Page 116 of Wild Lily
Leland remained silent.
“I see. Of course.” Julian again, frustrated. “Precisely what he wished. Even after death, they never stop impaling one another!”
She shrank backward.
“Are we certain everyone will attend? I understand you have contagion in the village.”
“We do and yes, they have agreed to come. My estate manager is quite ill. But he will make the effort and arrive to hear the final terms.”
“Lady Carbury, too?”
“Oh, yes,” Julian said, weariness in his words. “My sister brings along the earl. As if he’d let her out of his sight.”
“She’s very unhappy,” Leland said. “I scarcely knew her when I visited last week. She is beside herself. A different person.”
“Yes. From the night he decided to court her, Elanna turned. At the Paris Opera, we were.” Julian cursed beneath his breath. “I wish she hadn’t agreed to wed him. Nothing for it now.”
“Carbury required no dowry. Shocking that.”
“Ugh. Not really, Leland. Carbury wanted only her in his bed.”
“That much desire is not healthy when it’s one-sided.”
Julian sighed. “The crux of their problem.”
“One good thing about tomorrow. Lord Burnett agreed to attend.”
“Ah, my cousin Valentine will be ecstatic if my father has given him that painting of his mother. He’s been after us for years for that. With more money than a choir of angels, he needs only those things he desires. He’ll be over the moon with the gift.”
“And what of the gratuities to the servants?” Leland’s voice was low and troubled. “Can you pay them?”
“I can.”
Julian had not shared with her any of the conditions of his father’s will. Awards of money to the staff was a noble gesture of the late duke whom she never would have thought capable of such kindness.
“Should I ask how you got it?”
Lily would bet it was her marriage settlement.
Julian scoffed. “I didn’t win it at the tables, if that’s what you’re after.”
“Your wife’s dowry then?”
“No.”
No?
“Your Grace, to settle the questions in the City of your finances, I need to know how you got the cash. I daresay it’s not a new mortgage. I would have had to officiate at that.”
“The Irish sale was a boon. But I also had those winnings at cards from the last time I was in Paris. That’s where the money came from to pay Elanna’s debts. And that other money I told you to put aside for her.”
Julian put aside money for Elanna?
“Kind of you to offer her that means of escape,” Leland said with sorrow.
“She took Carbury’s offer too quickly.”
“Yes,” Leland said. “She had to marry, sooner or later. At least she does not bear your financial burden.”
