“He strikes me as one rather set on winning. Also, my intuition tells me this is about more than money. I’m not sure.” His grandfather shook his head in frustration.
“Very well.” Zeke rolled the snifter in his palms. “What do you suggest? Something other than me marrying the girl, if you please.”
“I will have to do it,” the earl stated after a pregnant pause.
Zeke froze. “Excuse me?”
“If you won’t step in and shoulder the responsibility, and Lord knows I have no right to ask—regardless of the fact you drew the hounds—then I shall do it. It’s the least I can do for my dear departed friend.” He nodded once, as if his mind was made up. “Now, if you’ll excise me? I must prepare for an extended stay in Derbyshire.” He heaved himself out of his chair.
“Just. One. Minute,” Zeke ground out.
With well-played reluctance, his grandfather dropped back into his seat. “Yes?”
“Perhaps there’s another way.”
“I really don’t see—”
Zeke cut the earl off with a look. “We shall proceed down this crooked path you laid, the caveat being the lady knows from the start the engagement is temporary.”
“I see.”
“You see,” Zeke said flatly. “Does that mean this is agreeable to you, sir?”
“That depends. How shall we accomplish breaking-off the engagement? I don’t want Kitty’s name dragged through the mud.”
Of course. Kitty was the only one involved, after all. “Dear, sweet Kitty will, of course, call things off, after which I will depart for parts unknown to lick my wounds.”
He regarded Zeke down the length of his nose. “You must be convincing.”
Zeke parted his arms in anof coursegesture.
“You understand this will require your presence. No haring off on a moment’s notice. Not until Kitty meets the legal requirements to thumb her nose at her cousin. In other words, not for at least six months. At least.”
Six months?
he must have made a face, because the earl scoffed. “If you’re going to be disagreeable—”
“Grandfather?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t push your luck. I said I’d do it. Do it I shall. Now I need you to understand something.”
“What is that?”
“I’m doing this for you, old man. No one else.” He stared at the earl, willing him to understand. “I…” How to phrase this?“Earlier, the things you said. I got the impression you don’t know”—no, that wasn’t quite right—“that you perhaps question, er…that is, due to my long forays from home these past years—”
“Ezekiel? I love you, too. And your willingness to do this for me means more than you can possibly know.”
A feeling of conviction, of doing exactly the right thing for exactly the right reason filled him. At the same time, the incessant clamor inside him pressing him to move, to act, to run, was at once blessedly quiet. It felt good.
Some fifteen years ago, his grandfather had stepped in to care for his brother and him when their father opted outsansnotice. Now fate, in the form of one Lady Kitty Hastings, had handed Zeke a means to repay his grandfather. Something other than his usual shoring-up of the family’s now over-flowing coffers.
How hard could it be, pretending to be betrothed? Child’s play. Six months? A wink of an eye. Half a year from now, it would be spring. Who knows, maybe he’d stay in England for the season. Maybe even find a wife. Right now, anything seemed possible.
“We’re to Derbyshire in the morning, then?” He pressed up from the chair.
The earl rubbed his chin. “Yes, although I fear the newly named Baron of Maidstone will make this difficult.”
