The Duchess (Montgomery/Taggert 16)

“She sounds nice,” Claire managed to say.

“She is. You’d like her. I mean, that is, if you could meet her, but I guess you can’t.” He paused and looked at her. “Claire, why have you been crying?”

Claire started to answer him, but her tears started again.

Harry got up from his chair and went to stand before the big portrait that was the doorway to the tunnels. “It’s Trevelyan, isn’t it?”

Claire didn’t answer him and Harry looked back at her. For the first time, Claire saw anger on that handsome face. “I don’t need an answer. All the women fall for him. Every woman on the face of the earth. Wherever he goes, all the women love him. They all want to go away with him.”

He looked down at the floor. “Will you go away with him?”

“I…I don’t think so.”

Harry gave her a hard look. “You want to though, don’t you?”

Claire couldn’t answer him. Did she want to go with Trevelyan? Did she want to put herself in the hands of a man who was as cynical as Trevelyan was? Did she want to live with a man who had seen and done as much as he had? Did she want a man who was as self-contained and cold as he was?

Harry saw her hesitation and he went to her, took her hands in both of his, and began kissing them. “Claire, tell me that I have a chance with you. Please tell me that I’m not out of the running yet. I won’t ask you to go hunting with me. I won’t ask you to do anything that you don’t want to do. I know that I’m not exciting like Trevelyan is, but I can offer you some things that he can’t.”

He picked up the portfolio from the bed. “Look at this. While I was in Edinburgh, I paid off all your mother’s debts. She’s ordered a great many clothes. I had to sell a Gainsborough to get the money. The painting had been in my family for years, but it was worth it to do something for you. And here, I had my solicitors draw up papers putting money in trust for your little sister. It’s a way to prevent anyone from spending her money. I also had a new will drawn up. It says that after we’re married and should I die before your sister is married, she’s to have an estate of mine in the Cotswolds. She gets the estate and all the income from it.”

Claire picked up the papers, but her eyes were too blurry to read them.

“And look at this. It’s a paper that puts a limit on your parents’ spending. It’s an allowance for them. They’ll always be taken care of as long as I’m your husband, but they can’t touch your principal.”

He took a breath, then handed her another paper. “And this one limits my spending. After we’re married, you shall have control of your money. You shall have a say in how it’s spent. You can do what you like with the crofters’ houses. I know they mean something to you. You can turn Bramley and my other estates into an American commercial venture if you want.”

He placed the last of the papers on her lap. “Claire, I do love you. I know that I’m not like Trevelyan. I know that I could never offer you the excitement he does, but I can offer you and your family a secure future. I can offer them a home. All of you will be taken care of for all your lives. And Claire, I’ll be good to you. I’ll be as good as I can be.”

Claire sat there in the big bed surrounded by the many papers and looked at them. This is what she wanted. She had wanted love and security for herself and her family and here it was in abundance.

She looked back up at him and he smiled at her, then picked up the flowers and handed them to her. They were yellow roses, her favorite.

He leaned forward and kissed her damp cheek. “Claire, I might not be as electrifying as Trevelyan, or as well read, or as heroic. I haven’t done much in my life and I’ve seen only the ordinary things, but I think I can say that I’ll make you a better husband than he will. I don’t have his temper.” Harry smiled. “I think I can say for certain that I’ll be easier to live with than he would be.”

He kissed her hand again. “Won’t you please give me another chance? I won’t be such a fool this time.”

Claire gave him a weak smile and she knew that, the truth was, she really had no choice in the matter. She couldn’t abandon her family. She couldn’t run off with Trevelyan and give her parents every right to say that they didn’t approve of her marriage to a penniless adventurer. And if they didn’t approve, then Claire’s grandfather’s millions would go to her parents and they’d spend everything in a few years. Trevelyan had said that she’d come to hate him when she received a letter from her sister saying that she and their parents were destitute. What would her parents do when the money was gone? Neither of them knew how to work. Well, maybe her mother did, but it had been too long ago for her to remember.

“Of course I’ll marry you,” she whispered to Harry. “But I have to tell you—”

Harry put a finger to her lips to stop her from speaking. “I don’t want to hear anything about you and Trevelyan. Maybe we should forget that these last few days happened. I shouldn’t have left you alone. I shouldn’t have become so angry. It was all my fault. I take full responsibility.”

His words made Claire cry more. She didn’t deserve anyone as nice as Harry. He had done everything he could to try to please her and all she was doing was bawling at the prospect of marrying him.

“I’ll leave you alone now and you can get dressed. I’ve arranged for us to hav

e lunch in the library. From now on the library is yours. You can come and go as you please.”

He kissed her cheek again. “Please have luncheon with me.”

She put the handkerchief to her eyes and nodded at him.

He rose from the bed and went to the door. “I shall be looking forward to our time together.”

Harry closed the door behind him and went straight to his mother’s room. When he reached the room there was no softness on his face.

“Well?” Eugenia demanded.