She took a couple of deep breaths and when she spoke again, it was in a calmer voice. “You may call me a fortune hunter, and I admit, I do want the security and the position—and the pretty dresses and jewels that come with it.”
Lady Gosforth made a rude sound.
“Snort all you want, I won’t deny they appeal,” Maddy told her. “I’m as human as the next girl. But if you think that’s the only appeal, or even the main appeal, you couldn’t be more wrong.” She glared at the old lady. “Have youlookedat your nephew, really looked? Have you spoken to him? Do you evenknowhim? Because if you did, you couldn’t possibly think any woman would marry him for his fortune.”
Lady Gosforth stared down her long arrogant nose, as if Maddy were an insect, and in the most skeptical of tones drawled, “You would have me believe you desire my nephew for himself alone?”
“I don’t give a fig for what you believe!” Maddy snapped her fingers. “But I will make him a better wife than any of those blue-blooded girls on your precious list.”
“Pshaw! You haven’t the first idea how to support his career.”
“No, I don’t,” Maddy admitted. “Yet. But I will learn, just see if I don’t. I might not have lived in my father’s house for most of my life, but it was a gentleman’s establishment, and I ran it for the last year of his life. My mother and grandmother also trained me in some of the accomplishments of a lady—”
“Some?”
“I may not play the pianoforte or paint in watercolors, but my Italian is excellent,” Maddy responded coolly. She scorned to hide the deficiencies of her education to this vile old busybody.
“Your manners, however”—Lady Gosforth started a new row of knitting; it seemed such an incongruous occupation for such an elegant woman—“leave a great deal to be desired.”
“My manners are appropriate to the company in which I find myself,” Maddy flashed.
The finely plucked brows rose in faint incredulity at her blunt speaking. Maddy felt a spurt of satisfaction. She would not be cowed by this arrogant old woman.
She took a deep breath and continued, “I am not like the girls on your list, I know. I am not beautiful or rich, I haven’t received a fine education, and I no longer have any family, let alone one with influence. But unlike your girls, I’m not spoiled and I’ve never been indulged. I know that nothing worthwhile comes without hard work, I have courage and brains and determination. You think I’m greedy, and perhaps I am, but I’m not selfish. And Iwillbe a good wife to Nash.”
Lady Gosforth stopped knitting and gave Maddy a hard look. “Such a good wife, in fact, that he is talking about giving up his career as a diplomat and becoming a country squire.”
Maddy blanched. “That’s not true.” It couldn’t be.
“It is,” Lady Gosforth said. “He told me so this very day. Said he’d developed an interest in agricultural endeavors.”
“Nash?” Marcus exclaimed in incredulity. “Interested in agriculture? What rot.”
“Precisely, Marcus. It’s as plain as the nose on your face that Nash is contemplating giving up the career he has worked so hard for and excels at, simply because he’s been forced into amésalliancewith a chit who is no more suited to be a diplomat’s wife than her maid.” She turned to Maddy and added, “He knows that you will drag him down.”
Maddy swallowed, her throat dry. “Iwon’tdrag him down,” she said in a low, fierce voice. “Iwon’tlet him resign from his job and Iwillmake him a good wife. I don’t expect you to believe it or to take my word for it; time will prove me right.”
She took a few steps toward the door, then stopped. She wanted to get everything off her chest while her temper was up. She might not have the courage later. Or the opportunity. “Iwillmarry Nash, and nothing you can say or do will change my mind. And I mean to make a success of the marriage. But you”—her glance took in both Lady Gosforth and Lord Alverleigh—“you still have a choice.”
Lady Gosforth exchanged an opaque look with Marcus. “We have a choice, do we? And what might that be?”
Maddy straightened her back. “You can continue to undermine me, whispering in corners and sniping behind my back, or you can help me make a success of my marriage to Nash, help me learn the things I must learn to help him with his career. And help me make him happy.”
She looked at Marcus, so like Nash, but with none of the warmth, and his aunt, who stared back with narrowed, gimlet eyes. “So which is it to be?” Maddy finished.
There was a long silence. Lady Gosforth examined the rings on her elegantly manicured, gnarled hands. Lord Alverleigh picked an invisible piece of fluff off his sleeve. Closing ranks.
Maddy had expected indifference; nevertheless, a ball of disappointment settled in her stomach.
“Then,” she said with resolution, “I will manage it on my own.” She turned to leave.
Lady Gosforth’s voice stopped her. “I was not whispering.”
“My apologies, Lady Gosforth, you are quite correct. You have a very carrying voice and your words were audible halfway down the corridor.” Maddy inclined her head in ironic concession.
“Young woman!” Lady Gosforth rapped, interrupting Maddy’s attempt to make a dignified exit yet again.
She swung around. “What?”
