“It would be binding on me because I will sign it. Because I will control the money, not my father.”
It couldn’t be this easy. It couldn’t be within her grasp to put into effect all the ideas that she had talked about with her friends. The things that ought to be but never were. The idea intrigued her enough to distract her from her sore head.
Up until now, everything she’d ever talked about was theoretical.This is what ought to be, someone should do this, or it’s unfair that someone has to suffer that.As a child, she’d fought with her parents and the vicar about all sorts of things. When she was young, she wanted to learn about subjects they thought inappropriate. But as she grew, she also fought for better homes for the crofters or that women and children should be allowed to manage their own coin. At best, her parents pretended commitment, only to delay with excuse after excuse. At worst, they told her to play with her dolls and leave the management of things to other people.
In the end, they’d won. She’d left for London and stayed there where she had no chance to change anything.
But now Liam was looking at her with his arms folded, and his brow quirked in that challenging way. Damn it, he knew that expression always drew a rise from her. It did now as she remembered all the things she’d been stopped from doing throughout her life. He seemed to be offering her carte blanche with his castle and his people.
“You won’t do it,” she finally said.
“I will. I will swear it.” Then he touched her chin, lifting it up until they stared into each other’s eyes. “Do you doubt me or yourself? Because you know that I will do everything I can to see your work in place.”
She hated to admit that there was some truth to his words. She’d created a comfortable life for herself lost in her books without ever putting her ideas to the test. Every argument she’d ever heard about how her ideas wouldn’t work, that she was naïve, or that there were Godly reasons women were subordinate to men came back to haunt her. The last thing she wanted was to prove those people right.
Liam’s expression softened as they looked eye to eye. “Clara, I agree with you on most things.”
“And on things we don’t?”
He grinned. “Then we shall have a rip-roaring good fight about it. And who’s to say who will win?”
“You will,” she said as she stepped back from his intoxicating presence. “As my supposed husband, you’ll have the law on your side.”
He nodded, but then he spoke slowly and very clearly. “You have your virginity, Clara. One that can be proved by a doctor’s inspection.”
To the side, both Lilah and Aaron gasped in surprise.
Liam ignored them as he continued. “What do you care if a village in Scotland thinks you married? You could return to London at any time. Claim you went on a holiday with a paid companion. Whatever you want. None of my people will tell tales in London. They’ll never venture past the twenty square miles of the village.” He lifted his hands in an open gesture. “You can leave at any time if I do not honor my bargain.”
“But you’ll still have her money,” Aaron groused from the side.
“Aye, but I have that anyway.”
“This is all nonsense,” Aaron asserted. “Clara, pack up. We will return home immediately. This entire disaster can be swept under the rug. I will do everything in my power to see that you are not harmed by this—”
“And what will you do then, Clara?” Liam pressed. “Waste your time at lectures learning things that you will never use? Get fitted for a new dress to go to a party with people you despise? Or will you sit around the house feeling like you are a burden on your brother and his new wife?”
She winced at his words. He was right. He was right about all of it. Then he said the one thing that struck at the core of her soul.
“Do you truly have so little faith in your ideas?”
She did believe in herself. Damn it, how many times had she prayed for just this kind of power when she was younger? And how stupid was she to turn it down just because she had a sore head and was married to a liar?
She straightened her shoulders and felt strength gather with every breath. “Aaron,” she said before she could change her mind. “I want control of my entire dowry. Put it in an account in Edinburgh.”
“I will have to sign for it,” Liam said. “As your husband, I will have control of it.”
“And if you interfere once with my use of the money, then I will leave immediately for London. And I will name you a liar.”
He smiled, the expression filled with triumph. “You cannot hold all the cards, Clara. We do this work together or not at all.”
She frowned. “What does that mean?”
“We must agree—the both of us—on the money you spend.”
“Absolutely not—”
“You can stop me from what I want to do as equally as I stop—”
