Page 32
“What does Branick have to do with any of this?” asked Lady Margaret with suspicion.
“I was just thinking that Lord Branick would be overjoyed at the chance to secure both the earldom and the unentailed portion of your father’s fortune. I’m no expert in keeping up an estate, but I imagine that it’ll take all of Holmesfield’s income to manage it and his Jamaica property.”
“What is all this?” asked Mr. Lawrence, speaking up for the first time and sounding more than a little panicked. “Lord Rawson has made clear his intentions to settle the bulk of his unentitled fortune on his daughter. Everyone knows the coal money goes to Maggie.”
“It doesn’t matter, James.” Lady Margaret retreated up a couple of steps to soothe him, the edge of worry unmistakable in her voice.
“Oh, Mr. Lawrence, you’re so amusing,” Jane said with a laugh.
“I didn’t speak in jest,” he said, his eyes burning with anger. “Explain yourself.”
Ambition and greed. Jane had been right all along about what this man was made of. Now, painful as it might be, she needed to make sure that Lady Margaret saw him in all of his avaricious glory. She narrowed her eyes. “Did you really think that the earl wouldn’t alter his will the moment he found out that you two had eloped?”
“Papa wouldn’t,” Lady Margaret protested, but her voice shook.
“Alter his will . . .” Mr. Lawrence said, as though he hadn’t even thought of the possibility.
“Don’t underestimate the anger of a disobeyed father,” said Nicholas next to her, his hand surreptitiously on the small of her back, supporting her. “Especially one who believes that his daughter and his fortune have been stolen out from underneath him.”
Jane smiled her thanks up at Nicholas but, although he returned the gesture, it didn’t reach his eyes. A queasiness began to roil in her stomach, but she wasn’t done with Mr. Lawrence yet.
“So, the question remains, sir, are you willing to risk the possibility that Lady Margaret might be disinherited all for love?”
“He wouldn’t—”
She cut Mr. Lawrence off with a shake of her head. “Would you stake a fortune on that? I imagine it won’t be easy maintaining a lifestyle like yours on virtually no income.”
“James,” Lady Margaret started to protest.
Mr. Lawrence’s lips pressed into a hard line, and Jane knew she’d won before he even spoke.
“He hates me, darling,” the man said. “You know that I can’t wait to be married to you, but there are other things to consider. My debts . . .”
The gall of Mr. Lawrence was something to behold. In the space of a minute he’d gone from allowing his fiancée to fight for him to walking back the very idea of their engagement. The man was every bit the charlatan Lord and Lady Rawson believed him to be. Jane only wished that her charge didn’t have to find out in this manner. No matter the irresponsibility of Lady Margaret and the worry she’d caused, she was still in some ways a naive child. Whether she’d truly believed herself to be in love with Mr. Lawrence or not, no woman should have to witness the treachery of a lover.
“I’ll leave you in the care of Miss Ephram,” said Mr. Lawrence, carefully removing Lady Margaret’s fingers from the sleeve of his coat. “Go to Holmesfield Hall with her, as you planned.”
From the way Lady Margaret’s shoulders sagged, Jane could tell the young lady heard the empty promises wrapped up in those words.
“You’re just leaving the lady?” asked Nicholas.
Mr. Lawrence shot him a contemptuous look as he edged toward the inn’s front door. “This is none of your business.”
“But it’s Miss Ephram’s, and that makes it very much my concern,” he said.
Mr. Lawrence opened his mouth as though to say something, but then snapped it shut and bolted out the door.
“Oh, that blaggard!” Lady Margaret cried.
“Say the word and I’ll run him down,” said Nicholas.
The young lady shook her head. “Let him go.”
“Lady Margaret—” Jane started softly.
At the sound of her name, Lady Margaret’s face molded back into the picture of aristocratic ennui that Jane knew so well. “Let him go,” she repeated with a careless wave of her hand. “It isn’t as though I loved him.”
“You didn’t?” Jane didn’t know whether to be enraged that the young lady had run for Scotland with a man she didn’t really care for or to feel pity that her charge had been desperate enough to marry the man to make her escape.
