He watched her face, not missing the way she sniffed defiantly, as though daring him to comment on her unhappiness. “How would you prefer to be a duchess?”
“A duchess?” At this, she laughed. “If I thought the Duke of Wessex would dispose of his wife and ask me, I would be a deal sight more cheerful. He isn’t above forty, you know, and he has his teeth.”
“You have a preoccupation with teeth,” he said, frowning. “I can’t think what has brought this on.”
For an instant, laughter brimmed in her blue eyes. “No, I daresay you can’t. Why are you here, Nathanial? If Mama ever finds out you came to see me—alone, at that—and did not see her, too, she’ll be quite put out.”
If Nathanial had once had misgivings about his purpose, the sight of her woebegone face would have been enough to banish them entirely. “As it happens,” he said, extending his legs in front of him, “I came with a solution to your problem.”
Her mouth turned down at the corners. “You can’t have done. I’ve thought it all through, and there’s nothing for it. No one else has offered, and Papa is desperate, you know. Lord Whitstable is theonlyman to want to marry me enough to propose, if you can call it that, and if I don’t accept, we shall have to return to the country.”
Nathanial found himself conscious of both shock and anger. He waited until his voice was steady before saying, “Immediately?”
“Oh, we’re quite undone,” she said candidly. “If he did not gamble so much—but I shouldn’t know about that.”
Considering her father did so little to hide his vices from his family, it was hardly surprising Theo knew about them, but the thought still irritated Nathanial. He pushed it aside. “Youshouldn’t,” he said, “but that’s not the point. My solution is drastic, but I think you’ll find it preferable. I, at least, am in possession of all my teeth, the last time I checked.”
She looked up at him in blatant shock, and Nathanial encountered his second surprise of the day when he discovered that little Theo, whom he had seen more as a grubby child than a young lady, was remarkably pretty.
“Good God,” she said. “You can’t be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting.”
“This is extremely disheartening.”
“Nate, you—” She swallowed. “You must be joking. Why would you want to marry me?”
“You must learn to accept your proposals with a little more grace, my dear.”
She squinted suspiciously at him, and it was all he could do to keep a straight face. “Are you being serious?”
“I have never been more so.”
“And you are not drunk?”
His control snapped, and he laughed. “Brat,” he said, chucking her under the chin. “No, I am not drunk, and I’m not teasing you. I’m in want of a wife, or at least my mother believes me to be—which, I have on authority, is the same thing. And you are in search of a more eligible husband than a man easily old enough to be your father.”
“Twice over,” she muttered.
“So, will you accept?”
Her eyes were wide, the blue a crisp, wintry shade. “Do you think my father would accept?”
“I shall ensure he does.”
“Only . . .” She hesitated, toying with the edge of her book. “I believe the Earl offered to pay some of my father’s debts.”
Of course he had, Nathanial thought grimly. And of course that was why Lord Shrewsbury had accepted the match. Still. “You need not fear,” he said. “My fortune is large.”
“We have been friends long enough for me to knowthat. But Papa is . . . And there is Oliver to consider. He is due to go to Oxford next summer, and—”
“I know where Oliver is in his education,” Nathanial said wryly. “He will go to Oxford if he wishes. But there is one final thing we must discuss before I speak with your father, Theo.”
“Oh?”
There were many ways he could have approached this subject, but Theo was his friend—of longstanding nature—and she deserved the truth. “This is not a love-match,” he said. “Nor will I lie to you about the nature of my affections.”
“I thought you were going to say something terrible!” she said, releasing the breath she’d been holding. “Are your affections engaged?”
“Not presently.”
