Page 16 of Her Infuriating Earl
“Eager to wed soon?” She laughed. “That is not what I have heard.”
His nose twitched briefly. “I know that I must be honest with you if I am to gain your trust, so I shall be. Yes, it is true that I was somewhat averse to the idea, and it has been well documented in those ghastly scandal sheets. However, things change. People change. Circumstances change. I have done all I can to build my wealth and have recently realized that now it is time to build my legacy, so that the wealth I have accumulated may be enjoyed by the descendants who will come after me.” He smiled at Phoebe. “Why, I suppose you ought to thank your friends for my change of heart.”
“My friends?”
“Olivia and the Duchess of Bergfield.” He hesitated for a moment. “You see, Evan and Nathaniel were reluctant to marry once, too. Their hearts have changed, yet I have never seen you berating them. What is it about me, in particular, that you cannot stand? I think you were about to tell me before your sisters came out of the manor. And do not say it is because of the gowns, for you are… more generous and more intelligent than that.”
Generous and intelligent?
A funny feeling shivered through her chest, similar to the pride she felt when her sisters or her father appreciated the work that she had done for them. A rare sensation.
“I think you are forgetting something,” she said, diverting herself away from softer thoughts, for then she would think about the flowers and his earnest questioning about her doing something simply because she wanted to, and it would turn into a catastrophe.
Daniel frowned. “What might that be?”
“I did not encourage the suit between my friends and their current husbands. Well, I partially encouraged the suit between Leah and Nathaniel, but only when I believed it was a ruse and there were no true feelings involved,” she replied. “You are not the exception that you think you are.”
He laughed, but it was not a joyful sound, more a snort of disbelief. “Yet, you have still not convinced me that you hate me, more than you might have ‘disliked’ my cousin and my friend.” He shook his head. “They have never felt the burn of your acid tongue, I am certain of that.”
And as she looked at him, evenshecould not explain it. She became someone she did not recognize when she was in his company, for while she had chastised and discreetly insulted many of her sisters’ potential suitors in order to make them go away, he was right in saying she had never been quite so venomous.
“You are a gentleman of business, are you not?” she asked, gathering herself.
He nodded.
“Then, think of it as a business matter,” she continued. “When you have invested everything that you possess into one or two speculations, you expect a high yield. The very highest yield. Nothing short of what was promised will suffice, or it will be considered a loss, no?”
He gaped at her. “Where… did you learn such terms?”
“Answer me,” she pressed.
He looked pensive for a moment, before replying, “Yes, that would be true.”
“Joanna and Ellen are my speculations. They are my business. Both of them and their future security and their happiness are what I have banked my entire life on, and I will have the return I promised my mother I would gain for them.” Phoebe exhaled shakily. “If Joanna were to marry you, it would be a loss.”
He blinked as if he finally understood perfectly, but it soon became a frown once more. “And why is that? You still have not given me the details of why I am such a monster in your opinion.”
“Your reputation as a notorious flirt and the rumors I have heard about your travels, and the ladies you encountered there,” Phoebe replied directly. “Not just that, but this sudden change of heart after years of being the errant, absent bachelor whose affections no woman could truly win. My friends can make their own choices. My sisters, as I have said, are my responsibility, and I do not believe you have any intention of loving Joanna as she deserves to be loved, and that, My Lord, is why you are a loss in my eyes. I need her to have love and fortune. That is why my search for her perfect match must continue and will not end with you.”
Brimming with jitters that she did not want him to see, and surprised to discover how nervous it made her to speak honestly to him, she turned as if to walk in the direction of Joanna and Ellen, who were still deep in conversation with their friends. She had barely taken two steps before a hand caught her above the elbow and Daniel ran ahead of her, turning to face her, standing so close that the sheer beauty and stature of him left her breathless.
With his hand still encircling her arm, he said quietly, “Give me a chance, Miss Wilson.” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “A chance is all I am asking for. Indeed, you have forgotten the most important thing about speculations.”
“And what is that?” she managed to ask, intimately aware of his touch.
He smiled. “That they do not come without their share of risks. One has to hope and pray that the rewards outweigh them.” His hand squeezed gently, like a plea. “Allow me to show you that I am a relatively riskless speculation.”
“How would you even begin to do that?” she challenged, her heart thundering wildly, for reasons she could not fathom.
She was not scared, she was not particularly angry anymore, she could feel her nerves dwindling, so what did her heart think it was doing?
Daniel relaxed his grip and hurried to fold his arms behind his back once more. “This is my official invitation for you and your sisters to attend a party at Westyork in a week’s time. See me in my own residence. See me with my family and hear their opinions of me. See me at my most… ordinary.” He cleared his throat. “If you still decide that I am a loss, in your eyes, then… I shall consider conceding.”
Phoebe met his eyes and immediately regretted it. They were the most intriguing, astonishing eyes she had ever seen on a person, their hue of brown so dark that she could not distinguish between the iris and the pupil. They were just two bewitching pools of glinting shadow, and it felt as if they were prying into her very soul.
Indeed, though she had never experienced it, she wondered if this was what it was like to be confessed to, for all his words seemed to be intended for her, confusing her utterly.
It is a trick,her mind warned. But through the fog he had dispersed in her head, a little beacon flared, whispering,Yet, this might be the only way for you to get rid of him.
