“Your niece?”
“Who the devil did you think she was, scamp?” Rebecca was exasperated.
Suddenly Anthony was laughing. “Tell me, Montieth, were you hoping she was illegitimate? A poor relation you could claim we were trying to foist off on you?”
“That will be enough,” Edward warned again. “Nicholas…well, perhaps I shall have to concede that you didn’t know who Regina was. Not many people remember Melissa, she died so long ago.”
“Melissa?”
“Our only sister. She was much younger than Jason and I, the middle child. She was…well, I needn’t elaborate on how precious she was to us, being the only girl in the midst of four boys. Regina is her only child.”
“She’s all they have left of Melissa,” Rebecca added. “Do you begin to see how important Regina is to the Malory brothers?”
Nicholas was feeling sick.
“I should tell you, in regard to my brother’s remark, that Regina is quite legitimate,” Edward went on. “Melissa was happily married to the Earl of Penwich.”
“Penwich!” Nicholas nearly choked on the name he had cursed so many times.
“The late Earl, Thomas Ashton,” Edward clarified. “Some obscure cousin has the title now. A disagreeable fellow, but he has no involvement with Regina. She has been under our care for the seventeen years since Melissa and Thomas died together in a terrible fire.”
Nicholas’ mind whirled. Bloody hell. She was in fact Derek’s first cousin, the daughter of an Earl, niece to the Marquis of Haverston. He wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she was also an heiress. She could easily have landed a husband with a better title than his. Could have. But now that he had linked her name to his, she wasn’t quite the prize anymore, not to those families who wouldn’t touch a girl with a scandal behind her. Everyone in the room knew it, including himself. Yet there were other men who would want her, regardless, men less rigid than some.
He said as much to Anthony. “Youdon’t seem to think she has lost her chance at a good match, so why are you willing to settle for me?”
“Did I say I was, dear boy? No, no. She is the one who wants you, not I.”
Nicholas cast about for a reply. “And as a favored niece, she gets want she wants?” he said.
“There is the simple fact,” Edward intervened, “that if she married anyone else, the poor fellow would have to live with the scandal you have created being whispered behind his back for the rest of his life. That is a bit much for any man to take, and certainly wouldn’t make for a happy marriage.”
Nicholas frowned. “But she would tell her husband the truth.”
“What does the truth matter when it is the untruth that is believed by everyone?” Edward replied testily.
“Am I to be held hostage to the narrow-mindedness of others, then?”
“What the devil is the matter with you, Nicholas?” Rebecca demanded. “I’ve met the girl and she is the loveliest little creature I’ve seen in a long time. You will never get a better match, and you know it. Why are you fighting this?”
“I don’t want a wife—anywife,” Nicholas said harshly.
“What you want became irrelevant,” his grandmother retorted, “when you made off with an innocent girl whose family won’t overlook it as others have. You’re damned lucky they’ll let you have her!”
“Be reasonable, Nicky,” Eleanor chimed in. “You have to marry sometime. You can’t go on forever as you’ve been doing. And this girl is charming, beautiful. She will make you a wonderful wife.”
“Not my wife,” he stated flatly. In the silence that followed, his hopes began to rise, but his grandmother dashed them.
“You’ll never be the man your father was. Running off to sea for two years, coming back to live the life of a wastrel, delegating your responsibilities to agents and lackeys. By God, I’m ashamed to admit you’re my grandson. And I tell you now, you may as well forget you know me if you don’t own up and marry this girl.” She stood up, her expression stony. “Come, Ellie. I have said all I will say to him.”
Rebecca’s face remained coldly unrelenting as she left the room, Ellie beside her. But once the door closed behind them, she turned to Eleanor and gave her a huge conspiratorial grin. “What say you, my dear? Do you think that did the trick?”
“That was a bit much about your being ashamed of him. You know you’re not. Why, you delight in his wild escapade more than he does. I swear, Rebecca, you should have been a man.”
“Don’t I know it! But his little escapade is a godsend this time. I didn’t think he would put up this much of a fight, though.”
“Didn’t you?” Eleanor retorted. “You know why he won’t marry. You know how he feels. Nicky refuses to force the stigma of his birth on an unsuspecting wife. He feels he cannot offer for a decent girl, yet his position makes it impossible for him to wed beneath his station. He decided simply never to wed. You know that.”
Rebecca nodded, impatient, and said, “Which is why this is a godsend. Now he will have to marry, and into a good family, too. Oh, he doesn’t like it one bit, but eventually he’ll be glad. I tell you this girl won’t give a toot if she ever learns the truth.”
