Harriet felt the floor shift beneath her feet. "My lord…"
“Pray, indulge me a few more moments.” Davies held up a hand. "I know this seems sudden. We've only just met. But I am not a man who wastes time on courtship rituals when I see something I want."
"And you want... me?"
"I want a wife of good family, with wit and intelligence and the social skills to manage a household like mine. You meet all those requirements admirably." Davies's smile returned, but it was sharper now, more predatory. "I also want a woman who understands the practical realities of matrimony. Who won't expect me to be faithful or romantic or any of the other nonsense that women typically demand."
"You're proposing a matrimony of convenience."
"I'm proposing an arrangement that benefits us both. You become Lady Davies. Your family's debts are cleared…all of them, not just mine. You'll have everything you could possibly want: gowns, jewels, a house in London, complete financial security." Davies moved closer.
"In return, I get a wife who can manage my social obligations and provide an heir. After that, you may do as you please, and I shall do as I please, and we shall both be perfectly content."
It was, Harriet had to admit, a remarkably frank proposal. No pretense of affection, no false promises. Just a transaction, laid out in clear terms.
She thought of Fordshire Park. Of her mother, frail and worried in her bed. Of Sebastian, offering to forgive the debt and being refused. Of all the impossible choices that had brought her to this moment.
"I need time," she heard herself say. "To consider."
"Of course." Davies smiled, victory already gleaming in his eyes. "Take all the time you need. Though I should mention, the offer expires at month's end. I am patient, but not infinitely so."
"I understand."
“Very well.” He moved to the door and opened it for her. "Shall I escort you to your rooms?"
"I can find my own way." Harriet rose, her legs unsteady beneath her. "Thank you for your... candor, Lord Davies."
"I find honesty so much more efficient than games. Don't you agree?"
She did not answer. She walked past him into the corridor, her mind reeling with everything that had just happened.
Two proposals now. Two men offering to solve her family's problems in exchange for her hand. One who had refused to take advantage of her desperation. One who had no such qualms.
The choice should have been obvious.
So why did she feel so utterly lost?
***
Sebastian was not in the library.
Harriet searched for him anyway, wandering through the darkened rooms of Davies Hall like a ghost seeking something she couldn't name. She needed to talk to someone. She needed to make sense of what had just happened. And somehow, impossibly, the person she wanted to talk to was the same man she had spent seven years avoiding.
She found him in the corridor outside her suite, pacing like a caged animal.
"Harriet." He stopped the moment he saw her, his eyes scanning her face with an intensity that made her breath catch. "What happened? What did he say?"
"Nothing. Everything." She shook her head. "I don't know how to…"
"Did he hurt you? Did he try anything…"
"No. No, nothing like that." Harriet leaned against the wall, suddenly exhausted. "He proposed."
Sebastian went very still. "He proposed."
“Matrimony. He wants to enter into matrimony with me.”
"And what did you say?"
