The Substitute Countess. Lyn Stone

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      She didn’t wait for him to start. “Tell me of our family, Cousin Worth. Oh, I forget what’s proper.” She winced prettily at her faux pas. “I should address you as Lord Elderidge.”

      “I told you that Jack will do,” he said with a short laugh. “I’m so unused to the title and it sounds so strange, I might not answer to it.”

      “Then you may call me Laurel if you like. Now tell me, how are we related through our fathers?”

      “We share a great-great-grandfather.” He set the tankard down carefully and smoothed out the tablecloth with the flat of his hand. “Apparently our great-grandfathers were brothers, yours the elder. Their sire was the fourth Earl of Elderidge. Since your father’s passing, I am the only living male descendent, hence the heir.”

      She shook her head. “I still can hardly believe it. Who would have thought? And what of my mother? I have been told nothing of her except that she passed away before I was sent to Spain.” Laurel smiled sadly, staring off into the distance. “Yet it seems I remember her. Small things, you know? The scent of her, her voice…”

      “Wishful dreams, no doubt, and perfectly understandable. Unfortunately, she died when you were born. The story is not a happy one, I fear.” He drew in a deep breath and began to repeat all that Hobson had told him about her parents.

      When he had finished, he drank the remainder of his ale, avoiding her eyes, allowing her time to digest what he had related. She obviously trusted him now, and there was no doubt left in her eyes. The girl was an open book, there for the reading. Her naïveté troubled him, even if it did work to his advantage.

      Jack had more to say and needed to get it said. He had only days to accomplish what he must. Might as well be blunt, he reasoned, so he simply stated it without preamble. “We should marry, Laurel.”

      She almost choked on her wine. “What?”

      Jack wondered what devil urged him to shock her out of that overly tranquil demeanor of hers and stoke the hidden fire he knew was there.

      He cleared his throat and looked away, staring unseeing, at the doorway. “Look, I should have waited, made better arrangements beforehand, but when I learned of you, I felt this great need to come and bring you home, to offer you my protection.” He shook his head. “Familial duty seemed paramount at the time, above sensible preparation.”

      “Preparation?” Though she appeared a bit rattled, he watched her draw on some inner calm and reserve that he almost envied. And somehow craved to dispel.

      “Yes, well, we are to travel together now. As you pointed out, the two of us alone, with no female to accompany you, either here or onboard the ship. I have realized that once we reach England, your reputation will be in tatters unless we are wed.”

      “That’s absurd!” Now her color was high, her spirit almost showing itself again. “I hardly know you! You cannot expect me to—”

      “Don’t you see? It’s for your own good, Laurel. Aside from keeping your good name, there are other very important considerations.”

      “Such as?” she asked, frowning.

      He looked into her eyes, holding her gaze with his as he reached for her hand. “You know no one in England. Every female must be under some man’s protection all the while, for that is the law. You could not find employment without proper references. You cannot live alone.”

      She remained silent, taking in his explanation and assessing it, probably trying to think of alternatives.

      He added the clinching argument. “And if your reputation is sullied in any way, as it would already be if we arrived together unmarried, you can never hope to make a decent match or be accepted in society, even at a lower order. So you see, this is the best way, the only way, really.”

      He plowed right ahead. “As for me, I would not be much affected. Some might term me the despoiler of an innocent, but men are seldom ostracized for that. Even so, I would hate the accusation. But you would be considered beyond the pale, quite unsuitable for any man of decent birth, even though nothing inappropriate had ever happened between us.”

      “You said yourself we are cousins. There are laws…”

      “The king himself wed his first cousin. The Regent did likewise. Ours is not a close kinship at all, regardless of the fact that we share a surname. Perfectly legal, I promise you. We won’t even need dispensation.”

      She studied him for long moments before speaking. “And yet your eyes tell me you do not like what you view as the necessity of wedding me, Jack. Is that due to my mother’s… unfortunate past?”

      “No! Absolutely not,” he rushed to assure her. “And I’m fine with a marriage of convenience. Really.” He shrugged and smiled. “One must marry, after all. This sort of union is quite the thing in English society, done all the time.”

      She inclined her head and paused as if considering that. Finally she spoke again. “That’s true in Spain, as well. I’ve led a sheltered life, Jack, however reading materials were never in short supply at the convent and the nuns are a great deal more worldly than one might imagine. Few of the girls schooled there would stay on, so they had to be made aware of what to expect. The ways of the outside world are not completely foreign to me.”

      “Then you must admit, though we aren’t well acquainted yet, this is our best solution.”

      She worried her bottom lip with small white teeth as she frowned. “I never expected to marry for love. In fact, I never expected to marry.” She added after a short hesitation, “Now I suppose I shall wed, after all.”

      “So you do not object?” he asked, almost wishing that she would. He had more arguments prepared. How could she simply accept his suggestion with such calmness and practicality? There should be some fiery debate over the matter, surely.

      “I have no objection on the face of it.” She withdrew her hand and sat back in her chair. “All my life I have dreamed of family, given the absence of one. A husband, children, a home of my own were simply an impossible fantasy I seldom entertained. It seemed so far-fetched, I never even bothered to pray for it. Now here you are, offering all of it on a silver plate.”

      “There’s no need to decide on the instant,” he said as the innkeeper approached with a tray. “And here is our food. For now, let’s get you fed.” He watched as she closed her eyes, moved her lips in a silent grace and crossed herself.

      Would religious differences cause a problem with what he had planned? Perhaps he was borrowing stumbling blocks. Or searching for some. Damn, but he hadn’t expected it to be this easy.

      Instead of pursuing his thoughts on that, he watched her eat. She tucked into the meal like a sailor on shore leave after a long voyage. “Didn’t Orencio feed you?” he asked before thinking how it sounded, that she might think he was criticizing her manners.

      She pulled a wry face. “I had little time to eat in peace while I was there. The lads I tended were prone to food fights.”

      “A handful, eh? Tell me about them.” Women loved to talk about themselves, he knew, so he deliberately provided the opportunity. Calculating, the way he had been doing since they met, seemed unnatural to him, but also necessary.

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