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Her eyes widened. “Oh, are we to have rules? How adorable. Next you will expect me to obey them.”
“I’m not such a fool as that. But I do not need your help to gain custody of my sisters and rebuild my family.”
“If you care so much, I wonder you let something as trivial as a broken heart drive you away.”
“I didn’t leave because Clare Ivory broke my heart.”
“Why did you leave?”
Leaving had been the only possible end to a decade of struggle for control—over Guy. That struggle culminated in that final, bitter fight, when Guy insisted on marrying Clare, at which his father, using his bulk to loom over him, threatened to lock him in the cellar until he agreed to marry Arabella.
“You cannot make me!” Guy had yelled, with the fervor of youth. “I will never be your puppet.”
Father had been scornful. “You’ve not enough sense to make your own decisions. You’ll do as I say, until you learn to be the man you should be.”
“A corrupt tyrant like you?”
“This is my country,” Father had replied coldly. “And you will do as you are told as long as you breathe my country’s air.”
So they had divided up the world: Father had won tyranny in Britain, and Guy had won freedom everywhere else.
Arabella was eyeing him expectantly.
“It was about principles,” he finally said.
“Principles?”
“Yes. Have you heard of them?”
She shrugged. “My governess might have mentioned them, but then she told tales of fairies, unicorns, and honorable gentlemen, so I never paid her much mind.”
He laughed despite himself. “My father was certainly not honorable. His favorite game was finding ways to milk money and power from his position, and he expected me to do the same. His explanations for his unethical behavior always sounded so reasonable. I was a terrible disappointment to him, what with my ethics and all.”
“Terrible affliction, ethics. Rather like a rash, I imagine.”
“I can see why he approved of you. In every letter I wrote, I promised to return if I could earn an income and marry as I wished, to which he declared I would behave as he saw fit and marry you.”
Finally, he had shocked her enough for it to show. “You cannot mean you spent all those years arguing over me? That’s preposterous. Britain has other heiresses, and our fathers were never that devoted.”
“You became the symbol of my obedience.”
“No wonder you were so adamant against marrying me.”
He shrugged. “Your ruthless, quarrelsome nature was a factor too.”
“Oh dear. And here I thought that was my chief charm.”
The world tilted. Was Arabellalaughingat herself? Impossible.
“And so you seek your perfect bride,” she continued, cynical to the bone. “She’ll gaze at you with wide, adoring eyes and once more the great man will tumble headlong into love.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said cheerfully, refusing to be riled. “I enjoyed being in love. It makes one feel more alive, not unlike drinking and gambling, but better for one’s health. And when I meet a lady both adoring and adorable, pleasant and pleasing— Believe me, Arabella, I shall fall so fast I get a concussion.”
Something flickered in her expression, like a soft wistfulness, chased away by the sardonic hoist of a perfectly arched brow.
“Can it be thus arranged? Does one order one’s sweetheart like a new coat, specially tailored and cut to size? Who knew love was so convenient?” Her gaze traveled pointedly to Miss Treadgold, finishing up at the pianoforte. “But of course, what his lordship orders, his lordship gets. Sir Walter informed me at dinner that you are here to court his niece.”
“Any man would happily choose Miss Treadgold over every other lady in the room.”
