“And marrying me off is going to solve that?”
“It will certainly help. I will take other measures.”
“Such as marrying someone yourself?”
He held her gaze. “That is certainly a consideration.”
Shivering despite the warm air, she crossed her arms. “And what if I don’t love him? This man you’ve selected.”
A dark expression crossed Henry’s face, too fast for her to read. “Marriage is not always about love. Sometimes it is about security.”
“I don’t want security if it comes with misery.”
“Perhaps you don’t understand the reality of our situation, Anna.” He blew out a frustrated breath and began to pace. “Thus far we have stayed afloat because of Nathanial’s generosity, but that cannot continue. We must find ways of standing on our own two feet and making our own way in the world.”
“I see, and I am the sacrifice to your ambitions?”
His eyes glinted with anger. “You will thank me when you are old enough to understand just what a precarious position you are in, and how our reputation must suffer as a result.”
Guilt pressed into her, but she kept her head high, the sting of tears in her nose. “I don’t want to go back to London, Henry. And I don’t want to be passed around your friends until one of them decides Nathanial’s dowry is worth his time.”
“Passed around my friends?” He snorted. “If you hate him, there is no obligation to marry, but as it happens I think you willlikehim. He is bookish like you, and he has a kind heart. Do you think I would commit your future to any less of a man?”
“Well how should I know?” She threw up her hands, furious at both him and herself. “You come back from the war a stranger and demand I marry a man of your choosing merely because he isbookish.”
“I had not thought you would be so choosy,” Henry said coldly. “After all, you consented to marry Jacob Barrington.”
“Yes, and he treated me well.”I loved him.
“Ifthatis what you consider goodness, then you will have no problem with marrying a man far superior in character.”
Annabelle stared at her brother, who was now a stranger, a man she barely recognised. “Whoareyou?”
“I am your brother and the head of this household, and I am trying to save us all.” He slammed his hand against the trunk of the tree. “You will accompany me to London tomorrow and you will do my friends the honour of meeting them.”
London, to where Jacob was. To meet a man she had no intention of marrying. But if her brother was this determined to see her married—an aim shared by her mother and the Dowager Duchess, she was sure—then her refusal would hardly be taken seriously.
“And if I refuse?” she asked quietly.
His mouth pressed into a hard line. “I will request for your things to be packed tonight.”
Annabelle sucked in a breath, but Henry’s expression did not ease as he turned and strode back to the house. Her thoughts churned and her fists clenched. If this was how he was going to be, then he left her with no choice.
She would make her own way in the world. And she would leave that night.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jacob reclined in his armchair, a glass of scotch—or was it brandy?—in one hand, a lady somewhat drunkenly playing the piano at the other end of the room. A few gentlemen cheered as they competed to see who could drink faster. More of an Oxford pastime, but Jacob hardly cared. They could do what they wished. And if they spilt wine on the carpets, fine by him. Other gentlemen perched ladies on their knees. Courtesans, mostly. A few wandered the room with pitchers of wine or decanters of brandy.
Everything had sunk into a delightful haze that numbed the pain in his chest.
In the month that had passed since Annabelle left, Jacob had fallen back into all his old habits with abandon. He sought ruination.
And if he sometimes lay awake, his body missing a woman it had only just begun to know, he shut down all awareness of it. Time would erase her from his life, and he threw himself into forgetting.
His friends, if he could call them that, cheered him on, and he fell further into the pit he had been digging since the moment he was born.
Smythe handed in his notice. Jacob told himself he didn’t care.
