Page 15 of An Arranged Marriage with a Mad Marquess
What if she says no? Would I ask the next sister? I won’t marry the youngest, she’s entirely too young. Mother has a list of ladies she thinks will suit me, but frankly, I don’t believe I cansimply go from home to home, asking fathers and mothers if I might steal their daughters away to live in a madman’s house.
“If I marry you,” Patrina said slowly, half to herself, “you shall provide a dowry for my sisters?”
“Indeed, that is true.”
“And my father’s debts… you’d settle them too? Can you afford them?”
“Yes, I can,” Neil answered, without a second thought. He felt Lord Marshville’s eyes on him and threw him a grimace. “I apologise, but I did manage to find out the extent of your debts before I came here.”
Lord Marshville looked very old and tired all of a sudden. He threw up a hand in defeat, not meeting the eyes of his daughter or his wife.
“I have been a failure in many ways, it’s true,” he murmured. “I would be a fool to pretend otherwise.”
Lady Marshville came forward, wordlessly standing beside her husband and taking his hand in hers. A sudden pang rushed through Neil’s chest, and he was forced to look away.
What must it be like to love somebody like that? To know each other so well you feel like an extension of each other? To forgive all sorts of mistakes, to stick beside each other regardless?
What does it feel like?
It hardly matters. I won’t live long enough to experience it.
He swallowed hard, tearing his eyes away. He found that Miss Marshville was staring at her parents, too, but with a very different look in her eyes.
He saw love there.
She drew in a breath and turned to face him.
“The answer is yes, Lord Morendale. I shall marry you. You may set the date for whenever you like.”
***
Patrina held in the tears until she got up to her room that night. The sobs burst out the moment the door closed behind her, tears streaming thick and fast down her face.
Lucy, who was folding linens in the corner, hurried to embrace her.
“Oh, milady, don’t cry. Is it because of… of him?”
Patrina gulped back sobs, nodding. “I agreed to marry him. I had to, of course, but… oh, Lucy, what have I done? What if I hate him? What if he hatesme?”
She sank to the ground, and Lucy went with her, wrapping her arms tight around Patrina’s shoulder.
“I could have said no,” Patrina gulped. “Nobody would have pushed me to say otherwise. But then, what is the alternative? We’d be destitute and evicted from our home before Gillian could attract any suitor, and then we would all be ruined. He promised a dowry for Agnes and Gillian, Lucy! And he said he would pay off Papa’s debts. He even gave us an advance, some money to pay off the servants and to buy material for a wedding gown. Oh, that brings to mind, you ought to visit the housekeeper at once in the morning to collect your overdue wages, Lucy.”
Lucy sighed, smoothing back Patrina’s hair from her brow. “Oh, you poor thing. But maybe he won’t be so bad? Did he seem mad, or vulgar, or cruel?”
Patrina sniffed, shaking her head. “No. He was indeed quite handsome, I must say. Yet, he spoke openly of his situation. He remarked that he was living on borrowed time, in essence. He appeared rather resigned to his fate.”
“It’s sad, isn’t it, to think of a young, strong man fading away like that. But, Miss Patrina, you’ll be rich, won’t you? And once he’s gone, you’ll be a widow, free to do as you like.”
“A widow with a child, ideally,” Patrina sighed, sitting upright again. She rested her head against the door, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. “He’s going to procure a special license. We shall be married at the end of next week. And then, once he’d said all that, he just walked out of the house and the carriage drove away. He didn’t even take tea with us.”
“What did Miss Agnes and Miss Gillian say?”
She shrugged. “Not a great deal. They don’t understand the situation we are in. Agnes would never have accepted him, because she doesn’t understand just how bad things are with Papa. And now, I suppose, she’ll never have to know.”
“You saved them, milady. You saved them all. And it might be fun to be a Marchioness, don’t you think?”
Patrina rolled her eyes. “His mother lives in the house with him,andhis sister. If there’s a pecking order, I have a feeling I shall be at the bottom of it.”
Lucy narrowed her eyes. “Now, that isnotthe Patrina Marshville I know. If I know anything about you, those ladies had better watch out, and that’s all I’m saying.”
Patrina had to chuckle at that. “I asked if I might bring you with me, Lucy, and he accepted. Would you like that? Would you like to come with me, when I’m the Marchioness?”
Lucy beamed. “I’d like nothing better, milady. Nothing better.”
