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Thirty-Three

Eliza paced the Devonworth drawing room the next morning at precisely ten o’clock.

She was not looking forward to this meeting with Mr. Hathaway at all.

She couldn’t imagine a scenario where he would agree to allow her to receive her inheritance while also marrying Simon, and there was no scenario where she would not agree to marry Simon.

She couldn’t decide if she was simply being pragmatic or cowardly in thinking that her best course of action would be to head for San Francisco and leave him to rot.

Jenny, however, had insisted, so here they were waiting for him.

“Please calm yourself, Eliza. It will be fine. You’ll see.” Jenny seemed entirely too relaxed from her place on the sofa flipping through this week’s issue of the Young Ladies’ Journal . She seemed more interested in the fashion plate she was perusing than on their imminent meeting.

Eliza didn’t want to snap at her sister, so she didn’t say anything and continued to stalk the hearth.

A moment later, the doorbell rang and her heart dropped into her stomach.

She did not like this man. Her only real childhood memory of him was being lined up before him in her Sunday best and feeling like she was worse than nothing to him.

Her opinion of him had not improved during Cora’s wedding and the few dinners and balls Eliza had spent in his company.

The door opened and closed. Male voices filtered in from the entryway as Edgecomb took what had to be Mr. Hathaway’s hat and gloves. Then they were standing at the threshold of the drawing room. Her blood roared in her ears, temporarily silencing the butler’s announcement.

Charles Hathaway was a well-dressed man only a few years older than her mother.

He was still handsome with silver-winged dark hair and Cora’s blue-gray eyes.

The lines on his face somehow only enhanced his innate elegance rather than making him rough or common.

In truth, he was wholly forgettable, his entire demeanor made to be pleasing but not stand out.

He looked at her, since she was the one standing. “Eliza. Good morning.” Then he shifted to Jenny, who regarded him coolly from her seat. “Jenny. Good to see you both again.”

Eliza couldn’t tell from his tone whether he had heard anything of what she had been up to lately. Violet had assured her last night that no one outside of their small circle knew of her flight to Scotland, but one could never be too certain.

“Good morning.” Eliza gathered her courage to say that she wasn’t marrying Mainwaring under any circumstances. She had decided that she would start with that. But at that very second, another figure appeared in the threshold beside her father.

Mainwaring.

His light brown hair was flawlessly in place, and his eyes crinkled at the corner as he smiled at her. He appeared refreshed from his travels and not as if he’d been drinking and whoring his way across Europe for the past few months.

“Mainwaring?” She couldn’t quite believe he was here. Even Jenny had come to her feet at his appearance.

“You’re a sight for tired eyes, Eliza. I missed you dreadfully.” He reached her in three long strides and took hold of her hands. Pulling her toward him, he kissed her on the cheek.

She was too stunned to respond right away. She could only look up at him wordlessly as Mr. Hathaway made his way into the room.

“What are you doing here?” Jenny asked for her. Her sister’s voice was sharp with inquisition.

“When you asked for my presence this morning to speak with you and Eliza, I assumed that it might have something to do with her betrothal. I thought it best to bring Lord Mainwaring along.”

“Besides,” Mainwaring added, “I wanted to see you. I came immediately after I arrived and was told you weren’t at home. I’m glad you came back.”

He was smiling as someone might when reuniting with their beloved after a long absence.

He was so convincing that Eliza had to suppress a stab of guilt.

This man had not missed her in his gallivanting across the countryside from brothel to brothel.

He had not missed her at all. He was putting on a show for Mr. Hathaway, who very conveniently held the purse strings of this arrangement.

Eliza regained her senses and deftly pulled her hands away from him.

“I’m glad you’re here. You should hear this, as well.

” She absently rubbed her palms on her skirts.

It didn’t make sense, but she didn’t want his touch to erase Simon’s.

Gesturing toward the seating area, she said, “Please, let us sit down.”

A furrow appeared between Mainwaring’s brows, and he exchanged a questioning look with Mr. Hathaway as he did as she indicated. Eliza sat next to Jenny and the men took the chairs facing the sofa.

Mr. Hathaway opened his mouth to speak, but Eliza charged ahead.

“We’ve asked you here so that I could tell you in person that I will not be honoring the betrothal agreement.

I won’t be marrying Lord Mainwaring.” She had spoken to her father, but the man himself was there, so she should tell him to his face.

“Lord Mainwaring, I am sorry, but I can’t marry you. ”

“What? Why? This is preposterous.” Mainwaring gripped the arms of his chair and looked from her to Mr. Hathaway for confirmation.

“Out of the question,” Mr. Hathaway said immediately after. “You cannot break the agreement.”

Eliza tried to hold her temper. Her announcement had no doubt been shocking, and they were entitled to their reaction. She decided to answer Mainwaring’s question. “I find that I do not love you.”

“But I love you very much, Eliza.”

She hated how he had resorted to her first name. It implied an intimacy that didn’t exist. “I do not think that you do.”

“But I do.” He sat forward in his chair, his expression earnest and fierce at the same time.

“You do not know me any more than I know you. You do not love me.” He started to protest and she held up her hand to stop him. “If you did love me, then I sincerely hope that you wouldn’t have spent your time in Europe visiting all of those…coffeehouses.”

“Coffee…What do you know about…How do you know that?” He looked from her to Mr. Hathaway and back again.

“It’s common knowledge, from what I can tell. I’m told with some authority that there was even a bet at the Montague Club about how many of those you would visit and how many different…coffees…you might sample at your stops.” Eliza savored the way he squirmed in his chair as she confronted him.

“E-Eliza…that is hardly a subject that someone should be discussing with you. Whoever told you that…they did not have your best interest…that is not something one talks about with a young lady.”

“Did you not engage in intimate congress with those young women?” She tried to remember the names she had seen on the blackboard. “Are you denying there was a Lucia, a Paolina, or a Giulia?”

He blanched and he whirled to look at Mr. Hathaway beside him. “Do something.”

“Eliza, please, calm yourself. There is really no need for this. Even had this happened, every young man is entitled to a few days of freedom before his wedding. You were not married,” Mr. Hathaway pointed out.

“Besides, I don’t believe a word of it. Lord Mainwaring is a brilliant and upstanding young man.

He will make you a satisfactory husband. ”

“I’m certain that he will make someone a…” She couldn’t say satisfactory because that would be a lie. She pitied the poor woman who would be saddled with him. “A husband, but it will not be me. I am withdrawing my consent for this marriage.”

“You cannot withdraw your consent. Once given it is binding,” Mainwaring argued. His tone had gone from pleading to demanding.

“That is decidedly not how consent works, my lord. It can be given and taken away at will, which is what I have done. I will not marry you.”

“Eliza, this will not do.” There was a warning in Mr. Hathaway’s voice. “He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone,” he paraphrased the Bible verse. “Let us not discuss your own transgressions. Let us let bygones be bygones.”

But she did want to discuss them. That was the entire point of this meeting. “You’re right. I am in love with someone else, and I will marry him,” she said.

Her father only shook his head. His lips were twisted in a sneer. “I won’t accept anyone else. You do that and you’ll lose your inheritance.”

“I’m well aware of your propensity for heartlessness.

I don’t care. I don’t want your money. I will marry him whether you agree or not.

That choice isn’t up to you.” It felt good to say that to his face.

She despised that he controlled so much of their future.

Well, he wouldn’t control her anymore. She was finished with him.

“This will not stand.” Mainwaring rose to his feet, and for the first time Eliza wished that Devonworth was home.

She did not know the viscount or what he might do.

Two hundred fifty thousand dollars was an awful lot of money to lose.

“You will marry me, Eliza, whether you agree or not. There is a written contract and I will not allow you to break it. I will see to the arrangements. Hathaway, I fear we must accelerate the timeline for this wedding.”

“Oh, we won’t be doing that, Mainwaring.”

The voice came from the threshold. Lord David stood there still in his hat and gloves, walking stick at his side as if he’d only just arrived. She hadn’t even heard the doorbell. The entire room stood at his entrance.

“Lord David?” Mr. Hathaway found his voice before anyone else. “I didn’t hear you come in. Please don’t concern yourself with this foolishness. Eliza is simply having a case of—”

“I’m afraid this foolishness does concern me.” Lord David walked casually into the room as if he was here for a social call.

Beside her, Jenny hadn’t said a word and hadn’t moved a muscle in the moments since Lord David had arrived. “What did you do?” Eliza whispered.

Jenny’s face had a look of unrepentant guilt. “I am fixing things for you,” she whispered.

“What does that mean?”

“Shh. Watch.” Jenny pointedly turned back to the men, and Eliza had no choice but to follow suit. She feared the situation had quickly moved out of her control.

Lord David looked her over before his gaze settled on Jenny.

Something passed between them, but Eliza had no idea what it was.

Some sort of shared knowledge. Jenny nodded once, and that seemed to release him.

He turned to Mr. Hathaway and said, “I’ve come to make you an offer of marriage for Miss Dove.

Contingent on the fact that Miss Eliza be allowed to marry whomever she chooses while given full control of her inheritance. ”

Mr. Hathaway couldn’t have looked more surprised. His mouth dropped open comically, and he even took a step backward. Mainwaring’s face went from white to red. “Preposterous!”

Everyone ignored his outburst.

“But Jenny has refused to marry. She insists on a career in opera,” Mr. Hathaway said.

“She’ll marry me.”

Lord David appeared so certain in that statement that Eliza turned to her sister. “Jenny, is this true? Have you agreed to marry this man?”

“Indeed, I have.” Jenny’s voice was strong and unwavering.

“On the condition that you allow Eliza to marry the man of her choice and honor the inheritance agreement, I will marry Lord David. You won’t find a better offer than that.

He’ll be a duke one day. His brother has already declared him to be his heir.

” She took a deep breath as the import of that settled over the room.

“Think about it, Mr. Hathaway. Having the ears of Strathmore and Lord David could prove useful to you, your daughter Agnes, and your son George as they reach maturity.” She referred to his legitimate children with his Society wife.

The one he had left their mother to wed.

“I’d go so far as to say a duke in the family could prove vastly more useful to you than a mere penniless viscount.

” It was no secret that Mainwaring hoped to marry Eliza for the settlement.

Lord David, however, came from one of the wealthiest families in the kingdom.

“How dare you, girl?” Mainwaring stepped toward Jenny, but Lord David’s golden-encrusted walking stick came up to stop him, settling heavily across his chest.

Eliza remembered the violence he was capable of and how he’d grabbed that man who had insulted Jenny by the throat. That warning was lurking beneath the surface now.

“You will not speak to her in that way. In fact, you should leave. This is a family matter,” Lord David said.

All eyes in the room turned to Mr. Hathaway. “Yes, please leave us, Lord Mainwaring. I’m afraid the betrothal is off.” Their father knew when a better offer had presented itself.

“I will not. That contract is binding—”

Mainwaring broke off and took a few steps back when Lord David turned to face him fully. “Leave now and I’ll see that you receive some compensation for your trouble.”

Mainwaring’s jaw tightened, but he was stuck and they all knew it. The fact was, even with a legal battle, no one could force Eliza to marry him. He might have lost out on a quarter of a million dollars and an annual income, but at least some compensation was better than none.

Still, he straightened his coat and said to Lord David, “You’ll be hearing from my solicitor.”

“I expect I will.” Lord David was completely unruffled by the idea.

Mainwaring scoffed and stormed from the room.

“I cannot let you do this, Jenny,” Eliza said. She grabbed her sister’s hand. “You didn’t want to marry. You can’t sacrifice yourself for me. I won’t allow it.”

“It’s too late. It’s done. Besides, Lord David has assured me that he won’t prohibit me from singing and performing.”

“That’s right,” Lord David said. “I only wish to wed her, not keep her captive. She can live her life.”

“And you will live yours.” There was a challenge in Jenny’s eyes as she said that.

Lord David inclined his head in acknowledgment before turning his attention back to Mr. Hathaway. “Shall we negotiate terms?”

Mr. Hathaway agreed and they all sat.

Energy buzzed through Eliza, but she forced herself to sit and not to fidget. She could hardly believe the turn of events. She would get to marry Simon and he would get the money he needed to pay Brody back. It would have been perfect had Jenny not been forced to marry.

As their father spoke, Lord David’s gaze traveled back to Jenny from time to time.

It was soft in a way it wasn’t when he looked at anyone else, and undeniably hungry.

Jenny did a good job of not looking at him again, her attention riveted to Mr. Hathaway instead.

Eliza hoped that this marriage would be a good thing for her sister.