My lot? You’ve made it my lot. You are forcing me to accept a man I find repulsive and abandon the one I—” She closed her eyes for a moment to regain composure. “How is that in any way enviable?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I will not marry him. Cast me out if you want. I don’t care. I won’t be used in this manner to satisfy a debt created by another’s lack of good judgment.”
Catherine’s face did not change. “Then we will all suffer, you included.” She cocked a brow. “And what of your brother? He is innocent in all of this. What happens to him when w
e are destitute? When we are forced from our home?”
“That is not my concern. I am not his parent.” She weighted the statement with accusation. “Papa—you, both of you should have considered that when you decided to keep up appearances instead of retrenching and living within our means.”
“And do you think you would have attracted the notice you have this Season if we had done so?” Catherine’s quiet question was a slap in the face. “We pretended everything was normal in order to provide you this chance. Our labors, our sacrifices, have come to fruition in Ravenwood’s offer. If we don’t harvest it while we can, all will be lost. You and I as well as your father will be forced to find work. Work, Eden. People like us are ill-suited to labor.”
“It’s that bad?” It came out as a whisper.
“He owes nearly forty thousand. Ravenwood offered him fifty in exchange for your hand.”
The floor suddenly felt very far away.
“We cannot sell Holker Hall, as it is entailed,” continued Catherine. “The sale of this house and everything not entailed would diminish our debt only by half at best. This is necessary, Eden. You must marry him.”
A buzzing began in Eden’s ears, and with it numbness slowly spread throughout her body, settling in her limbs like some horrible paralysis.
“Finally, you begin to understand,” said Catherine, peering into her face. “I regret that you cannot have what you desire, but it was folly to desire it to begin with, you must agree.”
No. She could not.
“Ravenwood will come tomorrow. You will accept his proposal. If Tavistoke attempts to call, your father will speak on your behalf and tell him you’ve accepted another offer.”
“I accepted Percy’s offer first,” Eden said woodenly. “Does that count for nothing? What of my honor? We have pledged ourselves to each other. We are engaged.”
Her stepmother’s eyes bored into her. “As he did not request your father’s blessing, it—”
“He was doing so when you deliberately sabotaged him!” Rage swelled within her. “Don’t deny it.”
“I feared for you, Eden. I thought him playing a cruel game with your sentiments. Everything was going so well, and then he came along and distracted you—he very nearly ruined everything!”
Her blood froze. “How long have you been planning this?”
All the color leached out of her stepmother’s face, leaving it chalk white.
“My God,” Eden gasped. “How long ago did Ravenwood buy you?”
“I did what was necessary to save us all. You cannot fault me for that.” Two bright spots appeared in Catherine’s pale cheeks. “Lord Ravenwood’s father approached me at the start of the Season about a match; however, in my defense I did not consider it until after you set your cap for Tavistoke and cast off all your other suitors. Chilton, Mallowby, Edgeworth—all of them, gone! All that work, all that expense, to build you up into the Season’s most sought-after prize, only to see you throw it all away on a rake who is sure to play you false. When Ravenwood personally expressed his continued interest in you, I thought it a godsend. I tried to make you see him as the better alternative, but you were blind to him.”
“Apparently not as blind as you,” Eden retorted. “You closed the door on a good man and opened the window to let in a snake.”
“Snake or not, he has given us no choice,” replied Catherine grimly. “Eden, you must marry him. He will ruin us if you don’t.”
Eden spoke quietly, withholding none of her contempt. “Had you but the smallest bit of faith in me, you would have had my love, my gratitude, and the resources of a marchioness to see our family through this misfortune. Instead, you’ve sold me to a man who does not love me and whom I can never love, thereby robbing me of my heart’s desire.” She blinked back tears. “For that I will never forgive you. You have earned my enmity for as long as I draw breath. Once I leave my father’s house I will never again speak to you.”
Her stepmother’s face paled another shade, and she swayed on her feet.
Marshalling her strength, Eden continued. “For my father’s and brother’s sakes, I’ll bind myself to Ravenwood. When you attend my nuptials, you can bear the cross of knowing the vows I speak at the altar will be empty.” She laughed without humor. “You shall have your thirty pieces of silver for my pound of flesh, but your precious standing will suffer far more for it than it would have had you let me marry Percy.”
“What do you mean?”
“The man you force me to spurn has a reputation for taking other men’s wives for his lovers,” Eden said bitterly.
Catherine gasped. “You would cast a shadow of bastardy over your own children? Subject them to the censure of the world for your own selfishness?”
Eden’s heart broke a little. “I’ll be more discreet than Lady Sotheby, but I will not give up my only happiness. You may have robbed me of its legitimacy, but you will not take it from me entirely.”
