“Of course they know,” said Benedict. “You heard them—if I ‘break their trust,’ they’ll tell everyone what my father did…and exactly how close I am to losing my estate.”
“‘Breaking their trust’…” Elinor’s hands clenched around the reins; she had to force herself to loosen them and soothe her horse. “I supposethatmeans proposing to Penelope.”
“What else? He clearly wants to marry her himself…and now he’s made it impossible for me to even try.”
“Damn it!” Elinor heard the words escape her mouth with a feeling of shock. She never, ever swore out loud.Roseswore, when she was in a passion; even Harry swore occasionally, when a particularly tricky intellectual problem was resisting solutions for too long. But Elinor only ever swore inside her head, where no one else could hear her.
Until now.
“How could they have found out?” she demanded. “You said you’d kept it secret. Did your father tell anybody?”
“When my father realized what he’d done…” Benedict’s lips tightened; he shook his head, releasing his breath in a whoosh. “No. He never told anyone but me. Even my brothers didn’t know until I told them, andtheycertainly wouldn’t have spread the word. They know exactly what it will mean to us if the news reaches our creditors before I can find a way to mend our fortunes.”
“You’ll lose the estate,” Elinor said flatly.
And with the estate…
She had fought so hard to keep her own family together, those long six months after their parents had died. How dare the Armitages rip Benedict’s family apart now, just when he had a real chance to save them?
“There has to be a way around this,” she said. “Perhaps if you tell Penelope before he can…” Her words trailed off as she imagined the scene.
Benedict laughed. “Oh, yes, I can certainly imagine how that would go. I don’t see Miss Hathergill throwing the world away for love, do you?”
“Well…” Elinor bit her lip.
If only she was the real Mrs. De Lacey. If only…
Benedict shook his head. “If you want to know the truth…” He drew his horse to a halt as they reached the top of a low hill. The green landscape spread out before them, tidy fields covered by cows and sheep and sliced by streams and hedges. A rook cawed as it flew overhead, and Sir Jessamyn nestled more tightly into his harness.
“It feels like a relief,” said Benedict.
“I beg your pardon?” Elinor stared at him. “But—”
He gazed at the fields spread out before them, his brows drawn into a frown. “I wasn’t lying, earlier,” he said. “I don’t like pretense. I don’t want to pretend to be someone I’m not. And you were right, the very first day we arrived. It was a terrible thing to think of doing to Miss Hathergill. You know as well as I do that, no matter how hard I might try, she would be miserable buried on a country estate.”
Elinor said, “With Penelope’s dowry, she might be able to visit London even after your estate was saved.”
“Perhaps,” said Benedict. “But that isn’t exactly the glorious lifestyle she’s been dreaming of, is it?” He shrugged and turned to her with a rueful half-smile. “From halfway across the country, it was all too easy to ignore the feelings of a future-fiancée. But I can’t imagine myself making Miss Hathergill happy as a husband. And…” He took a breath. “Now the Armitages have done me a favour, in a way, though I can’t quite bring myself to thank them for it.”
“A favour!” Elinor let out a disbelieving huff of air. “They—”
His smile twisted. “They’ve made it impossible for Miss Hathergill to make me utterly miserable as my wife. If it weren’t for my brothers and my niece, I think I might even be grateful to them for it.”
Elinor was silent. Her emotions were too tangled to allow her any speech.
Benedict looked down at the view before them. “I wish I could show you Kennington Park,” he said. “I think you’d like it. You’d like to ride across it, anyway. There’s a waterfall built into the rocks, only a quarter mile from the house. My brothers and I had a secret fort there, when I was younger. And the woods…”
“You love it,” Elinor said.
“I do. I would have done anything to save it, and my family. But I don’t have that choice anymore.”
“But you do!” Elinor leaned forward. “You must. There has to be a way, if we think hard enough!”
He didn’t seem to hear her. His eyes were still fixed on the fields before them. “I only hope that whoever buys the estate will take care of it. The workers—”
“Stop!” Deeply daring, Elinor reached out to brush her fingers against the thick cloth of his blue coat sleeve, to drag his attention back to her. “You cannot give up so easily. Wewon’tgive up. And…oh!” She gasped and grabbed his sleeve outright as she suddenly remembered. “Penelope is absolutely not going to accept Mr. Armitage until you propose to her yourself!”
“I beg your pardon?” Frowning, he turned back to her. “I don’t think I can have heard you—”
