Page 94 of His Lordship's True Lady
Lily read the message three times and turned the page just as Oscar came up on her elbow. “Should I purchase your morning gift from among this inventory?” He snatched the book from her. “Travel stories? Perhaps you’d like a wedding journey?”
Lily took the book back and set it on a shelf between a stuffed bear and a stuffed horse. Rosecroft’s message had said to delay at all costs.
“I’m more concerned with where the happy couple will live,” Lily said. “What have you and Uncle decided?”
“Decided?” Oscar had lowered his voice, as if Lily had brought up a great scandal.
“Let’s discuss this in the coach.” Lily prayed the shop owner was eavesdropping as she tallied a purchase for another customer. “I can come back tomorrow morning to browse at greater length if the weather is too dreary to begin my day riding in the park.”
“Your infernal racketing about will stop when we’re married.” Oscar tipped his hat to the shop girl and held the door for Lily.
So polite while others were watching, and so intent on ruining Lily’s future.
“What do you expect me to do all day, Oscar? Sit about embroidering your initials onto my handkerchiefs?”
“Heavens, no. You’ll be too busy embroidering them on mine.” He handed her into the coach, smiling as if he’d made a joke.
Lily settled on the bench and pulled the shade down. “Oscar, please tell me you’ve at least read the settlements before you speak your vows. I do have paternal family, and they will expect that much of you if you’re determined to keep them from seeing to my welfare. What do the agreements say about my pin money, for example?”
Oscar had taken the place beside Lily, and again, she allowed it. Make small concessions, Jacaranda had said.
“Why do you need pin money?” Oscar asked. “Papa pays all of your bills.”
“As my husband, that responsibility will fall exclusively to you. I’m also curious about where we’ll live and how many servants you expect us to have.”
He raised the shade on his side of the coach and peered out the window. “We’ll live with Papa, of course. Lovely house, discreet staff. Excellent address.”
“All very true. Uncle does have a lovely house, a discreet staff, and an excellent address.”
The coach pulled into the street, while Oscar left off gawking to scowl at her. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“This coach is Uncle’s.” And while the exterior of the coach was beautifully maintained, the velvet on the interior was growing worn.
“And?”
“And the clothes I wear were bought with his money, designed with his fashion preferences in mind. The menus are prepared for him. The flowers on our table are chosen to suit his whims, when we have flowers.” Which was never, lately.
“What do I care for a lot of wilting posies? I’ll be a husband, and that has certain benefits.”
Good God, could he think of nothing else?“You will have certain responsibilities too, Oscar. Under English law, you are responsible for your wife’s well-being. You must keep her fed, clothed, housed, and cared for. You, not your father. If he tosses us out the day after the wedding, how will you meet those obligations, much less pay your own bills? I can prevail on my friends to get me to my ducal relations in Ireland, but who will take you in?”
Oscar shined his mermaid’s breasts again. “I have friends, but Papa will never cast me out. This whole conversation is ridiculous.”
Wasn’t it just?“Oscar, a university-educated, married man who has no grasp of the financial arrangements surrounding his nuptials is the embodiment of ridiculous. You have the ability to keep my fortune in the Leggett family and keep the Fergusons from nosing about in Uncle’s business. If I marry anybody else, Uncle doesn’t get what he wants. Make him give you what you want and what you deserve for speaking vows with a woman you do not love.”
Oscar patted her knee, and Lily nearly jumped out of the coach. “I don’t hate you, and I do esteem the notion of a wedding night in the very near future. You’ve given me something to think about.”
“Think long and hard, Oscar. Refuse to speak the vows unless your future is settled along with my own. You’re giving up a lot to accommodate the father who hasn’t seen fit to share the smallest of his business endeavors with you.”
Oscar used the handle of his walking stick to hook Lily’s chin and turn her face to his. Even the warmth of his residual body heat against her cheek made her flesh crawl.
“Try to come between my father and me, and you’ll regret it, Lily. I know what you’re about, hoping to put off the inevitable. I’ll read the settlements, and I’ll make sure my own interests are protected. Your safest course is to align yourself with me. I’m prepared to be a fair, decent husband, provided you don’t give me any trouble.”
As Walter Leggett had been a fair, decent uncle—keeping Lily all but a prisoner to his ambitions.
“Read the settlements. After the wedding it will be too late to bargain, and you know it.”
“What I know is that I’ve recently come into seventy-eight pounds in winnings at the hazard table. While you’ve been trying to curry favor with friends in the park, I’ve been bestirring myself to enjoy my mornings at home.”
