Page 6 of Ghost of the Ton

“As will the benefactor,” he said, more quietly.

So that was it.

Hamish leaned back in his chair. “Ye have a dying client wishing to act as benefactor.”

“After a fashion,” Stockton replied.

“And the client wishes me to meet him to demonstrate my worth?”

The lawyer shook his head.

“I’ll do anything he wishes,” Hamish said.

“The client’s a young woman.”

“What does she want?” Hamish lifted the glass to his lips for another sip.

“You must marry her.”

Hamish caught his breath as he swallowed a mouthful of brandy. The liquid exploded on his tongue, sending fire through his throat, and he spasmed into a cough as he spluttered droplets onto the papers before him.

The solicitor raised his eyebrows. “I thought you’d be surprised. The marriage will need to take place within the next few days. I’ve already secured leave for a special license.”

Hamish wiped his mouth then set his glass aside. “So soon? If I’m to marry, I should at least get to know the lass.”

“That won’t be possible. My client’s gravely ill and isn’t expected to survive more than a week, at most.”

Sweet Lord Almighty! “Y-ye said she’s a young woman?”

The solicitor nodded, a grave expression in his eyes. “She’s been struck down with smallpox. Her father passed two days ago and the poor girl was too ill to attend the ceremony.”

“Then why…” Hamish made a random gesture in the air.

“She wants her fortune to pass to a better man than her cousin, who, under the terms of the entail, is the sole beneficiary. If she marries, her fortune passes to her husband.”

The solicitor paused, waiting for the obvious question. But Hamish didn’t have the heart to ask it.

“The fortune’s a little over one thousand,” he said. “Not enough to repay all your debts, but it should clear those attracting the highest rates of interest, thereby easing the burden on your estate enough to enable you to clear the remainder of the debts over”—he eyed the papers in front of him—“over the next year. Quicker if you employ thrift.”

“It seems a little callous,” Hamish said.

“Your concern does you credit, Lord MacLennan. But the young woman asked me to find a suitable man and I presented your case to her.” Stockton raised his hand as Hamish leaned forward to respond. “Naturally, I refrained from divulging your name in case you weren’t in agreement. I merely told her that I’d found a young man with some debts in need of settling.” He gave a wry smile. “In that respect, you’re in a similar predicament to her cousin. However, his debts have been incurred through drinking, gaming and”—for the first time, the solicitor’s cheeks colored—“indulging in the baser amusements that London offers a young man who cares only for his own pleasure. You, Lord MacLennan, strike me as a man who, though he may indulge in pleasure himself, does not do so to the detriment of those who depend on him.”

Which was the lawyer’s way of saying, in his pompous, businesslike language, that he was expecting Hamish to spend the funds on his estate, whereas the woman’s cousin would piss, gamble, and fuck it away in London’s dens of iniquity.

“Very well,” Hamish said. “I’m ashamed to say my circumstances are such that I’m obliged to accept such an offer. But what if the young woman…”

What if she survives?

No—he couldn’t bring himself to ask such a question.

“Miss Lucas is already near death,” Stockton said, his voice almost a whisper. “We may already be too late, but she’s determined to survive until her hand, and her fortune, is secured with another. I understand that the prospect may be unsavory to you. But rest assured that marrying Miss Lucas on her deathbed is the greatest service that any man can perform. You’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you granted a dying woman her final wish.”

Miss Lucas.

Hearing her name on the lawyer’s lips brought the circumstances from behind the fog of supposition, to the stark forefront of reality.

The solicitor sighed. “Were she to survive, you’d be a fortunate man to have her for a wife. I would rather she did survive, but I’m instructed to act in a manner which anticipates that outcome not happening.”