Hardly a Husband (Free Fellows League 3)

"I happen to be a very generous lover." Her criticism stung and Jarrod was eager to prove Lady Dunbridge wrong.

Lady Dunbridge made a clucking sound with her tongue. "I beg your pardon, Lord Shepherdston, but that's exactly my point. You are no doubt a very generous lover. And I'm sure my niece would be very happy with the fabulous pieces of jewelry you would give her to mark special occasions, but would you care enough for her to provide for her future when the affair was over?"

"I am very fond of Sarah," he protested.

"Of course you are," Lady Dunbridge said. "But you're fond of her in the way a child is fond of a puppy or a kitten."

"I offered to buy her a house."

"And I'm sure she was most appreciative of your grand gesture, but what good is a house when she has no one to share it?" Lady Dunbridge countered.

"She would have you to share it," Jarrod said. "I proposed buying a house for the two of you. Sarah refused it."

"Of course she did." Lady Dunbridge nodded. "She's unmarried. She can't accept a gift like that from you. And she wouldn't even if she could."

"Why not?" he demanded. "It would be a roof over her head."

"It would also be the worst kind of charity," Lady Dunbridge pronounced. "And you know it. She offered you the gift of herself. You refused her."

Jarrod frowned. "You know I couldn't take what she offered."

"Other men would have."

Jarrod nodded. "Yes, I know, but I couldn't." He looked up and met Lady Dunbridge's steady brown-eyed gaze.

"Other women would have accepted the house," she said simply. "But Sarah couldn't. She wants you. But since you have an aversion to marrying her…"

"I don't have an aversion to marrying Sarah," he corrected. "My aversion, as you put it, is for marriage in general."

"I'm sure my niece will be delighted to learn that your rejection of her wasn't personal," Lady Dunbridge retorted dryly.

"It wasn't personal," he insisted. "Except to her."

"It doesn't matter," she said. "The fact is that you've no wish to wed her for whatever reason and you've proven yourself too honorable to take her outside the bonds of marriage. Sarah will have to readjust her thinking and learn to accept someone else as her husband or as her lover."

Jarrod focused his gaze on the tablecloth, glaring at it as if he wished to burn a hole in it with his eyes. "What if Sarah doesn't want to rearrange her thinking?"

Lady Dunbridge arched a brow and eyed Jarrod in a speculative manner. So, Lord Shepherdston didn't like the idea of Sarah readjusting her thinking in order to accept someone else as her husband. "She won't, of course, but we don't always get what we want in life. Life is made up of compromises, disappointments, and changes in one's outlook. Sarah says she'd rather pursue a career as a courtesan than settle for less. But I think she protests too much and I intend to see that she becomes the wife of someone who won't think of her as a sort of bothersome younger sister." She looked up at Shepherdston from beneath the cover of her lashes to gauge his expression.

"I don't think of her as a sort of bothersome younger sister," Shepherdston corrected. "I don't think of her in any way at all except as a young lady of my acquaintance." As soon as the words left his mouth, Jarrod knew he'd lied to Lady Dunbridge. He'd thought of Sarah quite a bit in the past few hours and most definitely not as a younger sister.

"Then it's a good thing you've an aversion to marriage in general, because thinking of her as a young lady of your acquaintance is much worse than thinking fondly of her." Lady Dunbridge drew her brows together. Poor Sarah! The marquess hadn't a drop of romance in his soul and didn't know the first thing about courting a woman.

He started to protest, but Lady Dunbridge held up her hand to halt his flow of words. "You needn't worry about explaining," she sympathized. "You cannot help your feelings any more than Sarah can help hers. And that makes everything worse for us because Sarah risked her reputation to pay her call on you. And would-be suitors take a dim view of things like that. If word of it ever reached the ears of the ton…"

"I assure you that no one will ever hear a word of Sarah's visit from me."

"I'll hold you to that," Lady Dunbridge promised. "Because you know we aren't going to breathe a word of it. Gentlemen — especially would-be suitors — tend to become very annoyed when their intended's virtue comes into question." She paused long enough to moisten her mouth with a sip of tea. "I suppose it would be different if Sarah were a great beauty or a great heiress. Suitors are generally willing to overlook tiny flaws in a girl's virtue if she's beautiful and rich, just as most people in the ton overlook the flaws in your virtue because you're a handsome, rich marquess. But Sarah is none of those things."

"I think your niece is quite beautiful," Jarrod said.

"I know you do." Lady Dunbridge pretended not to understand his compliment. "I do, too. But that's because we know her inner beauty. Most people never see past her red hair and freckled complexion. But there's no mistaking the fact that she will never be a great beauty. And unless she marries a fortune, Sarah will never be rich."

"Madam, believe me when I tell you your niece is already a great beauty. Her red hair is her crowning glory and the few freckles she has across the bridge of her nose are quite endearing." He frowned at Lady Dunbridge. How could the woman look at Sarah and not see how beautiful she was? "And as for marrying wealth, I was given to understand that she's betrothed to your nephew by marriage, Lord Dunbridge."

"You heard the gossip." It was a statement, not a question.

"I did."