Catch a Falling Heiress: An American Heiress in London (12 page)

“Why? Because you’d rather carouse around Paris with dancing girls than do something useful?”

Jack gave a grim smile. “You have been asking about me. A title is only useful, sir, if a peer has the ability to run his estates and provide employment for the people of his village. I lack the capital to do that.”

“And you peers think it’s beneath you to earn a living.”

“The truth is more brutal. Most of us simply aren’t qualified to do anything. We have excellent educations—I’m an Eton and Cambridge man, myself. But our education teaches us nothing useful, certainly not anything so middle-class as earning a living. There’s the army, but one has to buy a commission, and my father refused. There’s also politics, if your family has influence and can put up the money for political campaigns. My family met neither of those criteria. Until I became the earl, the only money I ever had was doled out to me at the whim of my father, and after him, my brother, and both of them were far more inclined to spend their money on themselves than on me, which left me in a perpetual state of economic uncertainty, a circumstance both of them found quite entertaining, by the way.”

“I see. And when you became the earl?”

“I discovered that despite my family’s penchant for advantageous marriages, every shilling poured into the Featherstone coffers had been spent. I leased the houses to pay the interest on their mortgages, and land rents cover the expenses, with just enough left to give me a small income. Until I came to New York, I chose to live in Paris because it’s less expensive than London and less dull. As for the dancing girls . . .” He paused and shrugged. “Can you fault a bachelor for that?”

“You’ve never thought to marry before now?”

“I may be a Featherstone, but I’ve never regarded marrying well as a profession,” he said dryly. “And once a peer marries, he assumes a position in society that isn’t required of him as a bachelor. It’s hard to maintain that position and support a wife and children on seventy quid a month.”

“Yet you had enough capital to invest with Van Hausen?”

“I borrowed it from a friend. Investments are one of the few possibilities for a man in my position, which is why I came to New York. But now I’ve lost even that capital.”

“And yet, you could have allowed Linnet to become engaged to Van Hausen, and you would have at least gotten back your seed money. But you didn’t do that.” When Jack didn’t reply, Holland gave a sigh and sat back in his chair. “It’s clear you’re of no mind to explain your motives there, so I’ll come to the point.”

Jack didn’t know whether to be relieved or not.

“An alliance for my daughter with any man of our circle is off the table now. I offered to find an American husband for her outside our set, but she refused my help.” He raised his hands and let them fall, the gesture of a man who, despite vast wealth, success, intelligence, and strong will, found his daughter ungovernable. “After going at it hammer and tongs, I agreed to cooperate with her plans. She intends to accede to her mother’s ambitions at last and find a British peer to marry.”

Jack had enough masculine pride to feel annoyed. “She already has one British peer waiting in the wings. How many does she need?”

Holland picked up a pen on his desk and began toying with it in his fingers, giving him a wry look. “I believe her main criterion is that the man in question be any peer but you.”

“And you accept that?”

“What choice do I have? Would it be better to refuse the dowry and let her be ruined? Or should I lock her in the attic? I couldn’t talk her out of this, and it would be a waste of breath trying to convince her mother to do so. Thankfully, Linnet has plenty of sense. She knows she’ll need an ironclad marriage settlement and a man of decent character, so she intends to put herself in the hands of Lady Trubridge.”

“My sister-in-law?” Jack stared at the other man in dismay. “Your daughter intends to hire her to be her matchmaker?”

“Why shouldn’t she? Lady Trubridge, I’m told, is the most famous marriage broker in England. The woman has made quite a name for herself arranging these transatlantic marriages.”

“Belinda doesn’t arrange marriages of convenience.”

“Since you are responsible for the situation, Linnet hopes Lady Trubridge will make an exception to that rule.”

Jack rubbed a hand over his forehead. He’d have to cable Belinda at once and give her an inkling of what was in the wind before the girl arrived. He’d also have to persuade his sister-in-law to take his side, and given what a dismal husband his late brother had been, that could be tricky.

Holland interrupted these contemplations by tossing his pen onto his desk. “Linnet thinks you did this for money. You might persuade her to accept you if you refuse a personal settlement.”

“And what would I do for an income? Be as dependent upon my wife as I was upon my brother?” He shook his head. “No. I don’t like accepting a dowry, but in making my estates into homes for Linnet and our children, I’ll lose my income from leasing the houses, and as small as it is, I must have an income of my own.”

“If you intend to marry into a wealthy American family, Lord Featherstone, you need to think bigger.”

He frowned. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I mean, I’ll stake you a sum of your own outside the formal marriage settlement.” Holland leaned forward, clasping his hands on the desk top. “Say, half a million dollars?”

Jack stared at him, dumbfounded. “Why would you do that?”

“I’m a realistic man, and I know how to face facts, however repugnant they may be. Whatever your motives, Linnet has to marry because of you. It looks as if that man is going to be a Brit, you or some other. Given that you’re the one who ruined her, marrying you is less likely to leave a permanent stain on her reputation. And you did protect her, albeit in an unsavory way, from Van Hausen’s schemes.”

“Yes, I’m quite a hero.” Jack gave the other man a sardonic look. “Forgive me if I wait for the other shoe to drop.”

Holland smiled. “I have some conditions.”

“Of course you do. After all, nothing is free in this world.”

“You and I are beginning to understand each other. My first requirement is that you invest the funds, not spend them.”

“A reasonable request. I hope you have some investment suggestions to offer?”

“I do. I’m told you know the Duke of Margrave?”

Jack blinked, surprised and wary. “I do. Why do you ask?”

“Margrave is a famous man. He navigated part of the Congo. He discovered a species of butterfly. He’s quite the explorer.”

“Yes, Stuart’s rather a legend. It’s hard on his friends, for we can’t hope to compare, but—”

“So the two of you are still friends?” Holland interrupted, causing Jack to grimace. “I heard you’d had a falling-out.”

He shrugged. There was no point in lying about being on the outs with Stuart, not now. “We’ve reconciled.”

“How convenient.” Holland smiled. “Prior to her marriage, his duchess was Edie Jewell. If memory serves, after her liaison with Van Hausen became known, he refused to marry her, and that ruined her reputation. I begin to think your actions involving Van Hausen have something to do with Margrave’s wife.”

He gave the other man a noncommittal smile. “I cannot say. But what I can tell you is that I don’t like being cheated out of what little money I have. Why this interest in Stuart?”

“He knows Africa. Miss Jewell’s marriage portion was enormous, and from what I understand, Margrave invested it quite wisely—diamond mines, gold mines, coffee, railways, shale . . . and I’m told he’s become even wealthier as a result. Africa’s brimming with opportunities like that. I’ve wanted to invest funds there for quite some time, but I’ve never had the connections.”

Jack began to see. “So you want to buy mine.”

“Yes. I propose that you, Margrave, and I form an investment group, much as you did with Van Hausen, and that you use the sum I stake you as your share of the investment.”

Jack felt a jolt of excitement at those words, but he quashed it. “Are you sure you want to do this? My venture with Van Hausen didn’t go so well.”

“By design, unless I miss my guess.” Holland’s shrewd eyes met his across the desk. “Given all his successful investments, it’s amazing Margrave wasn’t able to steer you and Van Hausen toward mines that actually had gold in them.”

“Yes,” Jack agreed, working to keep his features blandly neutral. “Quite amazing.”

“Still, I’m willing to take the chance our investment group would prove more profitable than Van Hausen’s.”

Jack’s lips twitched a bit at that. “It could,” he conceded. “In doing this, we would share out thirds, I assume? If so, Stuart should have the 34 percent, and you and I 33. Since he possesses the information we’d need, he should have the controlling interest.”

“I’m amenable to that. So you like my proposal?”

“Like it?” Jack laughed a little, feeling dazed. But as he began to consider what such a venture could mean, shock began giving way to hope. This could be a chance, the first chance he’d ever had, to truly make something of his life. “You’ve just offered me the opportunity to change the Featherstone family history. How could I not like it?”

“Before you get too excited, I have one other condition. We can’t tell Linnet about it until after the wedding.”

Jack’s exhilaration faltered at that, and he frowned. “I don’t see why not. What is there for her to object to?”

“For one thing, it makes the motives for your proposal of marriage no less questionable. But the main objection she’d have is to me. If she knows we’re forming a company together, she’ll never marry you.”

“Why should it bother her? I would think she’d prefer that to giving me a personal settlement. Make the groom earn his way, that sort of thing.”

“Oh, Linnet’s got a bee in her bonnet about me just now. She won’t like my interference. It’ll be hard enough convincing her to wed you after what you’ve done, and if you tell her about our deal, it’ll be impossible. She’ll view it that we’re aligning together against her.”

He raked a hand through his hair. “So, you want me to lie.”

“It’s not a lie,” Holland corrected him at once. “We’ll form the company after the wedding, and I’ll put the money in trust until then. We’ll do the usual settlements you Brits seem to need—funds for your estates, a trust for the children, that sort of thing. All you have to do is make the grand gesture and refuse a personal settlement.”

“My God, you’re ruthless,” Jack muttered, not knowing whether to admire the other man or despise him. “I can see why you’re rich.”

“I’m not rich because I’m ruthless. I’m rich because I know how to turn adversities into opportunities. This is a winning situation all around, and I think you know it as well as I do. Linnet’s temper will cool down at some point, but we don’t have time to wait for that. If she marries you, you can tell her all about it after the honeymoon. What do you say?”

Jack didn’t answer at once. Holland might be able to form a palatable rationale in his own mind for moving his daughter around like a chess piece, but when it came to deceiving a girl, Jack was not quite so sanguine.

On the other hand, there was more at stake here than Linnet’s pride. This was, first and foremost, about doing the honorable thing. But it had also just become something more, something that took his breath away. He had the chance to change a fate thrust upon him before he’d been born. He could control his own destiny. He could make a future for himself and for the future generations of his family. How could he turn that down?

He couldn’t. Holland knew it, too, and as he looked at the smile playing around the other man’s mouth, he appreciated just why Linnet would be opposed to her father’s interference in her life. But Jack knew his course had been set the moment he’d kissed her, and he wasn’t about to back down just because everything he wanted had just been tossed in his lap if he succeeded.

“You have a deal,” he said. “Provided Stuart agrees, and with one other condition. I have no intention of waiting until after the wedding to tell her. I’ll tell her when we negotiate the marriage settlement, after the engagement has been announced.”

Holland bristled at that. “She doesn’t have to know beforehand. Business matters aren’t a woman’s concern anyway.”

“We do it my way, or I won’t be talking to Stuart at all.”

“Oh, very well. I know my daughter, and I think it’s a mistake, but I’ll leave it to you. If she balks at the last minute, and she’s ruined as a result, not only will we not be forming a company, I’ll kill you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now, I must go.” Jack rose to his feet. “I have to book passage on the next ship home.”

Holland also stood up. “I’ll be following you to England in about two weeks. If you’ve done your part and convinced Linnet to change her mind, you’ll arrange a meeting with Margrave, and we’ll make the final arrangements for this venture when we settle the dowry, and I’ll put your funds in a private trust.”

Jack nodded, hoping like hell those funds didn’t turn out to be thirty pieces of silver.

L
ONDON IN EARLY
September was less pleasant than London in the season. It was hotter, smellier, and seemed swathed in more coal soot than ever. And despite the fact that the official end of the season had occurred several weeks earlier, the streets of the city were as congested with traffic as ever.

Linnet leaned out the window of the hansom cab, but the carriages along the Strand were jammed as tightly as sardines in a tin can, and she drew back with a sigh.

“I knew we should have stayed at Thomas’s,” she murmured. “We could have walked to our appointment from there. As it is now, we’re going to be late.”

“Nonsense.” Helen settled herself more firmly in her seat. “We’ve still plenty of time to reach the West End. Though I wish I was sure you know what you’re doing. Featherstone is willing to do the right thing, and since he is the one who compromised you—”

“I am not marrying Lord Featherstone. We’ve gone round and round on this during the voyage over. How many times must we discuss it before you accept my decision?”