Page 5 of A Marriage of Convenience (Millcastle #5)

CHAPTER FIVE

“S he isn’t an acceptable bride.” Charles faced his father in his study. “We have nothing in common, she is obviously terrified of me, and has been coerced into accepting this alliance by her overbearing mother.”

His father shrugged. “Miss Barton will do as she is told. That is all I require of you as well.”

“She’s barely seventeen! I’m twice her age.”

“And she’ll have years to breed me an heir.” His father frowned. “Why are you being so difficult? You know the consequences of a refusal to do my will.”

Charles walked away from his father to look out of the window. His mother hadn’t taken part in the grand dinner organized for Miss Barton and her parents. She was in one of her more exhausted moods and didn’t have the energy to leave her room. Charles knew from experience that nothing would tempt her out of bed. Expecting her to rush to his defense over the matter of an arranged marriage would involve complex explanations that hinged on her own fate. He would never put her through that.

“There has to be someone else.”

His father sighed. “You are being unreasonable. There are very few families willing to allow their precious daughters to ally with you.”

“I would’ve thought your family name would be enough, sir.”

“Your reputation as a wastrel is well known.”

Charles swung back to face his father. “A reputation I shed after I went to India and came back to train in a real and meaningful profession.”

“Not entirely. Your debts speak for themselves.”

“I’ve been paying them down ever since I started to earn an income.”

His father went to his desk and sat down. “I think a three-month courtship and a wedding in the autumn would be sufficient, yes? You can return next week and propose. I’ve had your mother’s engagement ring cleaned and reset.”

“Or you’ll do what? Throw my mother into a madhouse?” Charles asked. “Do you think society will allow you to do that without condemnation? I can assure you I won’t remain quiet and will do everything in my power to help her leave you.”

His father smiled. “If you attempt any such thing, I’ll move her to a new location, and you will be the last person on earth to know where she is.” He sat back. “You have lost this round, Charles. Admit it, marry the girl, and all will be forgotten and forgiven.”

Charles turned on his heel and left, slamming the door hard behind him. He marched into the entrance hall where Miss Evans was just descending the stairs. She still wore the plain brown silk gown she’d donned for dinner. She took one look at his face and came over to him.

“Is everything all right?”

He took hold of her elbow and led her into the rarely used morning room just off the hall. He closed the door and leaned against it.

“I have something to tell you in confidence.”

“Does it concern your mother?” Miss Evans asked. “Because I have become aware of various ‘narratives’ in the servants hall that have caused me some unease.”

“My father is thinking of having her confined in a private home for distressed gentlewomen.”

Miss Evans briefly pressed her fingers to her lips and then met his gaze with a calmness he could only admire. “Ah, that makes sense of the whisperings I have heard. Why now? She has been remarkably stable for months.”

“He intends to use her confinement as a threat against me if I do not marry as directed.”

“Hence the appearance of Miss Barton and her unpleasant mother.” She nodded. “I did wonder about the purpose of this dinner party.”

“I am attempting to find a solution and having an ally such as yourself would prove very useful.”

“I am more than willing to help, sir. I am very fond of your mother.”

“And she of you,” Charles said. “I would appreciate it if you could write to me if anything… untoward happens while I am not here to stop it.”

“I will do my best, Dr. Nash.” She hesitated. “I would be more than willing to accompany her if she needs to leave in a hurry at your direction.”

“I hope it will not come to that.” He stepped away from the door. “You have my new address in Millcastle?”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Then we will do our best to salvage this appalling situation.”

She headed for the stairs beside him while the servants continued to return the dining room to its usual pristine state. He bade her goodnight on the first landing and retired to his bed, almost too angry to think, but grateful at least to have one ally in the house.

He didn’t bother to ring for the servant his father provided for him on his visits and undressed himself. If he didn’t come up with a solution, in a week’s time he would find himself engaged to Miss Barton and married before the end of the year.

* * *

Alice and Ruby alighted from the carriage in front of sturdy brick building on the corner of a new road leading down to the station. It was three stories high with a slate roof, sashed windows, and a side entrance leading to a cobbled stable yard and some outbuildings.

“I sent a message to Dr. Nash that we would be visiting him today. I do hope he is at home.” Alice knocked on the door. “I wonder if he has employed any staff to manage his house?”

As a shirt-sleeved Dr. Nash opened the door to them himself, Ruby guessed not.

“What is it now? Haven’t I told you to use the rear door into my consulting rooms?” He looked his usual arrogant self, his expression not entirely welcoming as he barked the question. He recoiled the moment he recognized them. “Mrs. Hepworth, Miss Delisle. I do apologize.” He gestured for them to enter. “Please come in.”

The house smelled pleasantly of fresh paint, plaster, and new floorboards. Ruby glanced into the two spacious rooms at the front and noted Dr. Nash had almost no furniture.

“I’ll have to entertain you in the kitchen, as the rest of the house isn’t yet habitable.” Dr. Nash kept talking as he walked along the central corridor. “Please come through.”

Alice looked around as she untied the ribbons of her bonnet. “We do have some furniture we no longer use in the attics, Dr. Nash. You are more than welcome to whatever you need, and I’ll have it delivered.”

Dr. Nash set the kettle to boil on the stove and put on a coat that had been draped over a chair. “That’s very kind, but you’ve done more than enough for me already.”

“Where are the cups?” Ruby asked.

“In the cupboard beside the sink.” Dr. Nash was busy spooning tea into the pot. “I think I have at least three.”

There were exactly four cups, four plates, four bowls, and very little else.

“Have you not found someone to manage your house for you yet?” Alice asked as she found the covered milk jug, sniffed it, and hastily set it down again.

“I haven’t had time to look.” Dr. Nash turned to look at them. “And I must admit that I have no idea how to go about hiring staff in the first place.”

“I can?—”

Dr. Nash spoke over Alice. “As I’ve said you’ve done enough. I’m certain I have the intelligence to work it out for myself. It can’t be that hard.”

“You’d be surprised.” Ruby set the cups on the table as Dr. Nash filled the teapot with the boiling water. “And if you require someone to help you with your medical practice, they’ll have to be properly trained.”

Dr. Nash raised his eyebrows. “I don’t suppose you want a job, Miss Delisle? I suspect you’d make an admirable and formidable secretary.”

“Don’t be silly, Doctor.” Alice laughed. “Ruby doesn’t need to work. She has her daughter to bring up and many important family obligations.”

Ruby tried to smile as Dr. Nash poured the tea and offered them milk, which they both declined. Her main family obligation consisted of dealing with a parent who constantly lamented her shortcomings as an unmarried mother with no financial expectations and prophesized the worst for her. Caroline and Ivy tried to provide errands and tasks to keep her occupied, but in truth, she was bored.

Her family had saved her life and that of her daughter, and at some level she was ungrateful, which was appalling.

Alice was speaking again. “If you don’t wish to accept my offer of help, perhaps you might speak with Mr. Totton? He is extremely good at managing staff and properties.”

“That is an excellent suggestion, ma’am.” Dr. Nash sat down, sipped his tea, and shuddered. “The milk is off.”

He got to his feet, poured the contents of his cup down the sink, and refilled it from the pot. A beam of sunlight penetrated the dirty windows and shone onto his head, revealing hints of brown in his black hair. Ruby noticed his shirt needed darning and that two of the buttons at his cuff were in danger of falling off.

“I should thank you for the tea as well, ma’am.” Dr. Nash cupped his large hands around his mug. “The hamper you sent me from Leeds had all the necessities a man could ever need.”

“You are most welcome, Dr. Nash. My husband wants you to settle in Millcastle.” Alice set down her cup and looked at Ruby. “Would you mind waiting here while I run a quick errand across the street? It is not that I don’t require your company, but the person I’m visiting is rather shy and currently bedridden.”

“Then I assume it’s not your husband,” Dr. Nash said, his gaze fixed on Ruby as if he was seeing her for the first time. “I’ll take good care of Miss Delisle, ma’am, don’t you worry.”

“Thank you.” Alice picked up her bonnet. “Miss Pimms lives very close by. I won’t be a moment.”

Her exit left a sudden silence Ruby had no intention of filling with idle chat. In truth, she was enjoying sitting at the scarred pine table with Dr. Nash, who had no expectations of her whatsoever.

He sipped his tea and then set his mug down on the table with a decisive thump.

“Miss Delisle, I’m not sure how to approach this subject, but I am quite desperate.”

Ruby blinked at him. “I beg your pardon?”

He raised his dark gaze to meet hers. “I am in need of a wife.”

“It would certainly solve your current domestic issues,” Ruby agreed as she looked around the sparse kitchen. “Do you want me to draw you up a list of eligible young ladies?”

“I believe I’ve already found the person who would fulfill my requirements.”

“Then propose to her. You’re a doctor, you have a settled income, a respectable profession, and from the sound of your accent, a family somewhere who will eventually leave you money.”

“As you wish.” He took a quick breath. “Miss Delisle, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

Ruby nodded encouragingly. “That’s exactly how you should do it.”

“Then you accept?” He sat back. “I thought it would be much harder than this. I have a whole list of arguments lined up to convince you to become my wife.”

Ruby’s mouth fell open. “You are jesting.”

“No, I’m very serious. If I don’t find myself a wife within the next month, my father will force me to marry a seventeen-year-old.”

“He cannot force you,” Ruby objected. “You are a grown man.”

His mouth set in a hard, uncompromising line. “Let’s just say that he can, because he is a complete bastard who knows exactly how to compel my obedience.”

Ruby folded her arms over her chest. “This is ridiculous.”

“I agree, but I am still asking you to marry me.”

She stared at his resolute expression. “Perhaps you should go through your list of arguments.”

His brows drew together. “I fully intended to when you confused me by appearing to agree with me and accepted my proposal!”

Ruby waved his objections aside. “Please, carry on.”

“As I said, my father wishes me to marry a girl I’ve only met once, and I don’t wish to do that. There are personal reasons why I cannot simply ignore his machinations. I’ve been racking my brains to come up with a solution to my problems. When Mrs. Hepworth mentioned your capabilities, it occurred to me that we might work to help each other.”

“How so?”

“We marry, which will get my father off my back.”

“And what do I gain from this unholy alliance?”

He shrugged. “Freedom to have your own home, respectability, a father for your child, and the opportunity to be my helpmate?”

Ruby studied him. “Why would you think those things were important to me?”

His eyebrows shot up. “Because I am more aware than most of the restrictions society imposes on women such as yourself.”

“An unmarried woman with a child.”

“Correct.”

“But how would marriage set me free?”

“I have a high opinion of your intelligence, Miss Delisle, so I think you already know the answer to that. I am more than willing to discuss terms.” He turned toward the door. “I hear Mrs. Hepworth returning. Will you think about what I’ve said and let me know if you are agreeable?”

Ruby barely had time to nod before Alice came into the kitchen full of apologies. They prepared to leave, and as they went through the narrow hallway, Ruby tugged on Dr. Nash’s coat sleeve. “Will you be at dinner tonight?”

“I intend to be there unless my work calls me away, why?”

“Because I might wish to discuss this matter further.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” He looked down at her, his expression serious, his voice pitched low. “I don’t have much time to dither on this matter.”

“Then I will do my best to give you an answer as swiftly as possible.”

Ruby stepped up into the carriage, and Alice, who was already seated, looked at her closely.

“You appear to be in somewhat of a daze, Ruby. What on earth did Dr. Nash say to you while I was gone?”

“He asked me to marry him.”

“My goodness!” Alice sat up straight. “And what did you say?”

“I asked him for time to think about it.”

“A reasonable request when his proposal was apparently unexpected.” Alice paused. “Some might say he would be a good match. Both Caroline and I thought he was attracted to you.”

“I know almost nothing about him.”

Alice smiled. “I knew very little about my husband-to-be, but I was willing to take a chance. For some reason I trusted him implicitly.”

“Mr. Hepworth is a man of his word.”

“As is Dr. Nash. Elijah thinks very highly of him.”

“But is that enough? I don’t know anything about his past, his family, or why he turned up in Millcastle in the first place. And all he knows about me is that I am an unmarried mother and a disgrace to my family.”

“You are not a disgrace,” Alice said swiftly. “You were abandoned by a wicked man.”

There was a lot Ruby wanted to say about Alice’s condemnation of Sidney, but what was the point?

“Dr. Nash would give you respectability and some measure of independence,” Alice said carefully. “Having grown up in a socially precarious position, myself, I feel I have the right to say that to you even if it is rather blunt.”

“I appreciate your advice.” Ruby nodded. “Currently, I am dependent on my sisters and mother for my upkeep, housing, and the shreds of my reputation. But would marrying Dr. Nash improve my lot or make it worse?”

Alice sat back. “If I was in your position, I would listen to what Dr. Nash has to say and make up my own mind.”

Ruby nodded, her thoughts swirling in her head with a thousand questions and possibilities. To say that Dr. Nash had taken her by surprise was an understatement. She’d believed there was only one path for her life, and he’d presented her with an entirely unexpected alternative.

But was he trustworthy? Ruby gazed unseeingly out of the window as the carriage left Millcastle and turned out onto the county road that led to Grafton Hall. She had staked her future and reputation on Sidney’s professions of honesty, which had led to her current state of uncertainty and dependency on others. But could she form a pact with Dr. Nash that could benefit them both? As Alice had suggested, talking the whole preposterous proposal through with Dr. Nash seemed the only way forward.

* * *

Charles barely noticed what he ate for dinner or what he contributed to the conversation. Finally, he and Francis were left alone at the table after the ladies withdrew. He’d been far too aware of Ruby Delisle sitting quietly beside her sister and her inability to meet his gaze. Had she already decided he was not worth the effort? He almost couldn’t blame her. His desperate plea for help had surprised even him and seemed more absurd the longer he thought about it.

After a short while, his host stopped talking, lit a cigar, and offered him one.

“Your mind is obviously occupied with loftier thoughts then my mutterings about the current state of the country, Nash.”

“I do apologize.” Charles refused the cigar. “I had no intention of?—”

Francis waved his apology away. “If you have more important matters to attend to, please go ahead. I am the last man on earth to take offense.”

“I appreciate your consideration.” Charles rose to his feet. “Thank you. I have some patient notes to write up before I forget what transpired.”

“Then get to it, man.” Francis nodded through a cloud of smoke. “Don’t forget to make your excuses to the ladies before you disappear. Caroline was complaining that she barely sees you these days.”

“I will certainly do that.” Charles headed for the door. “Goodnight, my lord.”

“Francis will do perfectly well.”

“Thank you, I’ll try to remember that.”

Would his host withdraw that familiarity when he realized Charles was attempting to persuade his sister-in-law to marry him? With Grafton’s notoriously unpredictable temperament, one could never be sure.

Charles headed for the drawing room where he found Miss Delisle seated by herself by the fire. She wore a high-necked, plum-colored gown and had a paisley shawl around her shoulders. Her hair was in braids and coiled high on her head.

She looked up when he came in and offered him a slight smile. “Caroline is in the nursery. She’ll be down when she’s finished settling the children.”

“I didn’t want to speak to her.” Charles held her gaze. “I wondered if you’d had any more thoughts about our earlier conversation.”

She rose to her feet. “Shall we find somewhere more private to talk? There is a morning room at the end of the passageway that almost no one uses.”

“As you wish.”

He followed her down the badly lit corridor toward the older part of the house—he had to bend his head to avoid the low-beamed doorways—and into a small, limewashed chamber. He took a moment to light some of the candles from the embers of the banked fire and set them on the oak chest beside the door.

She turned to face him, her expression calm but determined. “If your father wants you marry this particular girl then surely marrying me won’t solve your problems.”

“I don’t think it matters whom I marry,” Charles said carefully. “He just wants the family line to continue beyond me.”

“Why?”

“Because I am a disappointment to him. He wishes to erase me, take control of my son, and raise him properly.” He considered what to say next. “He believes my mother spoiled and ruined me.”

“He sounds appalling.”

“He is.” Charles shrugged. “Although, if you asked him, he’d say that he was merely doing his duty to his family.”

“Are you quite sure you can’t simply defy him and not marry at all?”

“Quite sure.”

He had no intention of telling her about his mother or his debts if he could help it. Some things were too personal to share even with a potential wife. And, if she agreed to marry him, and his father left things alone, there would be nothing to tell.

She took a short turn around the room and came back to him, her arms folded across her chest.

“I know very little about you.”

He leaned back against the door. “I might say the same about you.”

“You know I have a child born out of wedlock and that I had to throw myself on the mercy of my sister to survive.”

He inclined his head. “Yes, but none of that makes me see you in a bad light.”

“I have an illegitimate child .”

“And I’m a doctor. You’re not the first unmarried and abandoned mother I’ve encountered.” Her brows drew together, and he hastened to continue. “If I were to be blunt, I’d say my father would consider your… proven fertility a bonus.”

She stared at him, and he reluctantly kept going.

“If you wish to know more about me, I grew up in Yorkshire, went to Harrow and Eton, and then into the army where I served in India. I met Viscount Grafton-Wesley at some point, and we remained friends. When I returned to England, a legacy from my godmother allowed me to resign my commission and pay for my medical training in Edinburgh.” He paused. “My father wasn’t happy about my decision, and we became estranged.”

“Do you have a mother or any siblings?”

“I had an older brother who died about two years ago. My mother is still alive, although not in the best of health.”

“Does she have no say about whom you marry?”

“None at all. My father makes such decisions. Asking for her support when she has never been able to stand against him would be pointless and detrimental to her continued good health.”

Ruby nodded. “My mother has never been a reliable source of comfort to any of us, but more through her own selfishness than anything else.”

“I understand that Mrs. Delisle expects you to live with her at your sister Ivy’s and manage her household and children.” He couldn’t help but notice her slight shudder, which gave him the courage to continue. “If you wish for a life that is independent of your mother and sisters’ goodwill, I can provide it. You can choose to be my wife in name only and benefit from a home of your own, a husband who will respect you, and who will treat your child like his daughter.”

“What if I don’t love you?”

He shrugged. “I’m not pretending to be in love with you. I am proposing a practical arrangement to suit us both based on respect and a desire to work together for our mutual benefit.”

She looked up at him. “I have no money to bring into the marriage.”

“My profession should ensure us a decent standard of living, and I have a monthly income from my grandmother’s estate to allow for the small luxuries of life. I will, of course, give you a housekeeping allowance and pin money for your own use.” He met her gaze. “I’m not the kind of man who expects a woman to account for every penny.”

She walked away from him again and stood looking out of the window.

“What happens if we find out we loathe each other?”

“Then we lead separate lives as do most married couples I know.”

She looked over her shoulder at him, her expression grave. “You would not interfere with how I brought my daughter up?”

“Only if you tried to train her for the circus or sell her off to a chimney sweep.” He paused. “Is it possible that her father might return and want her back?”

“It is extremely unlikely.”

“He is still alive, I take it?”

“I haven’t heard otherwise, but as I am no longer in Leeds, I probably wouldn’t know.” She took a deep breath and finally turned to face him. “I can’t think of any other questions to ask, and yet I’m sure there must be a thousand of them.”

“I wish I had the time to answer them all, but if I am to thwart my father’s plans, I need to get a special license so that our marriage can take place before the end of the month.”

“What if I refuse?”

He straightened and walked toward her. “Why would you? I am offering you the closest to an independent life that a woman without her own inherited money can achieve.”

Her sudden smile surprised him. “Your honesty is quite refreshing. At least we wouldn’t be starting our life together with lies.”

He took her hand. “Then you agree to be my wife?”

She met his gaze and slowly nodded. “Yes, I will.”

He kissed her forehead, a sense of relief surging through his veins. He’d always been a gambler, and he had a sense that he was about to win the biggest game of his life.

“Then let’s go and share our good news with your sister and Grafton. I suspect I will need his support against my father.”