“He knows, Thomas.There is no use trying to convince him otherwise.”
“I know everything that happens at Parkhorne,” Malcolm said.“I make it my personal business.And so if you mistreat my sister in any way, Lord Leith, please know that all of your title and rank will not save you from the punishment I will rain down on your head.”
“I have no intention of harming your sister,” Leith said.“I have only the most honorable intentions where she is concerned.”
Malcolm gave a short laugh.“Oh, yes, I am very sure of that indeed.”
“I will marry her, if she would have me,” Leith said.
Beatrice inhaled sharply.He sounded so earnest, so genuine.She had no desire to marry—or, at least, she had never had such a desire before—but, still, there was an unmistakable prettiness to him standing in her mother’s garden and saying the words.
The only problem was that they were uttered to her brother, not her, and that she knew they were false.She had commanded him to pretend to these honorable intentions and so he was merely filling the part she had asked him to play.
“And my sister will be a marchioness?Somehow, I think society may have an objection or two to a man of your station marrying a woman with no money and only a rocky piece of property in a rural county to her family’s name.”
“I speak the truth,” Leith said.He really did look, Beatrice concluded, like a prince, especially when he made marriage proposals that he didn’t mean.“But she has rejected me.”
“Then perhaps you should listen to her.Bea, is this man troubling you?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head.
Malcolm eyed them with his deep green eyes, which must have been his mother’s, because no one else in her family had them.His blond hair and fair coloring, however, were all their father’s.Malcolm had inherited the good looks that had once allowed her father to ensnare her mother—and all the other women he had led to their ruin.
“I do not understand it.But that is not what I came out here to discuss.Lord Leith, I must speak with my sister—will you leave us?”
Leith looked down at her.She wasn’t sure what Malcolm wanted, but Beatrice did not think it reasonable to deny her brother an audience.
“Let me speak with him,” she said.“I will come and find you once we are done.”
“Very well,” he said.“Good day, Mr.Brown.”
She watched as Leith’s straight, proud back headed towards the house.
And then she turned on her brother.
“What is it that you want?”
Malcolm laughed.“Did you really turn down a marquess, Bea?”
Beatrice brought her hands to her temples.“It is complex.”
“I will leave you to figure outthatmess.Only let me know if he does anything to upset you.I have never seen a man drawn and quartered, but I am not opposed to it in principle.”
“That will not be necessary.I have it all in hand.”
“Yes, as you always do.You always insist that you need no help at all.But I am your younger by only two years, Beatrice, and I do as much for Parkhorne as you do.I am entitled to know what your plan is regarding Mr.Gordstone.I want to help, if I can.”
“Do you have ten thousand pounds?”
Malcolm blanched.“Because I do not have ten thousand pounds, like your lord, then I am not entitled to any say in the matter?”
“No,” Beatrice sighed.“That is not what I mean.But ten thousand pounds is the crux of the problem.”
“So your solution is to marry Lord Leith?Do you even love him, Bea?”
“No, I am not marrying him,” Beatrice said, annoyed by her brother afresh.She didn’t know how to tell him the truth, however, about her and Thomas.“I am going to offer more money to Mr.Gordstone.Towards the debt.Hopefully, that will provide us with more time to secure the rest.”
“And how will you do that?Return to London and track down more nonexistent men to whom our father lent money?”
