“You are what?”Mother screeched on that day, the morning after my life became something I did not recognize.
“I am engaged. To Miss Summers.” I repeated.
“What on earth for?”
“She was compromised.”
“By whom?”
I bit back a sigh. “By me, Mother.”
“So, the brazen hussy seduced you?”
“Mother…” I breathed out a sigh, hoping to disguise it. “We were inadvertently trapped together, alone. And found together.”
“Oh! Of course, she did not seduce you. She was too ill-bred to manage it. Your taste is too fine. She had to use other means.”
“It was an accident.”
“That is precisely what she wants you to think, my dear boy. Women likeherare always strategizing. Always trying to move up in society where they have no business being and no one wants them.”
“She is the niece of a duchess.”
“And who is her father? Her mother?”
“I suppose. You truly believe it is possible?”
“I believe it is probable! Why do you think she came to town last year? And to return after her showing last season? Certainly, she knew the only way she would find a husband was entrapment.”
“But… It was a coincidence…”
“Was it? Or did she lure you there? And, when you were trapped together, did she insist on appropriate distance? Or did she position the two of you so your circumstances would be even more scandalous. So there would be no hope that you would escape with your honor?”
“It is not possible.”
“I suspect she had some sort of signal. Ensuring that someone would find you at the worst possible moment. She is a devious wretch.”
“But…”
“And where was her chaperone?”
“I do not… her cousin was there. He agreed to the marriage on her father’s behalf. But there was no…”
“Precisely! She orchestrated this entire thing to entrap you. You must throw her off, Hugh, you must!”
“I cannot. You know I cannot. Not with my honor intact. It would bring shame on the entire family. I would never make a suitable match anyway if I begged off. And you would be punished by society as well for my mistake. None of your friends would be able to receive you. And Tom…”
“Oh, Hugh. My darling boy, we will get through this together. I will be here for you, to expose her schemes and plots. And once she bears you a son… you can send her to Kent, and you need not see her again. She can even stay in the dower house, there is no need for her in the main house at all.”
I could not reply. It was so clear now, what had been so muddled under drink and lust and shock last night. I was marrying a duplicitous, deceitful shrew; and that insidious, underhanded harlot would be my wife. She would bear my children, and they would be saddled with her too big eyes and too brash countenance. And, at only two and twenty, my life was over.
* * *
And now,in mere moments, my fiancée would reap her rewards. A title and fortune to be envied. Yet, still her brother had the sheer nerve to act as though she were some prize. A catch and not the spinster second daughter of the second son of an earl—not particularly well-regarded.
Mr. Christopher Summers had approached the settlement negotiations as a practice for one of his law courses, rather than a polite discourse between gentlemen—or a gentleman and a future farmer. He argued every point, ensuring I received almost no benefit from this sham of a marriage—the one ruining my life.
I had to marry the girl regardless of the settlement; my honor brokered no alternative. But to be accused of marrying her for a fortune… It was too much.
