‘No, you should not, and we have not, on both counts of dancing and introduction. And before you apologise for having not taken notice of me across this crush or that, I should warn you that I care very, very little for such inane sentiment.’
‘Noted.’
‘So, as regards my original question. How much money do you require? While you are upholding a tradition of the nobility in marrying for a fortune, you are a novelty in that you are so…’
‘Un-genteel?’
‘Isn’t that a diplomatic turn of phrase.’
‘What would you have said instead?’ he grinned, truly, undeniably, enjoying himself now. To the point of forgetting even where he was, or that he was stuffy, and uncomfortable in these ridiculous clothes that made him feel even more an imposter but five minutes ago.
‘Poor, allegedly rough, and uneducated.’
‘You disagree with the latter at least?’
‘You know already I disagree with both of the latter. The most I can say is that your broader tones betray your rural origins slightly, but otherwise your manners and words suggest some education.’
‘Fer I don’t talk as dem peasants do? Fer I don’t talk as a smithy should, he who was plucked from destitution though t’would have been bedder to leave the earldom crumble than bestow it up some dirty cur?’
‘See now, if you’d spoken thusly, you might not be in your current predicament. Or perhaps you might be. One can never truly tell what will amuse them enough to become ensnared. However, your eyes give you away to those who’d pay any attention.’
‘My eyes?’
‘Yes. They sparkle.’ He blinked twice, sure he’d misheard, then shook his head, wondering what he’d stepped into. ‘Toreturn to my earlier point about you being a novelty, it had nothing to do with any of that. Merely that you are departing from tradition in not advising the most incorrigible gossips just how much of a fortune you are seeking. No one seems to know, it’s most bothersome. So how much, to save it?’
‘At least fifteen hundred pounds, I expect.’
‘Well then, I fear we would be ill-suited,’ she said, almost sadly, and he understood, for he doubted very much that they would be ill-suited at all. ‘I’ve only a thousand.’
A thousand could work.
He’d only madeveryrough calculations, based off of what information he could get from the solicitors and strange men of business who had plucked him from blissful anonymity and thrust him into alleged fortunate infamy, working from there to find an heiress.
‘’Tis the only way, young man,’ one of those same old solicitors had advised him over half-rimmed glasses in an office that looked fit to burst with paper, parchment, rolls, books, ledgers, and everything in between. ‘Marry rich, for no amount of work will save you now. There are many ready to purchase a title by such means.’
Initially, Thorn had huffed and puffed and dismissed every bit of it asall that was wrong with nobility in this country; however, three days later, after looking at all he could, his own meagre savings—he had some success and was no spendthrift, however there were savings andfortunes—he’d crawled back to the same office, and asked if the old man had any suggestions.
An hour later he’d left with a list of venues and names to search for, and then of course, the invitations had begun to flood in, and he’d truly thought he might manage it.
Perhaps I did, for in the end, I arrived here; perhaps here is where I was always meant to be.
‘I could make do with a thousand,’ he said seriously, throwing all caution to the wind. ‘However, you know my faults, what are yours that you and your acceptable portion remain untouched?’
‘I know nothing of your faults, one out of two of those statements is correct, and I posit society would consider my faults to be that I am rather plain, and past thirty, therefore in my dotage. Now, as to why I remain unmarried at thirty with such an acceptable portion, well, it is very simple. The amount was designed to ensure that I had no access to suitors of anygreatness, shall we say, so that whenever those of more desperate circumstances come sniffing, my father can play the benevolent protector, and send them packing.’
‘Your father wishes you to remain unmarried? Why provide a dowry at all?’
‘For appearances, of course. And as regards the former, someone must care for him, and my mother, and anyone else who may be in need in the future. My sister is the pretty one, and she is to marry.’
‘The one who will have a duke, or a marquess, at the very least. The reason you are here tonight.’ He barely saw it, but caught a nod, and the flash of lantern and moonlight on bright red curls.Hm.‘What would your father say then, if I came courting?’
Thorn didn’t see the grimace though he certainly felt it.
‘You are an earl,’ the woman said eventually. ‘It has been mostly second sons ready to debase themselves for a thousand pounds until now, so I don’t rightly know. I can only suspect it would be a fight.’
‘If I came courting. Then again, you are thirty. Would I be correct in wagering that your father wouldn’t risk public dishonour by refusing the dowry were you to marry without his consent?’
‘The banns would still need be read.’
