“How did you meet?” Catherine asked. John expected a firm rebuttal from Mary Forster and she did not disappoint him.
“It is a long story. And not one that you have any right to hear.”
“Regardless, I am very happy for you, aunt.”
The woman gave a bitter smile. “I doubt you care one way or another about my happiness, Cathy.”
John hated the expression of hurt that bloomed on Catherine’s face. He was already enraged on her behalf, but her voice betrayed no irritation when she replied.
“That is not true, aunt. I care very much.”
The woman said nothing, her eyes on her work.
Silence filled the room. He wished Catherine would get to the point.
“No,” the woman finally said. “You don’t care about my happiness. You have only come to me now because you want something.” The woman looked up from her work. “But I cannot fathom what it would be. Or why Julia has betrayed me. I have nothing to give you.”
“I am here to help you, aunt.”
The woman fixed Catherine with a firm gaze. “You are here to help yourself.”
John couldn’t bear it anymore. “Mrs. Ryerson, we have tracked you down because, in his will, my father left you an annuity. One thousand pounds a year.”
Mary looked up in alarm. Only now did she set her work aside.
“It is a healthy sum.” John continued, “You have children, according to Lady Trilling—a boy and a girl. That money could help launch them in the world. It would be a mistake to turn it down, but it is no matter to me what you do with it. I am merely carrying out my father’s wishes.”
She fixed him with a stare. “I don’t want Reginald’s money, as he well knew. He was a weak man with an important position. What a waste, I came to discover. It was hard to see the man beneath the title, how little he was worth, until it was too late. I would have done many things differently had I known.”
She gave an indignant laugh.
“And you seem no different,Your Grace. A weak man protected by a title. I don’t know how you have pressed my niece into helping you, or how you manipulated Julia into giving up my position, but I want nothing to do with any of it. I don’t want the annuity.”
“I must ask you to reconsider,” John insisted, irate at the woman’s manner. “It is a matter of great importance that you accept it. Think of what that money could do for your children.”
“How dareyouspeak of my children,” Mary countered. “They do not need any of Reginald’s tainted money. I am sorry if you have only now realized your father’s worth, Your Grace. I have no doubt my acceptance of this money is attached to untold stipulations in his will. He may, indeed, be moving you like a marionette, but he will not do the same to me. I pity you if it is so, but I will not accept anything from Reginald.”
John wondered if she could really be so sanguine about not accepting one thousand pounds a year. It was an incredible sum for a family like hers, who lived in this quiet way.
“What I don’t understand,” she said, “is why you, Cathy, would endeavor to help him.”
“That’s none of your concern,” John snapped.
“I could have hardly thought it would harm you, aunt,” Catherine said. “To give you money.”
“Then you are even dumber than I feared, for surely you should understand that Reginald only ever hurt me. Anything that comes from him is cursed. I learned that long ago.”
“Catherine,” John said, quietly, reaching out to touch her just as they had planned. When his fingers met her arm, she looked at him, and he could see real pain there, even though they had expected her cruelty and prepared for just such a moment as this one.
When he looked up at Mary Forster, he saw their little tableau had worked.
She stood and she pointed at him, her finger shaking. “You,” she said. “You.”
“Aunt,” Catherine said, “please calm down.”
She whirled on Catherine. “What are you thinking? Did you not learn from my mistake? He’llneverdo right by you, Cathy.”
“We’re betrothed,” John ground out, quickly, seeking to extinguish any hint of impropriety.
