She remembered he’d gently chastised her for her hopelessness when he’d sat beside her at the Crabtree Ball.
Had that only been a few weeks ago? So much had changed!
Emily was married, happily, she hoped.
The wager would go away, upon her own marriage, she hoped.
And this matter with Dudley Scofield, well, it suddenly lacked the power to haunt her every second. She no longer woke up in a cold sweat from nightmares where a rope was dropped over her head. She’d stopped imagining herself swinging from the gallows.
Everything had changed because of him.
He rose from his chair and paced toward the window. Staring outside for a few moments, he almost seemed to have forgotten she was there.
“I’m broke.” He wasn’t facing her when he murmured the words. She barely heard them, in fact.
If he was broke, then surely marrying her might, in fact, have some benefit. Her dowry had never been large, but it would be something…
“I do have a small dowry.”
“Your father has withdrawn it.”
He did what?Rhoda took a few deep breaths to keep herself from exploding in outrage at her father’s selfish and disgusting lifestyle.
“Your inheritance?”
“Amounts to naught more than a mountain of burdens and debts.” He held his shoulders stiffly. He’d yet to turn around again to face her.
He’d apparently been unaware of the conditions of his inheritance when he’d proposed. He must have believed it had come with some sort of income.
As he’d believed she’d come with some monetary relief as well.
Unfortunately, neither were the case.
Rhoda understood the responsibilities and demands of running an estate all too well, having seen her own father ignore them for years now.
This man she’d been fretting over for nearly a week now, who’d brought so much hope into her life, finally turned to face her, those beautiful blue eyes shuttered. “I visited Carlisle House before returning. It is why I did not come to you yesterday. I apologize for the delay, but after meeting with your father, I felt compelled to ascertain the condition of the Carlisle coffers.” He ran one hand through his hair, distracting her for a moment with the glints of gold reflecting the sunlight from behind him.
“The estate itself is in dire need of repairs. Tenant payments have been neglected, as have their living conditions. And my dear cousin mortgaged himself up to his eyeballs before having the inconsideration of dying.”
Rhoda bit her lip. For him to take on a wife right now, he needed one who would come along with the added bonus of a dowry.
A significant one.
It was, in truth, the only acceptable manner in which he could address his new situation.
But Rhoda wanted to keep him! There had to be a way.
The honorable thing would likely be for her to break their betrothal.
She shook her head. She couldn’t!
She had to marry him! And then it donned on her! Her mother was, this very moment, telling all the world that she had become engaged. She’d be ruined forever if she cried off now.
They’d all be ruined.
The tricky thing was, Justinwantedto marry Miss Rhododendron Mossant.
He’d only been away from her all of five days and he’d missed her.
