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Mr. Mulgrave stopped his penetrating stare and rocked back slightly, finally dropping his arm away from Henry. “You are offering to do the right thing by my daughter and marry her?”
“Yes.” Henry forced the word not to shake. “And I promise she will never know hunger. She shall be given a good home, and all her comforts shall be seen to.” He supposed the list sounded rather business-like, but then again, for him, that’s all this was. He wasn’t offering toloveher. Even after four months, he hadn’t had enough practice lying to make a bounder that big sound convincing.
“Very well.” Mr. Mulgrave took a step back. “I shall expect a visit from you first thing tomorrow morning. We will discuss the particulars then.”
Henry tried not to dwell on all that he’d just agreed to. He’d face them tomorrow morning, just as Mr. Mulgrave said. “Very good, sir.”
Mr. Mulgrave turned back to his daughter. “Come now, Dinah. We’d best announce your engagement to our guests before their tongues have a chance to wag past the walls of our house.”
Miss Dinah only continued to stare at him. Eventually, Mr. Mulgrave took her hand and began pulling her toward the door. Just before they crossed the threshold, he paused and faced Henry once more.
“You’d best be aware, Lord Stanton, that I may not have recognized you at first, but I am a man well connected in this city. I know who does business with whom. I know who attends what club. I can promise there is no place in London or even all of England where I will not find you. Fair warning, in case you were considering disappearing tonight.” With that, Mr. Mulgrave escorted his daughter back into the house.
Lady Blackmore, directly behind them, also paused at the door. “And if that doesn’t scare you enough to keep your word, I am quite well acquainted with your aunt. I am sure we both know that no one gainsays her.”
“No, my lady,” Henry said. He bowed and she slipped into the house, closing the door firmly behind her.
Henry was left alone, standing between the stairs and the door, his mind whirling.
What the blazes had he been thinking? Agreeing to a marriage of convenience with a complete stranger?
This was outrageous.
And a problem of his own making. Henry shut his eyes so that he might focus. Quickly his mind flitted through all his options, but he came to the very same conclusions he had moments ago.
He could either abandon Miss Dinah to face the worst society had to offer, or he could marry her.
Henry pushed off the wall and stomped up the stairs, heading back toward the two horses. His father hadn’t raised Henry to be a rake. He hadn’t worked hard all his life in Parliament and among other men of standing just so Henry could, in a single blow, sully and demean the family name. No, there was nothing else for it.
Henry was getting married.
