Merely the Groom (Free Fellows League 2)

“For everyone involved.” Lord Davies grinned. “My family, His Majesty’s government, Colonel Grant and those who work within the War Office and keep its secrets, Bow Street and Mr. Wickham, the other Colin Fox—if he exists—and you, Lord Grantham.”

Colin arched an eyebrow at Lord Davies. “You know I had nothing to do with your daughter’s unfortunate elopement, yet you expect me to pay for it. Tell me, Lord Davies, how that solution benefits me?”

“You get to marry my daughter.” Lord Davies reached over and clapped Colin on the back. “And you get to continue your vital work for His Majesty’s government; otherwise I’ll continue my investigation, and I won’t stop until I uncover every scrap of information there is about Colin Fox and his position in the War Office.”

Jarrod had warned him, but still, Colin was stunned at the baron’s apparent ruthlessness. “You would endanger the lives of the brave men fighting for their country just to secure a husband for your daughter?”

“I’ll do whatever’s necessary to secure you as husband for my daughter, because your position doesn’t allow for scandal any more than hers does.”

“No offense, sir, but I’m not inclined to marry, and your daughter may feel likewise.”

“My daughter is disgraced,” the baron said. “If she marries you, she gets a husband, a respected name and title for herself and the child she may be carrying, and protection from blackmail and scandal.”

“Protection, a respected name, and title would be all she’d get,” Colin said bluntly. “As you are no doubt aware, I’m in no position to take a wife or accept a legal heir. My line of work doesn’t afford me that luxury. And neither does my bank balance.” He frowned. He might have been able to afford a wife yesterday, before he’d promised to pay for Liana’s season. But today, it was out of the question. “And if I did consent to marry her, I wouldn’t have a place to put her or a child who would become my legal responsibility.” He looked at the baron. “I occupy a suite of rooms in the Marquess of Shepherdston’s town house across the park. I don’t have a home of my own in which to take her.”

“You marry my daughter, and you’ll be able to afford anything your heart desires,” Lord Davies told him cheerfully. “I’m a very wealthy man, and as my only child, my daughter stands to inherit a vast fortune. Her dowry is quite handsome.”

Colin had always known he would have to offer himself up as a sacrifice on the altar of matrimony one day. He had always understood that marrying money was the only practical solution to his problem. He couldn’t maintain his place in society and support his mother and siblings without a considerable income, and although his financial investments were turning a profit, Colin couldn’t make enough money to pay his father’s gambling debts and support them all.

Bloody hell, but the baron’s solution was tempting! More tempting than he wanted to admit. Colin had never dreamed he’d be faced with a moral dilemma. He’d never imagined that he would find the idea of selling himself to a rich prospective father-in-law objectionable, but that was before a rich prospective father-in-law had made an offer.

Now, the idea seemed sordid somehow, like trafficking in slaves and sugar in the West Indies or seducing and stealing from unsuspecting virgins. “It’s tempting, Lord Davies, but I’m not for sale.”

“Everyone’s for sale at some price.” Lord Davies studied the expression on Colin’s face. “And I mean to buy my daughter a respectable husband, whatever the price. Surely, that comes as no surprise to you, Lord Grantham. It’s the way in which the world works and the way in which most unions are fashioned—especially among the peerage. You’re a poor viscount. You must have realized that you would have to secure a wealthy heiress as wife someday.”

“I’ve been a dedicated bachelor since I was but nine years of age because I’m a poor viscount with little chance to inherit even the most moderate of incomes,” Colin informed him. “I’ve always known I would have to marry well in order to support my family in the manner my name and title demands. I didn’t know I would find the proposition so distasteful.”

“I, for one, am delighted to hear it!” Baron Davies threw back his head and laughed. “Because I’ve already had one request for fifty thousand pounds for her upkeep from her first husband and I’d find it distasteful to have another fortune hunter marry my daughter. The fact that you find the idea of marrying her for my money repugnant sets my mind at ease. I hate to disappoint you, Lord Grantham, but you’re no matrimonial mercenary. And that’s all the more reason you should marry her.”

“I don’t follow,” Colin said.

“It’s simple,” Lord Davies explained. “I prefer you to a true fortune hunter. You have more to offer than you know. In the course of performing your vital work for His Majesty’s government, you will be able to find the man masquerading as Colin Fox and bring him to justice without risking my daughter’s reputation. Who better to see justice done for a lady betrayed than he

r father and her new husband?”

“That’s blackmail.”

“Of course it is,” the baron agreed.

“I’ll be sacrificing my freedom.”

“Yes, you will,” Lord Davies replied. “But you’ll be amply rewarded for doing so, and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you sacrificed your freedom to protect a young woman’s reputation and your country’s secrets.”

Chapter Ten

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”

—William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

King Henry VI, Part 2

He had sold his soul to the devil. An English devil. A ruthless merchant devil. Life, as he knew it, was over.

Colin McElreath, twenty-seventh Viscount Grantham, stared down at his signature on the smooth vellum paper as he pressed his signet ring into the puddle of melted red wax on the document. It was done. He was about to become a very wealthy man. And his new solvency had only cost him his good name, his title, his future, his freedom, and fifteen hundred pounds sterling.

Colin was relinquishing his Free Fellow status, sealing his fate for cash because duty required it. Because his first loyalty was to the Free Fellows League and the work they did. The work they had sworn to do. But Colin had an equally large obligation to his family. Because his father, the ninth Earl of McElreath, had squandered what had remained of the family fortune and because the man standing before him—the newly created Baron Davies—was a rich silk merchant who urgently required a respectable son-in-law for his disgraced daughter and had ruthlessly set in motion the means to make it happen…

“Welcome to the family,” the baron said. “It’s been a pleasure doing business with you, my lord.”