“For a time, yes.”
In the ensuing silence, Nicholas moved toward the door and pressed his ear against it. If the uncle had lingered to eavesdrop, he was doing so silently.
He dropped his voice low for good measure as he said, “Marriages, despite what we are told, need not last till death. There are ways in which one might be annulled. That is what I have come to suggest.”
She frowned. “I… I do not understand.”
“It is a mad plan, one I have barely had the time to devise.” He had gone over things on the drive into town, counting every mile until he arrived. “You and I…” He gestured vaguely between them. “We will marry by special license as soon as one may be secured. Weeks will pass, or months, if we feel that is necessary. After such a time, the union may be annulled.”
She raised her brows. “On what grounds?”
It shamed him to answer, “On the grounds of your… incapacities… to understand and consummate the union you undertook.”
Miss Tate reeled back in shock, and Nicholas instinctively reached out to her. She flinched away from his touch, and her fear wounded him.
“I do not think you are mad,” he assured softly, gingerly taking a step toward her, like he was a hunter, and she was a doe ready to flee. “But as we have established, societydoesbelieve as much. If you were to become my wife for a time, your reputation may be mended. In what concerns your propriety at least. The rest… I do not know.”
Another step. She did not move.
“I would not treat you unfairly, Miss Tate. A modest income, as my wife, to last you forevermore. It need not be divulged to anyone. An agreement between us.”
He watched her carefully for a reaction.
She chewed on her lower lip, turning that plump swell of flesh red until he had to look away.
Even now, when they were devising the most sacrilegious plan, he could not deny how much she maddened him, this woman who might temporarily become his wife.
“You would have me lie to my family?” she whispered, balling her fists at her side. “What makes you think I am capable of such a thing?”
“I presumed nothing of the sort—”
“This plan is nonsensical,” she pressed on, not listening to him. She began to pace, and he watched her carefully. “First a lie, and then… then… I could never stay in England after an annulment,” she murmured. “Not if we… Not if I agree to what you are proposing.”
He shrugged. “Should you wish to retire elsewhere, it would not be a difficult thing to arrange. I have the means to provide you whatever future you desire.”
He recognized the look of a woman slowly being convinced of something awful.
“And the orphanage? I have a life, Your Grace. Insignificant though it may seem to you, I have little desire to abandon everything I have built and love.”
“Twice now you have put words in my mouth. I never said your life was insignificant. It seems most significant to me. The orphanage… If that place is truly so important to you, I would see it funded in earnest. You assumed previously that the Duke of Avon has the means to help. Hedoes—and he would help if you commanded it.”
She laughed pitifully, shaking her head up at the ceiling. Maybe it struck her, like it recently had struck him, how strange and cruel fate could be. A playful, tricksy mistress.
“IfI were to agree…” She met his eye at last. “What would you stand to gain? You are speaking truthfully, so I shall be truthful too. The Duke of Avon… I have heard things. This is not the first scandal that has found you. You could have taken any one of your conquests to wed. Whyme? Whynow?”
He wondered how much she knew about his scandals.
“This situation is much different. I escaped something in London which… which I cannot discuss with you at present,” he admitted. “Suffice to say, I intend to return to life there as soon as I am able. If word should spread southward that I have been caught in another predicament...” He sighed. “It would forestall my return overlong. A marriage to you, on the other hand, could shift the scales in my favor.”
He knew little about Miss Tate, besides her courage and beauty. But her quick wit was plain to see.
“You want to be seen as my savior,” she concluded. “A man likely to take a wife, despite everything presumed about him, only to marry for love and learn that she was mad. Atragic hero… I knew you were a liar. But this…?”
She looked almost disgusted.
Almost.
Something else colored her gaze.
