“He’s fine. Or he will be, once he’s sober.”
She started past him, and once more he touched her, stopping her. “He’s asleep,” he said. “Just give him time.”
“Poor Neddy,” she said, looking truly distressed, and he cursed the boy who’d upset her. “He blames himself for the mess we’re in, and really, he’s just a part of it. Mother gambles as much as he does, with even worse results, but we would have been fine if my father’s investments hadn’t gone terribly wrong. Something to do with a bubble that collapsed, which I don’t quite understand. Suffice it to say we’re quite destitute.”
“I gathered as much,” Rafferty said.
A shadow had crossed her face. “And we’ll be out on the streets and homeless in a very short time unless Norah finds someone fabulously wealthy to marry.”
“And she refuses?”
“No, she says she will. She just wants to have fun for a while before she agrees to someone. But no one is good enough, and she’s starting to get a reputation, and I really don’t know what’s going to happen to us.”
This wasn’t a problem he could easily fix, Rafferty thought. Norah Manning was a spoiled bitch—sooner or later, her suitors would realize it and the Mannings would be out of luck.
All the more reason for Georgie to get herself a good, safe husband. He needed to find her someone, since her father seemed too caught up in the mess his life had become. Somehow the idea didn’t fill him with any pleasure.
“So you see, Neddy blames himself, even though he’s only part of the problem, and so he drinks.” Georgie finished. “If only I could do something...”
“You aren’t sacrificing yourself for your family,” he said flatly. “What we need to do is find you a nice young man to marry.”
She jerked her head up in sudden surprise. “I don’t want to marry a nice young man,” she said firmly.
“Then who are you going to marry?” he said, amused. “A bad, old man?”
“Yes,” she said simply. Looking at him.
Oh, no, you don’t! he thought. He ignored her shining gaze. “I’ll come back and check on your brother in a couple of hours,” he said, immediately changing the subject. “In the meantime, it’s best just to let him sleep it off.”
She was still looking at him with that odd, almost hopeful expression on her face. “But I?—”
“You’ll be going to out with your family,” he said, his voice brooking no refusal. “I think you should look around when you get there and choose someone.”
She looked startled by his sudden change of subject. “Choose someone for what?”
“To marry. There should be any number of suitable young men there—pick the one you want.”
She was no longer looking so sunny. “And you’ll arrange it like you’ve arranged everything else? No, thank you. And I don’t want to go to the Islingtons.”
“Too bad. You can’t stay in this situation—I want you to have somewhere else to go if your family loses the house and you’re homeless.”
“I’ll go with them,” she said. “With you. You wouldn’t abandon us, would you?”
He was planning on doing exactly that, but she was looking at him with a fierce gleam in her beautiful eyes.
“I wouldn’t abandon you,” he said. “Not until everyone is safely settled. Including you, with your new husband.”
The expression on her face was suddenly blank. A moment later, she was gone with a flounce of yellow skirts, and he was watching her disappear, a rueful smile on his face. He’d said exactly the right thing, whether she liked it or not. Having her moon after him was going to make it damned difficult give the place the kind of search it needed. He needed to find Belding’s cache, and soon.
That didn’t mean he couldn’t take care of other business at the same time. She was a sweet, lovely girl and he was going to find a husband for her, someone she could dote on, rather than her ramshackle family.
And he’d congratulate himself on a job well-done. Of course he would.
Chapter Nine
By the time Georgie reached her bedroom door, her cheeks were flaming and her eyes were full of unshed tears. Stupid, stupid man! Didn’t he see what stood right in front of him?
Of course he did. He saw her very clearly, better than she saw herself. What with Norah’s histrionics and Neddy’s drinking, her parents barely noticed she was around, but Rafferty was the only one who looked in her eyes and actually saw her. The question was, what did that mean, besides new dresses and a sudden social life?
