“Husband and wife, of course. But Mr. and Mrs. Brookhouse because he’d remember a duke. It isn’t much of a lie—we’ll be marrying as soon as it can be arranged. I’m assuming your sisters will take on the task of planning our wedding?”
“I beg your pardon? Allthreeof us will plan our wedding. And I might even let you put in a suggestion or two.”
“The only thing I want a say in is the food. I’ve sampled a number of Lady Verity’s dishes, and I am prepared to list them all in descending order of preference.”
“Let me guess. Marzipan anything is at the top.”
“Exactly.”
The conversation stalled as she tried to think of a way to ask him her most burning question.
“Out with it, my love,” he said.
“So now you read my mind, too?”
“Sometimes.”
She decided to just march right ahead with it. “What made you change your mind and decide to pursue marriage to me, despite all the gossip still swirling in Newcastle and the deplorable behavior of your distant relations?”
“Hmm. Well, first of all, four whole days spent not seeing you.”
“Oh, spare me that nonsense. You avoided me for three weeks after our first kiss.”
“Ah, but I hadn’t yet been ‘inside’ you, as you may remember saying.”
She felt heat rise in her cheeks. “True. Although we also barely saw each other after that.”
He held up a finger. “But not on purpose. And I lived for those glimpses of you. They were one reason I got up the courage to tell you the truth.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “After which, you gave me a lecture and chided me about not telling my sister and mother.”
Her heart began to pound. “Oh, no. Isthatwhy Rosy ran off with Winston? Did you tell her?”
“I told Mother and Rosy, yes. And I don’t regret it. Thanks to that—thanks toyou—I learned things I didn’t know. Like Rosy knowing more than I realized. And the fact that Mother had already heard gossip in town about the laudanum. Granted, she’d thought he’d had an accidental overdose of laudanum, but she did say my father was a fool for thinking an apothecary and a doctor would keep laudanum use a secret. At least she knows now that there was nothing she could have done. He’d been planning it for a while, apparently.”
“And Rosy? How was she?”
“Upset. Angry that he entrusted me with his secret and not her, too.”
“That’s to be expected. I think she gets tired of you getting all the attention and her getting none.”
“So she did this to get attention?”
“I don’t think so. I think she did it because she’s in love with him.” Reluctantly, she told him about her encounter with her second cousin at Almack’s. She waited for his reaction.
“So you think he might also be in love with her?”
Surprised he hadn’t condemned her for not telling him about the conversation, she said, “I do. Or at least infatuated enough with her to want to treat her well. He’s not a bad man, you know. He just sowed his wild oats a bit longer than you did.”
“To be fair, he didn’t start at fourteen, I would imagine.” He looked as if he was at least considering the idea of Lord Winston with his sister. “And you’re sure he’s not a fortune hunter.”
“Well, a fortune would certainly allow them to live more comfortably. Last week, I saw his grandmother while I was shopping with Eliza. We chatted a bit, so I asked what his marriage prospects were. Once I assured her I wasn’t asking for myself, she said they were good. He has a healthy allowance from his father, although he’s unlikely to inherit the title. But I already told you that, and I can’t promise that his brother, the heir to the title, will continue his allowance. It vastly depends on how their father’s will is written.”
“Did she say how much the allowance is?”
“I personally think it’s not enough to live on in London.” She told him the amount, and Geoffrey agreed. “But when paired with her dowry, they should do well. How muchisher fortune, anyway?” When he told her the amount, she gaped at him. “You mean, all this time you’ve been worried about fortune hunters and her fortune is that little?”
“W-e-e-ll, I thought it was large when Father set it up. But yesterday, I received the bills for the gowns.” He winced. “Between that and your fees, I realized that a large dowry by Newcastle standards was a fairly small one by London standards, especially London nobility standards.”
She gave a rueful laugh. “No wonder neither Rosy nor your mother ever told us how much it was.”
