The Proud Viscount Read Free Page B

fulfill any social obligations.
    There were no balls, and few parties, that he regretted not attending, and he certainly didn’t mind not having to give them himself. He regretted not being able to maintain a stable of riding and carriage horses, and he wished there were the resources to hunt, but he preferred the freedom of his run-down seat to the straitlaced strictures of London...or even of Willow End.
    He presented himself now to Lady Mabel with his usual polite attention. She was seated on a spoon-back chair that looked only marginally comfortable, though there were plenty of more commodious seats in the room. Her graying hair was pulled back tightly into a bun and her posture was rigid with resolution. She waved him imperatively to a chair and regarded him with a penetrating stare. Calculated to remind him of his indebtedness? Perhaps. He had only known her to be forthright, not manipulative. It was possible that she merely assessed him.
    “I saw you on Ascot,” she said. “There’s a devil in the beast that’s not always controllable.”
    “So I’ve noticed. I assure you I don’t underestimate him.”
    “Good.” She dismissed the subject with a slight flip of her hand. “I wanted you to come here so we could have a talk about your future, Rossmere.”
    Though he disliked the sound of this topic, he continued to look agreeable, without offering a remark or asking a question. He was not a man to be easily intimidated. His godmother was forced to continue her discussion without his help.
    “There’s the matter of my family obligations. I have five nieces and nephews in addition to you, my godchild. When I die, my brother’s children have some right to expect an inheritance from me. Not that they need it, any of them, but they’re blood ties. I’d feel more comfortable knowing that each of them was already provided for, and there’s one who isn’t, in some ways. Jane may have more than sufficient property, but she lacks that essential for any woman—a husband and family.”
    “It’s most unfortunate Lady Jane was unable to marry Richard.” Rossmere knew precisely where his aunt was headed now and he refused to follow her there. He had been away from society too long. It hadn’t occurred to him, when the invitation came from Lady Mabel, that she would have this particular scheme in mind, though it should have. She had been determined for years to marry him off to an heiress. He was surprised she would consider her own niece, except for Lady Jane’s advanced age. Rossmere regarded his godmother with a slight frown of disapproval. “I don’t think she has recovered from my cousin’s death.”
    “She may never,” Mabel informed him in her bluntest manner. “That’s hardly the point. Each month that passes reduces her chance of marrying. We’re not talking about a love match. We’re speaking strictly of a marriage of convenience. For both of you, Rossmere. You need a wife who has property. Jane needs a husband who can establish a place for her in society and give her children.”
    “I can’t believe your niece would countenance such a match.”
    “Perhaps not—just yet.” Mabel leaned toward him, gripping the arms of her chair with determined fingers. “You would have to convince her of the desirability of the match. She thinks she will be content as an aunt to her brothers’ and sisters’ children. It’s not enough. She needs to marry soon, before she can become entrenched in a spinster’s way of life.”
    “What else has she been leading all these years?”
    Mabel bestowed a scornful look on him. “Basically she’s led the life of a fiancée these past seven years. A fiancée who never intended to marry, it’s true, but a fiancée nonetheless. With all that entails.”
    Rossmere couldn’t be sure exactly what his godmother meant to convey by this insistence on a pseudo-engagement. Surely not that the young woman wasn’t a virgin. After all, the reason the pair hadn’t wed was