Page 95 of The Truth About Lord Stoneville
She stared at him incredulously.Nowthe real Nathan came out. All this time she’d believed him to be her friend, a man who understood why she wasn’t like other women. But the truth was, he’d always tried to suppress whatever he saw as improper in her. He’d done it in little ways—an admonition here, a disapproving smile there—but disapproval had always lain beneath their easy relationship.
If she were honest, she’d admit that he’d never approved of her the way she was. Only Oliver had done that.
The thought of Oliver roused a powerful yearning to seehim. She could almost hear the cynical remarks he would make about Nathan; then he would tell her she deserved better. She would know he meant every word, because for all Oliver’s faults, for all his reticence about his past, he’d never lied to her.
“You have no idea how glad I am that I didnotstay home,” she said softly. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have discovered how utterly unsuited we are to marry.”
He shook his head. “You’re wrong. You’re just angry right now.” He reached up as if to caress her cheek, but when she recoiled, his expression hardened. “We’re still legally betrothed. If you break it off because of some silly petulance over Miss Kinsley, you’ll force me to take action.”
Her pulse pounding in her ears, she stared at him. “What do you mean?”
Determination glinted in his eyes. “I’ll sue you for breach of promise. The court will be very understanding when I point out that your father wanted us to marry, you agreed to the betrothal, and only a fit of pique has you refusing me. I’ll regale them with stories of all I did to enhance the company’s worth. I can keep the company’s assets tied up in the courts for some time. Is that what you want?”
“How dare you?” she cried, appalled that he would even try such a thing. “And what aboutyourfraudulent behavior, making business deals based on a lie? What do you think the courts will say to that?”
“They won’t even blink,” he said coolly. “There’snothing illegal about a man setting up another company. I had to protect my own interests. I’ll say I kept your father out of it for his own good, which is the truth.”
“It is not! You operated behind his back.That’swhat you did.”
“You can’t prove that. He’s dead. I could argue that he consented to the subterfuge.”
“You know perfectly well he did not,” she said, shocked by his utter lack of ethics. “What sort of man are you?”
His eyes glinted with determination. “The sort of man who wants a chance. Who still wants you for his wife.”
Oliver’s words of a week ago leapt into her memory:I’m watching you head blithely for a marriage to some fellow who will set you up on a shelf with his other possessions, and take you down only when he has a use for you.
“You don’t wantmefor a wife. You don’t even know who I am. You want the daughter of Adam Butterfield, half owner of New Bedford Ships.”
“Think what you wish. But if you take this hasty action and bring lawyers into it, you’d better be prepared for a battle.”
She glared at him. “Go to hell.”
While he was still gaping at her over her scandalous language, she walked out.
But even as she congratulated herself for giving him what for, her practical side pointed out that everything was in his favor. She knew how easily a man could blacken a woman’s reputation. And once the court learned of herodd “betrothal” to Oliver, any sympathy for her over Nathan’s ignoring her for months would evaporate.
A chill swept through her. She glanced at Mr. Pinter, who walked silently beside her. “Can he really sue me for breach of promise?”
“I’m afraid so. I know of at least one case in America where a man sued and won a large settlement.”
“He can’t take my half of the company from me, can he?”
“It’s possible. He’ll argue that he had every expectation of receiving it upon his marriage to you, and that by refusing the marriage you originally contracted for, you deprived him of what was promised to him.”
Her stomach twisted into a knot. “But won’t his fraud sway the court?”
Mr. Pinter grimaced. “As he said, you can’t prove he wasn’t acting on your father’s behalf.”
Despair gripped her. “But surely it would hurt his plans with Mr. Kinsley to have it be known that he had a fiancée the entire time he was courting Miss Kinsley.”
“The deal isn’t set yet, and he has no chance of it being so without your half of the company, which I daresay he lacks the blunt to buy. So if he can’t have your half through marriage, he means to get it through treachery. It’s his only choice, if you refuse to marry him. He’ll blacken your name to get what he wants.”
“And he’ll use my public betrothal to Lord Stoneville to bolster his case.”
“Most likely. Unfortunately, the court disapproves of jilts.”
They walked on in silence.
