Page 6 of The Devil and the Heiress
“Why was he thanking you, Papa?” She glanced down at the paper as if his answer was not the least bit important to her.
“Oh... uh... nothing really.”
“It didn’t sound like nothing. Don’t be so modest.”
“I wrote a recommendation for him so that he could pursue his legal studies.”
A heaviness settled over her. Is that all she had cost? Surely there was more to it than that. “Is that all? He made it seem as if there was more.”
Papa shrugged a shoulder but glanced down, clearly uncomfortable. “Also a small contribution to him.”
“How small?”
He shrugged again.
“Papa?” All pretense at nicety gone, her voice filled with warning.
“His parents had discontinued his allowance because of his poor grades. The boy was nearly a pauper. Don’t worry, darling, it was hardly any amount we’d miss. You’ll finish your Season in style.”
Perhaps it was the last bit that sent her over the edge. Her parents always insisted that their ideas were her own. She wasn’t the one who wanted to accept every single invitation. That was Mother. She wasn’t the one who insisted on a new gown for every dinner and event. That was also Mother. “I do not care about finishing the Season in style.I care about what you demanded from Teddy in exchange for those funds.”
His eyes widened in apparent shock at her forcefulness. She was supposed to be the mild-mannered one. “That is hardly any of your concern.”
“Hardly my concern? You had him withdraw his proposal!”
“It was not a serious proposal.” He sighed, not even bothering to deny it. “He is too young to marry.”
“He was twenty-one on his birthday, barely a year older than I am.”
“And he would not have gone through with it anyway, not without my blessing.”
“But why would you refuse your blessing?”
Sighing again, he took off his reading glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. Finally, he said, “Violet, answer me truthfully. Would you like to marry a man who could so easily be bought away from you?”
The chair was suddenly uncomfortably hard at her back. She shifted like a nervous child. “No, but that isn’t the issue at hand. Why are you so against him?”
“Because he isn’t good enough for you. Frankly, I have received multiple offers for your hand, and Teddy is by far the lowest contender on the list.”
She gasped. “Multiple offers? You have offers aside from the initial one from Rothschild?”
“Of course. His Grace was one of our top choices, but there have been others since and even before Rothschild. All of them titled gentlemen. Not one of them a ne’er-do-well who cannot make the marks needed to keep his university career on track.”
“Are you saying that you are considering these offers?”
“What sort of father would I be if I didn’t?”
“A father who listens to his daughter. Have you considered that perhaps I do not intend to wed yet?”
“No.” He laughed. “Because you decided to betrothyourself to Sutherland, I assumed the state of marriage was something to which you aspired. Was I misguided?”
Anger brought her to her feet. “You might have considered that I loved Teddy.”
He stared at her solemnly. “Do you love him?”
She pressed her lips together so hard that they started to go numb. Teddy had confessed his love to her, but she had never said the words back to him. It wasn’t that she held no affection for him, but the words had never seemed right. “That is hardly any of your concern now, Papa. You are still insistent upon me marrying a nobleman, aren’t you? No matter that I would prefer to return to New York.”
“I did you a favor. Any man who would walk away from you for such a paltry sum does not deserve you.”
