Page 31 of Scandalous Heiress
Ezzie shot up from her settee and marched to the window, hands to the sill.“He’s down there, talking with his mother in the garden.Oh, hell.He must know.She must be telling him that my mother has not come.”
“The duchess knows your mother will not arrive?”
“Mother wrote that she sent a note to her.With apologies, as if that matters.”
Her Grace, the duchess of Brentwood, stood on ceremony with any and all…except it seemed with her son, Victor.
Ezzie shook her head.“What if Richard insists on meeting Papa?What if he takes their absence as reason not to make an offer?”
The society sheets are filled with all the ways Ridgemont could outrage society more than he already has.“He’d be a cad not to do it now.”
Ezzie whirled around to face her.“Darling Ada,he is a cad.”
Ada sucked in a breath.
“Meanwhile, I am not without a few brains.”
“That’s the right idea.”
She crossed her arms.“What if he thinks my parents have decided I’m not good enough for him?”
“Oh, no, Ezzie.If there’s any thought along that line it’s that he thinks they’ve decidedhe’snot good enough foryou.”
Ezzie squeezed shut her eyes.“I want him.”
To that, Ada had no appropriate response.
“One thing’s for certain.”
“Yes?”
“He must want my dowry.”
There it was, the factor that tied every heiress in knots and bound quite a few into lifelong bondage to a man they hated.Even some young women who had no money but standing, like her brother-in-law Julian’s sister Elanna, were forced to endure marriage to a man they loathed.That woman, wed to an older richer man four years ago because she had no dowry to commend her, created a scandal when she had left him more than two years ago.She lived alone in London.Her husband had demanded their baby son remain with him—and Elanna had agreed.Whispers hinted that she had taken a lover.Ada had even witnessed her husband, the earl of Carbury, accost her one afternoon in Half Moon Street, demanding she return home.Elanna had laughed in his face and marched away.On countless occasions, Julian had tried to talk sense into his sister, but she refused at every turn.He was at a loss for any remedy to their estrangement.But Ada’s entire family had observed numerous explosive scenes of Carbury’s resentment and Elanna’s refusal to return to her husband and child.
No matter the cost to her pride or her future happiness, Ezzie could not be dissuaded from her hope to wed Richard.If money could buy him, she’d purchase him.“If that’s all he wants, then you have the right to make him discuss it.”
“Money?”
“Why not?He’ll be using yours.Why should you not learn how?”
“But I don’t care how.”
“Of course you do.He must use it on you.Your children.Your house.Your—”
“My pride.”Her friend threw up her hands.“Don’t you see, Ade?I want him to wantme.My problem is he seems to wanteveryone!”
“You don’t have to accept him.”Or consign yourself to a life half-lived with a man who will never be faithful.
“And just whom would I marry, hmm?”
“Ezzie, please.”
“You and I have met every single man in the British Isles under age sixty with teeth still in their head and walking upright.Not one has asked for my hand.Not one!”
“You are young.”
“Twenty-two.Nearly done for.Stick a lily in my hand.”
