Page 5 of The Risk of Rogues
Anne was surprised. The previous Marquess of Knightford had disapproved? Yes, Hart had been ten times above her in consequence and his father would have been conscious of that. Still, didn’t men of rank generally want heiresses for their younger sons? Yet she hadn’t been good enough?
The thought filled her with outrage. Not at his father. Athim. “So, the fact thatmyfather wouldn’t accept your proposal didn’t matter. You were quite happy to elope with me when it merely meant that I would have disappointed and disobeyed my own parents. But once it meant disappointing and disobeyingyourparents—”
“You’re missing the point, Anne. I didn’t give a damn about whom I disappointed.” Bitterness crept into his voice. “I did, however, care whether I could support us. And as I explained in the note you apparently never saw, not to mention all those letters, I could not support us. Because Father said that if we married, he would cut me off entirely. No allowance, no income of any kind. He wouldn’t even have paid for my schooling. We would have been destitute.”
She stared at him. “Ah, I see. Once there was no money from my fatheroryours, you weren’t interested in me. You could have taken a law clerk’s post and continued your studies at a slower pace, while I could have... I don’t know, taken in pupils or—”
“Have you ever taught a pupil in your life?” he snapped. “Ever lived in a seedy part of London because you can’t afford anything better? Your father might just have been a merchant, but he was wealthy and you were gently bred. You weren’t used to working for a living.”
“Neither were you,” she shot back. “That was the crux of it, wasn’t it? You weren’t prepared to consider holding a position or giving up your gambling in order to support a wife.”
A muscle jerked in his jaw. “I wasn’t prepared to consider casting you into poverty. If Father had continued paying for my schooling and allowance, I would have carried you off to Scotland. But he didn’t.” He paced in front of her. “Instead, he ended my education by buying me a commission in an army regiment shipping out for India right away. He knew I couldn’t support a wife on a cornet’s salary, even if the army would have let me take a wife with me.”
A knot of pain tightened around her heart. “He went to great lengths to save you from an unsuitable match.”
He shot her a fierce look. “To save me from the girl Iloved. Because love didn’t matter to him. My father was an arse. If he ever loved my mother, I never saw it.”
That was more than he’d said about his parents the entire time they’d been courting. She didn’t know what to make of it. She didn’t want to believe him. But her heart did. Stupid, foolish heart. After all this time, it still listened to him.
He dragged a hand through his hair, making her ache to step close and smooth it into place. “Anyway, he gave me little choice. So I sent you a note asking you to wait for me. To let me spend a few years building a career in the cavalry so that Icouldsupport us. I promised to come back for you. I figured by then, you’d be old enough and your father would let us marry.”
His gaze turned accusatory. “But you never answered my letters. And when after five agonizing years I returned to England, I couldn’t find you. I asked everyone in Stilford where you’d gone, and all they said was your father had come into an inheritance and moved the family away. No one knew where.”
She sighed. “Because he told no one. I guess he was too embarrassed to admit the truth. Papa used to rail against the nobility—how they were the ruin of the country, how the only people who would save England were its middle class. It was one reason he gave me for refusingyou.Then suddenly he inherited a title, an estate, and a small fortune from some far-distant cousin—but I guess you knew about that already.”
A wary expression crossed his face. “What do you mean?”
“You haven’t once asked how I went from being Miss Barkley to Lady Anne. So you obviously found out who I am now.” As ugly suspicions filled her mind, she choked down bile. “I suppose that’s why you came here. You were hoping to court me again so you could avail yourself of my dowry.”
“What?”Fury flared in his eyes as he marched toward her. “I didn’t give a damn about money when I first asked your father for your hand, or I wouldn’t have suggested that we elope if he didn’t give us permission. So why the hell would I care about it now?”
That excellent point took her aback. “P-perhaps you’ve grown more cynical about what you... need in a wife.”
He cast her a look of scathing contempt. “Since you’ve apparently heard all about me from my sister-in-law and cousins, you surely know of my reputation as a confirmed bachelor. Don’t you think if I’d been fortune hunting, you would have learned of it from someone?”
That was a good point. And she couldn’t deny that he’d seemed shocked to see her again.
He bent close. “Do you want to knowwhyI’m considered a confirmed bachelor? Because you were the only woman I’ve ever wanted to marry. Once there was noyou...” With a huff of disgust, he turned away to gaze out a nearby window.
For a moment, she was taken in. Then she remembered what she’d heard about his reputation. “You expect me to believe that all these years you were away, you were thinking of me and not of the many women you’ve been rumored to have been with?” She snorted. “I daresay you forgot me the moment you left for India.”
“You’re wrong,” he said quietly. “Not a day has gone by that I haven’t wondered what would have happened if I’d taken a chance and married you despite the impediments.” His voice grew choked. “Wondered if you had gone on to marry some richer, better fellow. You want to know how I learned about your becoming Lady Anne? Because I spent the last hour asking about you.”
That made her instantly suspicious. “Askingwhom? No one knows about my past.”
“Truly?” He arched an eyebrow. “Not a single soul in that ballroom knows how your father changed from Merchant Barkley to the Earl of Staunton?”
“Well, there’s Mama, but...” She let out a long breath. “Mama. Of course.Shealways thought Papa was foolish to refuse you. She would tell you anything if she thought it would convince you to renew your affections.”
His skepticism gave way to something that looked oddly like guilt, and then something else. Yearning? “And you? Didyouthink your father was foolish?”
“At the time, yes.”
He stiffened. “But not now that you’re Lady Anne.” His voice held an edge. “I suppose you have higher aspirations these days, given that you haven’t married yet. It’s been, what, six years or more since your father became an earl? Couldn’t find anyone good enough in thetonfor you in all that time?”
The not-so-veiled insult made her wince. “Actually, I only had my come-out two years ago.”
That wiped the resentment from his face. “Why, for God’s sake?”
