Page 17 of The Luckiest Lady in London

“And my misfortunes—my inability to attract a suitable proposal—does that also gratify you?”

She had lobbed similar charges at him before. It tickled him that The Ideal Gentleman was accused of such a rampant case of schadenfreude. “It would make me a terrible sort of man, Miss Cantwell.”

“But I am correct, am I not?” she asked, staring straight ahead. “Does it amuse you to see me founder like this?”

He lifted a low-hanging branch for her to pass. “It does not amuse me, per se. But I cannot deny it opens an opportunity for me to exploit.”

She cast him a wary glance. “I do not see how you can possibly benefit from my inability to marry.”

“I have been doing some calculations concerning your future circumstances, should you return home at the end of the Season without having secured an engagement.”

“And did those calculations arouse compassion on your part, or scorn?”

“I did note that the sums required to keep all your sisters and yourself in a state of reasonable comfort—a state of minor luxury, one might even say—consist of an amount that is negligible to my ledgers.”

“My, how did I already know that a day’s income for you, sir, would feed, house, and clothe my family for an entire year? It is too bad that rich men do not become—or remain—rich men by rescuing genteelly destitute ladies.”

She could be quite scathing, this girl. He enjoyed that.

“Indeed, rich men do not finance poor ladies out of the goodness of their hearts. However, I could see myself offering a similar sum to you, for a fair return.”

She stared at him.

He had to refrain from smiling. “Keep walking, Miss Cantwell. I see your mind has already gone down one particular direction.”

She resumed putting one foot before the other, though she stumbled a little. “How many directions are there for such things?”

“True, not many. So let me be blunt: I will give you a house, not far from your family’s current residence and superior in every way. It will be yours to do with as you wish, though I recommend putting it up for let, so that it will generate an income in addition to the annuity I will settle on you for the remainder of your life, one thousand pounds a year.”

He had to remind her again to keep walking.

“For…sleeping with you?”

“For the pleasure of your company.”

She looked as if she were barely holding back from whacking him with her parasol. “No.”

Of course she would reject his proposition immediately. Of course she would be offended and outraged. His aim for the day, however, was not instant success, but the planting of the seed of possibility in her mind.

“Why not?” he asked, as if she had turned down not a particularly salacious sale of her person, but merely a chance for a game of lawn tennis.

His question took her aback. When she answered, it was almost a sputter. “I will not sacrifice my reputation. Or disgrace my entire family.”

“Who said anything about loss of reputation? Surely you do not think I aim to make a fallen woman out of a respectable young lady in broad daylight.”

“Then how?”

He had anticipated few moral objections from her. Still, it was heartening how quickly they were moving on to the practical aspects. “Very easily, in fact. I host two house parties a year at my country seat, each one lasting from ten days to two weeks. I will invite you and a chaperone for you—then proceed to keep your chaperone busy.”

She blinked at his facile answer. “What you propose is madness. There is a reason self-respecting young ladies do not consort with gentlemen in such a manner. There are consequences. What if I should become”—she flushed—“with child?”

“Who said anything about acts that would lead to procreation?”

She looked stumped for a moment, then flushed even more furiously. “So we are to engage in unnatural acts, then?”

He laughed softly. “Is that what you call amorous activities that do not result in a self-respecting young lady being in the family way?”

She took a deep breath. Both of her hands gripped the handle of her parasol. “I did not have a high opinion of you before, sir, but even so I could not have expected anything so obscene on your part.”