Page 19 of The Duke of Cups (The Highwaymen #3)

She scoffed; she couldn’t help it.

“I will do violence to pretty young things if I have to,” he said carefully. “But I don’t like it.”

She grimaced.

He looked her over. “Why are you even here, then, if you regard me with such disdain, madam?”

Oh, dear, she must be careful when she answered him or he’d realize it, that she was scheming to kill him.

Well, wait a moment. Did she need to kill him?

If she were married to Champeraigne, her survival would be sorted, at least somewhat, she supposed. He didn’t have property or income, but he always managed to get money through various underhanded schemes. He’d wish her to appear as if she were thriving, so he would see to her.

“What sort of marriage would it be?” she said, finally.

“What do you mean?”

“I need to get married,” she said, “but I suppose I’d rather have a marriage like Seraphine’s than one wherein I’m stifled and collared and contained, I suppose.”

“I see. So, you want to make very clear that you don’t wish to welcome me into your bed, but that you have others you wish to entertain.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head.

He eyed her.

“Maybe at some point,” she said. “We’ll be married a long time. Maybe eventually, I suppose. Currently, I’m in love with someone who isn’t in love with me, though, so I sort of doubt it.”

“Oh, broken-hearted,” said Champeraigne. “I can help you get revenge.”

“I don’t wish revenge!”

“Well, that will change,” he said. “Let me know. And yes, of course, I won’t stifle you, my dear. But I shall say this. If you fall pregnant with another man’s bastard, I’m not claiming it, and I’m not protecting you, and I’m not doing anything other than decrying you as having cuckolded me.”

She bit down on her lower lip, nodding. “I see.”

“Personally, I don’t want children. I have enough trouble taking care of myself and the others in my life without bringing helpless babes into the situation.”

“No, that’s fair,” she said. “I mean, it makes sense.”

“So, you may do as you like with whoever it is that you like and I shall say nothing and do nothing. I shall not stop you. But I shan’t save you from the consequences of such actions either.”

Well, she was going to kill him, so it didn’t matter.

Or… well… maybe she could simply decide about killing him later .

She didn’t know what she wished, but she did know that she was tired of it all. Tired of the Seasons, tired of the dances, tired of the men who only wanted her pretend dowry and didn’t even like her, tired of Marian looking at her with pity in her eyes, tired of everything about it.

Champeraigne was a way out.

He leaned forward. “I suppose I’m not making it sound very enticing, am I?” He tilted his head to one side. “You are just a girl, just a very young girl.” He sighed. “No, there’s no way to make it sound enticing, I don’t think. It really isn’t. Why are you even interested?”

“Well, no one else has wanted to marry me for any other reason than my dowry, which is fictitious,” she said. “I don’t suppose there’s any better option at this point.”

He furrowed his brow. “That doesn’t seem to make any sense at all. You’re a young and beautiful woman. People do get married for reasons other than finances.”

“Amongst our class?” she said quickly, because she didn’t want him to think this through too deeply. She wasn’t entirely sure if she was going to kill him or not. Maybe she would. Maybe she wouldn’t. But she didn’t wish him to suspect that she might be trying to trick him.

He considered. “I suppose it’s rarer.”

“If you truly wish us married, how will it be done? I wish to look at a betrothal agreement before I make a final agreement.”

“You’re quite shrewd, are you not?” He smiled, amused.

“Seraphine has taught you well. Well, I may need it done in a hurry. I am not a member of the Church of England, but I am French nobility, and I have contacts, and I have ways to sway the archbishop. If I want a special license, I can get one, count upon that. If you are amenable, it can be done in days.”

“Days,” she said, with a nod. “Without telling Seraphine?”

“Yes,” he said. “That, indeed, might be wiser. She will not be pleased with either of us.”

“Where will we live?” she asked. “Here, there, and everywhere, as you do now?”

He shrugged. “It’s not as if I own any property.”

“But you could,” she said. “Enough money goes through your hands that you could have purchased something if you wished.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “My expenses are too high for that. I have no chance to save anything up. It comes in, it goes out. That is the way of it, and always has been.”

“And that will be my life, too, with you,” she said.

“You knew this before you entered into this conversation with me,” he said.

“Yes,” she said. “I just wanted to make certain, I suppose. So, no children, no property, no security, but I’d be done with the whole of it, no more trying to secure a husband, and no more Seasons, and you’d be able to use me to make some fabulous investment, you say? If you have a wife?”

“Who is it you’re in love with?” said Champeraigne. “I can’t help but think that little tidbit of information is the real reason you’re here speaking to me.”

“What?” She shook her head. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Yes, you’re brokenhearted and hopeless and no man will ever want you, and now you think to simply take some marriage agreement and end the search once and for all. You think it will end the pain, but I should tell you that it won’t.”

She got up from the couch. “I thought you wanted to convince me.”

He got up, too. “Who is it?”

“Why does that matter?”

“You wish to conceal it from me?”

She must conceal it, mustn’t she? Dunrose said that Champeraigne couldn’t know about any association between the two of them.

“I’m not really in love with him,” she said.

“I don’t actually like him. I don’t know what else to call it, though, because he’s the only person I find even remotely appealing.

Everyone else disgusts me. So, I can’t get married anyway, or I can, but it doesn’t matter, because it’s going to be a trial, an awful experience, and at least you won’t force me to lie with you, which I cannot abide, no one except him, so—”

“Who?”

She swallowed.

“Doesn’t he want you to tell me, then?” Champeraigne considered. “It’s Dunrose, isn’t it?”

She blinked at him. How? How could both of them have guessed it?

He smiled. “All right, then. I should quite like to help you get revenge on Dunrose when the time comes. I’d be useful in that regard, I think you’ll find. And I think it might be fun to marry you if he’s broken your heart.”

“He doesn’t know that I—” She put her hands on her hips. “My heart isn’t broken, anyway!”

He chuckled.

“How did you guess it?” she breathed.

“Well, there are only a few people out there actively planning to harm me, I suppose, and of the four of them, two are married, and one is the Duke of Rutchester, so…?” He spread his hands.

“You know they’re planning to harm you, then,” she said, swallowing again.

“Oh,” he said, his smile widening. “I see. So, are you part of a scheme, then, my dear? He seduced you to use you against me, and now he sees what happens when he toys with a girl’s heart. Idiot. What did he say when he heard I wished to marry you? Did he tell you to do it?”

She nodded.

“And that hurt,” said Champeraigne. “He never had any real designs on you himself. He was always using you.”

She nodded again.

“Well, we can have some fun with him, madam. Marry me and I shall help you thoroughly get back at the Duke of Dunrose. By the time we’re done with that, you may tire of me, I suppose, but you’ll likely be ready to take up some other means of occupying yourself.”

“I don’t wish to get back at him,” she said softly.

“All right, then,” he said with a laugh. “But you will eventually wish to, and I shall help you, then.”

She didn’t say anything.

“Marry me,” said Champeraigne again, reaching out to take her hand. “Say yes.”

Well, now he knew everything, so… “Yes,” she murmured.

He tugged her hand up and kissed her knuckle. “Excellent. Do send word to him right away that you’ve agreed to the marriage. And be ready first thing in the morning, all right? I shall have it arranged by then.”

“So quickly?”

“Nothing to Seraphine, though, not until it’s done, as we agreed,” he said.