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“You think marriage to a stranger will establish me? It would no doubt ensure my road to hell!” he scoffed. “It didn’t work for my parents, did it? They were as miserable as any two people together can be. I don’t want that.”
She sat back with a sigh, “Indeed …”
“If you mean to cut me off because I am disinclined to make more of a mess of my life than I already have, then do so. That is your choice. I will not be ordered about in this, although … believe me when I say I adore you, Grandmamma, and would like to please you as best as I can.”
“Cut you off? Foolish boy. That is not what I said … though I did imply it, I suppose. Your parents were not suited, that is why that union did not work. Be that as it may—” She was cut off as he stood and pushed away from the table.
“Marriage is not for me. Do what you must, but I will not be force-fed!”
“Not what I said,” his grandmother snapped.
“What you said, exactly, was that you could no longer stomach my hedonistic exploits and that you would not advance my interest payment for next month,” he countered.
“Precisely,” his grandmother replied.
Exasperated, he flung his arms up and paced. He was seven and twenty. This situation had grown intolerable. He inclined his head. “So be it.”
“Od’s life!” she exclaimed just as exasperated as he. “Why do you insist on this course? What do you think will happen to you if you marry?”
“Forget me—what about the girl you would have marry me? No. I won’t do it. I won’t make anyone as wretched as my mother was.” He walked back to her, bent, put an arm around her, and said quietly, “Roland and your dear Shawna will give you great-grandchildren. Now, there is a love match that took beautifully. Be content with that.”
“Yes, I am well pleased with that match,” she said, momentarily diverted.
“Now you are … you weren’t always,” he said on a chuckle. “Which displays quite nicely how wrong you can be, dearest Grandmamma.”
She waved this off and said, “I have warned you, I shall not advance you a sou.”
“I know,” the earl snapped. “You have made yourself quite clear. It is my inheritance, but you hold the purse strings.”
She eyed him one brow up, “For a very good reason.”
The earl moaned. “I adore you and hate to leave you like this, but you don’t give me any choice. I simply cannot please you in this matter. Besides, you have spoiled me for any other woman. None could measure up to you.”
She snorted a
nd wagged a finger. “It isn’t me they must measure up to, but you, dearest, and one day, like it or no, you will receive your coup de grâce, and I only hope you won’t be too jaded to know it.”
He kissed her forehead and took his leave.
As he climbed into his carriage, he looked back over his shoulder and saw her standing at the panoramic window. A soft smile touched her lips, and he knew the wheels in her head were turning.
~ Four ~
NANNY PATTED HER soft brown curls under her lacey mop cap. She smoothed the light gray gown she wore over her plump figure and wrung her hands.
She caught her reflection in the looking glass over the sidebar table and wondered where the years had gone. She touched the gray wisps at her forehead and ears … so much more gray than last year.
She wrinkled her nose at the sixty-year-old woman that looked back at her. Where had the years gone since she had first come to Wharton with Kitty, Kitty, who was more a daughter to her than her charge?
Kitty, who had been put into Nanny’s arms when she was just an infant, grew up to rely on Nanny for everything. By the same token Nanny, who, childless and having just lost her husband to consumption, discovered a new purpose when she came into Kitty’s life.
Her dear, ‘all heart’ darling child had filled a void and had become the daughter she had always wanted, though at times like these she wasn’t sure how to manage her.
Although Kitty was her darling, the actual bright light in her day, she was and always had been headstrong. If only she could control Kitty’s high spirits, but the truth was she never really tried to do so. All she wanted was to care for and love her. She wanted to brush out Kitty’s golden locks and watch her float around in exquisite gowns while she took the beau monde by storm. It was what Kitty’s beauty and her sweet heart should have in this life, if only Kitty would cooperate.
Harry was a good boy and would make an excellent country squire one day. Indeed, Nanny would be pleased enough if the two would make a match, but she knew better and had given up on that long ago. They had grown up in one another’s pockets and were more like brother and sister than lovers.
She stepped over to the lead-paned window and peered down the long drive. He must have found her by now. Where were they? As she spotted them, she drew in a long breath of relief.
