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“I will do it,” Marina blurted out, breathless. “I will marry you.”

Anthony looked at her, unblinking, his lips parted but saying nothing.

“I am fond of your son,” she added, in case her abruptness led him to change his mind. “He has a curious mind that I should like to indulge. And my uncle did ask me to find a husband, so I daresay this could be a triumph for us both, just as you said.”

He gave a small, steady nod. “That is… good to hear.”

“As long,” she said pointedly, so there could be no misunderstanding, “as it is a marriage of convenience, and you do not sway from the promises you have made.”

Anthony placed a hand upon his heart. “Convenience is all I seek.” He paused. “As such, the same must be true for you.”

“What do you mean?”

His hand fell away from his chest. “Do not ask for more than I have offered.”

“Allow me to be myself and do my work, and you shall hardly notice I am there,” she agreed.

After all, she had read the great philosophers and their opinions of love, and she happened to side with the skeptics. As long as she did not fall for the trick of love, she would never have reason to ask for more than Anthony had offered to give.

“It is settled, then,” he said.

She nodded. “It is settled.”

So please, do stop staring at me so intensely…

If this was to be a success, she reasoned she might have to avoid his lovely green eyes altogether, and definitely put it out of her mind that her betrothed was the most handsome man she had ever seen.

CHAPTER NINE

Ican see why people believed that women healers were witches.

Anthony had not felt so rested in years, and he had not even slept very well. There was a vigor and a liveliness in him that morning that made him feel like he was twenty again: his mind was clear, nothing ached, and he had already taken a long walk through Mayfair though it was not yet eight o’clock.

Now, sitting at his desk, he looked proudly at the stack of letters he had written already. Correspondence that he had struggled over for days, all done in no time at all.

He picked up the bottle of tonic that Marina had given him and held it up to the light. “What on earth is in this?”

Whatever it was, he should have liked crates of the stuff, regardless of how bitter it tasted.

She would be the wealthiest person in England if she sold this.

A knock at the door had him rushing to hide the bottle, as if it were some manner of contraband.

His grandmother entered without waiting for his permission. “I thought I heard someone in here.” She squinted at him. “Are you quite well? You are not usually tending to your work so early.”

“I did not sleep much, so thought I would make myself useful,” he replied. “How is he?”

Harriet moved further into the room and slumped down in the armchair by the fireplace. “Sleeping soundly, thank goodness.”

She had taken Anthony’s place at William’s bedside after returning from a dinner party with old friends. Naturally, she had been aghast to hear what had befallen her great-grandson, fretting over him despite his much-cooled fever, so Anthony had not thought it wise to say anything about the engagement.

“I never thought I would say this, but I am glad you had that audition,” Anthony told her. “If not for your meddling, I might never have known of Miss Longman or her peculiar breadth of knowledge.”

Harriet took off her spectacles and wiped them with a cloth. “I cannot believe I missed it all. The physician’s face, most of all.”

“I did think about sending word to you, but I thought it best not to disturb your evening.”

“Yes, well, you should have disturbed it,” Harriet chided mildly. “Of course, I am relieved that everything seems to be well with William, and that Miss Longman does not merely have an interest in medicine but a talent for it, but I still wish I had been there for my darling boy.”