Page 4 of Married to the Earl

“Now I’m a criminal?”

“The prices you charge at thatclubof yours certainly are.” O’Flannagan said the wordclubas if it were a poisoned dart. “You’re doubling what your liquor costs before you pass the prices along to your customers. I don’t know how you can sleep at night.”

“You have a nice day, O’Flannagan,” Conor said, turning and heading up the road, away from the Angry Boar and toward his manor.

“Don’t come around here again!” O’Flannagan hollered after him.

It really was exhausting living with a business rival like Killian O’Flannagan.I’d be just as happy never to converse with that man again, Conor thought.He’s certainly the one behind the worst rumors about me.

Like the one about his having inappropriate interactions with women. What a thing to say! What could have caused O’Flannagan to even think of it? Nothing could have been further from the truth, of course. Conor couldn’t even remember the last time he’d spoken to a woman.

And this is almost certainly why, he realized gloomily.Of course, no members of the ton would want to entrust me with their daughters, not if this is the nature of the conversation around my name.

O’Flannagan’s motive had likely had nothing to do with curtailing Conor’s social opportunities. Conor thought it much more likely that his business rival had merely wanted to make women feel unsafe spending time at The Arc.

Itisa rare day that we see a female customer, Conor realized.If that was his plan, it’s working. Women looking for a place to go and socialize will skip The Arc entirely. Any man taking his wife out will go to the Angry Boar instead.

It infuriated him that O’Flannagan’s underhanded strategy was working.

And it frustrated him, too, to realize what this meant for his own social prospects. Conor was not a man who enjoyed attending balls and parties, and he had no way of knowing how long this rumor about his alleged womanizing ways had been circulating.

But even though he didn’t like to attend functions, it had always been his intention to settle down one day. To take a wife, and to raise a family.

How am I going to find someone who wants to pursue a life with me now?he wondered.Any woman I meet will assume I’m after her for nefarious reasons. No one will ever get close enough to me to discover what I’m really like, to actually fall in love.

Would he ever marry?

Right now, walking up the road from his confrontation with Killian O’Flannagan outside the Angry Boar, it seemed unlikely.

So maybe heshouldtry to publicly deny the rumors O’Flannagan was starting. Maybe there would be something to be gained by confronting them head on and letting people know they weren’t true.

No. I don’t care what people think. If they want to indulge in stupid gossip, if they want to believe everything they’re told about a man with absolutely no evidence so be it. Let that be their problem. I’m above all of this. I’m the Earl of Middleborough, for God’s sake.

And besides, The Arc had never been intended as a place for women. O’Flannagan’s tactic of scaring them away was virtually meaningless. The Arc was a gentlemen’s club. There was a reason Conor had never taken special note of the fact that all their patrons tended to be men.

And some of the things O’Flannagan had said might be considered flattering, if looked at in a certain light. He had claimed that Conor was inflating his prices beyond what was justifiable, which was false, but if Conor’s other business rivals got wind of that rumor…well, who knew what might happen?

Maybe they’ll raise their own prices to a level that drives down their business, in an attempt to keep up with what they believe I’m doing,Conor thought.Or maybe they’lllowertheir prices as a means of competing with me. Either way, it could hurt their businesses.

He would never go out of his way to damage anyone else’s business prospects. He wasn’t Killian O’Flannagan. But if people made the decision to buy into idle gossip and used what they heard to determine their business strategies…well, it wasn’t Conor’s responsibility to make sure that nobody ever did anything stupid, was it?

Let the people believe whatever they wanted. If Killian O’Flannagan wanted to fit Conor for a black hat, that was just fine. He would wear it happily so long as his business continued to prosper, so long as his Earldom continued to thrive.

Still,he thought as he reached the walkway leading up to his own front door.It’s very unpleasant to be yelled at in the street. I wouldn’t be sorry to see an end of that.

He made his way inside and up to his library. Closing the door behind him, he took a seat in his favorite old armchair, tipped his head back, and sighed.What a day it’s been.

Lately, it seemed there were more and more like this.

Had he taken on too many responsibilities? Was that the problem? Maybe allowing Henry to take over a greater share of The Arc would solve that for him. He would be able to spend more time alone with his books.

At least they never let me down. At least they never accuse me of being something I’m not.

But maybe Henry was right about one thing. Maybe Conorwouldhave to start socializing a little more with the patrons at his club. Let them see, even if he didn’t care about proving anything to the general public, that he wasn’t the monster Killian O’Flannagan was so obviously trying to paint him as.

No. I shouldn’t have to do that. I don’t care what they think either.

Was that true? Conor examined his thoughts, searching for hurt feelings, for wounded pride.

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