“One should be allowed some indulgence at Christmas,” he said, parting ways as his friend retrieved his greatcoat, hat and cane from the butler.
As a boy, Harrison had loved everything about Christmas. There wasn’t one thing he disliked about that particular time of year. Snow, pudding, the small gifts his mother would give him and his sister, and Kat. All his best memories were with Kat at Christmas. Now they would never have another together.
Before Harrison’s family inherited the earldom, every Christmas was spent happily with Kat’s family, the Smiths. They spent hours visiting, cooking, or decorating. Kat would play the piano forte for hours, and he would sit by her side, turning the pages. They often sat by the fire telling stories of past Christmases or how his parents met in Scotland.
Once his father was elevated in station, everything changed. His father abandoned his business and demanded that Harrison end his connection with Kat. His mother started spending obsessively, intent on looking the part of a countess. Harrison’s sister abandoned her husband for a lover and sent her children away to school.
His once close, loving family transformed into prominent members of the ton right in front of Harrison’s eyes. It was heartbreaking.
He missed that version of his parents, of himself. Once he’d been a carefree boy on the verge of manhood with dreams of being a garden designer. His father was not pleased with his son's obsession for the outdoors and his need to design elaborate gardens for estates.
Harrison had loved to sit for hours sketching different designs and ideas in his sketchbook. That all changed after the family inherited. It had been nearly eleven years since he’d even thought about designing gardens again. Even with his own estate, he deliberately chose not to be involved.
His love for garden design was something that Kat had always encouraged in him, and once she was gone, he couldn’t bring himself to design anything again. Until he found her years later, and now he couldn’t stop himself from creating.
Reaching the parlor, Harrison took a moment to compose himself before he walked into the overly bright room. His mother had insisted on decorating the house in glistening colors, insisting that the previous Earl of Hendershot’s tastes were too dark and medieval for her. This room with its bright green furnishings and yellow drapes was his mother’s crowning achievement.
His gaze danced around until he found the elegant stature of Lady Selena standing by the bay windows. The long drapes were open, so sounds from passing carriages and people walking by wafted inside.
It was curious that she chose to stand openly in his window. Shouldn’t the woman try to protect her reputation? She would be ruined simply by being seen with him without a chaperone.
“You kept me waiting, something I hope you don’t plan on doing when we are wed,” she said, facing a stunned Harrison.
When they are wed?
He stared at Lady Selena in confusion. Surely, he would remember if he offered marriage to someone. Harrison was desperate, but he still didn’t believe he was in such peril that he would marry her.
Lady Selena Davenport was a highly disagreeable lady, one that knew just how beautiful she was and how to use that beauty for power. She was an ordinary heiress of the ton with raven hair, pale skin, blue eyes, and an air of superiority.
“I wasn’t aware that I had proposed,” Harrison said as he leaned against the Italian side table against the wall.
Perplexed, he folded his arms across his chest. It was difficult to ascertain if she was jesting or not. Lady Selena was not known for her sense of humor.
“You haven’t.” Walking over, she stood in front of him, a little too close in his opinion, with a wanton look on her face. “But you will after you hear my reasoning.” She ran her fingers down the lapel of his gray waistcoat.
Stopping her hand as it descended, Harrison removed it from his person and placed it beside her. Needing space between them, he walked past her. “Would you like some tea?” he asked, walking to stand in front of the sofa.
He waited for her to take a seat across from him in the matching green armchair before he sat down.
Lady Selena peered around the room with disdain. “No.” She waved a gloved hand in front of her. “Let’s be honest, Hendershot. I know about your financial problems. Your mother, like mine, cannot hold her tongue. I have a proposition for you.”
Clearing his throat, Harrison relaxed back against the sofa. Inside he was screaming. He knew his mother had a fondness for telling every detail of their lives to Selena’s mother, but he had hoped that once he rejected the suggestion of a marriage between them, that would be the end of it.
“If your mother spoke to mine, then you already know that I do not wish to marry you. I don’t believe we’d suit?—”
“I don’t care if we suit or not. I need a husband, and you need a wife with a sizeable dowry.” She spread her hands apart, a victorious grin on her face.
She needed a husband? That was a rather blunt phrase for a lady to declare. “Why do you need a husband?” He peered over at her, finally observing her for the first time since he entered the parlor.
Lady Selena was larger than he remembered, especially around her middle area and in her face. Harrison had witnessed both his sister and Winnie while they were with child, and it was always apparent to him the state of them.
Realization dawned on him as Lady Selena avoided eye contact with him.
“You’re with child?” he asked, just to be polite, but truly the stiffening of her body was all the proof he needed as blue eyes locked on him.
“It is becoming obvious, and I’m running out of options.” She shrugged her shoulder like marrying someone who was not the father of her child wasn’t an ordeal at all.
“Why not marry the father?” he rose his eyebrow in question.
