Stiffening at the insult, Ashbourn eyed her coldly.“I suppose you refer to the unfortunate circumstances of our last meeting.”
Despite her general mood of joy, Gemma found she was yet capable of less happy feelings.Like outrage.“You mean the day when you tossed your grieving, widowed stepmother and your own half-sisters out into the gutter like so much trash?Simply becauseourfather had the poor judgment to assume he could trust you, trust in your sense of honor and simple damned human decency to take care of us.”
“The gutter,” he intoned, staring contemptuously about the room Gemma had worked so hard to turn into a welcoming, cozy place.“An apt comparison.”
She could feel Hal all but vibrating at her side, like a racehorse poised to leap forward the instant the starting bell sounded.She knew it was only her hand that stayed him.
And it was getting harder and harder to recall why she shouldn’t simply let him barrel into Ashbourn and knock him down like the bully he was.
“I wonder that you would deign to grace us with your presence,” Gemma countered.“As we are so far beneath your notice here in our little gutter.What on earth do you want, Ashbourn?”
A muscle worked in his tight jaw.“I am come to bring you back to London.You may have your old rooms at Ashbourn House, or I will establish a dower house for your mother, and you may live there with her.The choice is yours.If you can bear to tear yourself away from this…person.”
Shocked, Gemma stared at Ashbourn in silence for a long moment.Beside her, Hal drew himself up to his full height and stared down at her half-brother coldly.“I am John Henry Deveril Montrose, the Duke of Havilocke.And you are offensive, sir.”
To his credit, Ashbourn did not appear to feel the lick of fear most men would have experienced at being loomed over by the bearded, broad-shouldered man Gemma loved.
Instead, Ashbourn turned even colder.“Ah yes, the duke who has involved himself so publicly in my family’s disgrace.I wish I could say it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Before the two men could veer off topic and start challenging one another to a duel, Gemma attempted to haul the conversation back on course.“You may offer us your felicitations before you get back in your carriage and return to London, brother dear.We are to be wed.”
Ashbourn’s face went still, as cold and hard as marble.“I forbid it.”
Gemma laughed.“Very amusing.As if I care what you think.”
“What I think,” her half-brother said with quiet emphasis, “is that this man is a fraud.Oh, he may have the title, but his prospects are slender, at best.When an acquaintance approached me with several samples of the humiliating tittle tattle being bandied about, tying our family to the Havilocke name, I did some digging.Do you know how deeply in debt his estate has been?”
“I know everything I need to know about Hal’s prospects,” Gemma said staunchly at the same moment as Hal growled, “You can keep your nose out of my affairs, Ashbourn.”
“Touched a nerve,” Ashbourn observed.He was too well bred, too controlled, to sound snide, but Gemma could tell he was all smug satisfaction as he strolled the length of the room and back.“Perhaps you can afford a wife, especially one who has clearly abandoned all sense of decorum and decency.But can you afford to give her younger sister a proper Season?”
For the first time, Gemma hesitated, stricken, and her odious brother was clever enough to seize upon the moment.
“If you quit this place and come back to London with me,” Ashbourn said, “I will not only establish a dower house and an annuity for your mother.I will reinstate your dowry, and your sister’s.And I will sponsor your sister in her debut, and provide the funds for an appropriate wardrobe.”
It was a generous offer.Her dowry had been quite large, and the thought of what she could do with all that money was certainly tantalizing—although she realized most of her notions for how to use the funds seemed to come down to ways to spruce up and improve Five Mile House.
A London Season for Lucy was by far the more tempting proposition.The kinds of clothing and accessories required of young ladies participating in strolls along the Serpentine, paying calls, assemblies, balls, musicales, taking tea and ices at Gunter’s…it was a dauntingly expensive prospect.
Gemma looked at Hal, whose jaw was set.His mouth was a hard line behind his beard, but he said not a word, and she realized he was leaving it up to her.
She thought about Lucy, the bright, inquisitive, loving, loyal young woman she was growing into in Little Kissington—a hothouse flower transplanted to a country garden, and thriving.
And suddenly, coming up with an answer for her brother’s proposition was the easiest thing in the world.
“I have done well enough without my dowry thus far.You may keep it.As for Lucy, she is your sister as well.”Gemma stared him down.“It is entirely beneath you to hold her future over my head in order to get your own way, but I suppose I should not expect anything more of you.”
There was a bit of a commotion from behind the kitchen door, and all of a sudden, Lucy all but fell through the doorway to land on her hands and knees on the taproom floor, with Henrietta not far behind her.They had quite obviously been listening at the door.
“No, Gemma!Don’t you dare.I won’t have you sacrifice your happiness for mine, especially when I’m not at all certain a London debut is what I even want!”
Gemma moved to help her sister off the floor, and the two Lively girls faced their half-brother.To Gemma’s surprise, her mother stepped forward to stand with them, catching Gemma’s hand in hers.
It felt good, and right, to be there with them beside her, all facing together the man who was the author of all their misfortunes…and yet, he was the author of a fair few of their current good fortunes as well.
“There you are, Ashbourn.”Gemma lifted her chin.“We have no need of you or your money.If we decide to give Lucy a Season, we—her family—will accomplish it without any help from you.”
Gemma smiled at Hal and held out her hand, inviting him into the fold, and a smile like dawn broke across his face as he crossed the room to join them.
