“If it makes you feel any better, I would rather youhadshot me,” he said.
Blast and boil. “You are not seriously entertaining this... ‘solution,’ are you?”
“There are no other options available to us, Artie.”
“Do not call me Artie.”
His jaw tightened. “At the moment, you are fortunate that is theonlything I am calling you.”
Lord Lampton sighed. “Heaven save us, they’re going to kill each other.”
“Miss Narang, did you hear any conjectures in the gossip that might offer us another option?” Adam asked. “Anything at all.”
Rose shook her head. “All the conjecture is that either the two will be married or ruined. I heard no anticipation of anything else.”
Married or ruined.“We cannot truly mean to move forward this way.” Artemis’s concern was growing to panic. “It was a misunderstanding.”
“Artemis, dear,” Persephone said, “that misunderstanding involved a very private location and removal of clothing. It doesn’t overly matter that those missing pieces were not more intimate than a jacket and waistcoat. It is shocking and will be bandied about without a great deal of mercy.”
Artemis rubbed the palms of her hands against her forehead. “This is absurd.”
Adam walked past her. “You should have considered that before pouring a bottle of vodka all over a gentleman’s discarded clothes.”
“That was not the nature of the situation at all.” She could not keep her deep frustration hidden.
No one heeded her.
The gentlemen stood near each other, their postures identically stiff.
“There is no real choice left to us,” Adam said to Charlie, “but I still need to know what your situation is. Artemis, of course, has a significant dowry, but I’d rather you not have to live exclusively on that.”
Artemis began pacing, hardly believing what she was hearing.
“I have some income from my father’s estate, Your Grace. My intention was to become a don at Cambridge, but a don cannot be married. I confess I am a bit at sea as to how to move forward with that so suddenly snatched away. There is the possibility of publishing papers and offering lectures for hire.”
Adam nodded slowly. Persephone stood at the window, clearly listening but not watching the discussion. Rose had taken a seat in a quiet corner. She would be listening as well; she missed very little.
“Artemis’s father made his living the same way,” Adam said, “and it was far from sufficient. I cannot like the possibility of Artemis returning to that level of poverty.”
“Our father provided generously for his younger sons,” Lord Lampton said.
“I do not doubt that he did,” Adam said.
“Charlie will not be wealthy, by any means,” the earl said, “but that income supplemented with what he can obtain academically will not leave them in dire straits.”
This cannot be happening.
“Further, amongst the Lampton holdings is a small estate in Cumberland. As it is designated for the use of the heir to the title during the period between his coming of age and his inheritance and my son has only just turned one year old, the estate will be empty for the next twenty years. Its upkeep is seen to by the Lampton estate. I’ve offered its use to Charlie for the foreseeable future.”
Now they were speaking of houses and decades of domestic arrangements. Artemis clasped her hands and pressed them to her lips. She was too upset to even pace. A forced marriage. To Charlie Jonquil, of all people. This simply could not be her reality. It could not.
“I believe you are speaking of Brier Hill,” Adam said. He turned and looked to Persephone. “It is within a day’s journey of Falstone Castle.”
That brought Persephone’s gaze to Artemis. “You’ll be nearby.”
“And married to a gentleman who only just declared that he wished I had murdered him rather than be in our current predicament.”
“In fairness,” Adam countered, “you said the same thing.”
