Hardly a Husband (Free Fellows League 3)

"It makes a great deal of difference to me," Lord Rob said. "And to most decent members of the ton. You are a gentleman. She was an innocent. You should never have allowed her into your home at that time of morning."

"What was I supposed to do? Have Henderson turn her back out onto the street?"

"You should have put her back in her coach and sent her back to her hotel," Lord Mayhew said.

"She didn't have a coach," Jarrod reminded him. "That's why we borrowed yours this morning."

"If she didn't have a coach, how the devil did she get from Ibbetson's Hotel to Park Lane? Which, by the by, is no place for her or her aunt to be staying without an escort." Lord Rob frowned. He'd have to remember to speak to Henrietta about that. "It's respectable, but not nearly as respectable as the Clarendon or Grillon's."

"She dismissed her coach and walked from the top of the lane to my house alone and in the rain," Jarrod interrupted, "so no one would see her coach parked outside my house."

Lord Rob raked his fingers through his hair. "Good lord! It's a miracle she wasn't accosted by anyone but you."

"I didn't accost her," Jarrod said. "I kissed her. There's a difference. And if you remember correctly, I told you why she came to my house this morning."

"What are you going to do about this?"

Jarrod sighed. "Nothing."

Lord Rob was outraged. "Nothing?"

"Sarah understands that I've no wish to marry."

"Good for Sarah," Lord Rob said sarcastically. "She's to be commended for being so understanding. I wish I could say the same and I'm certain her aunt will wish it, because tomorrow morning that girl's name and reputation are going to be offered up as fodder for the rumor mill. Every rake and rogue in town with an itch in his trousers will be knocking upon her hotel door once they hear the news that Miss Eckersley is easily persuaded to part with her virtue. And people at the party tonight will be counting the months to see if she's going to deliver the Shepherdston heir."

"She isn't," Jarrod said. "I can assure them of that."

"How? By taking out advertisements in the papers? Announcing it from the speaker's box in the House?"

"Of course not!" Jarrod began to pace the study.

"Then how, Jarrod? Because you know what will happen. All the regulars — the young bucks and the old lechers — at White's will congratulate you on your new conquest. No one will think badly of you for taking what she gave freely, but she'll be ruined. And what will you do then? Make her your mistress? Or purchase her a husband?"

"Whichever she wants," Jarrod said. "I'll do whatever she wants so long as it doesn't include marrying me."

"I don't understand." Lord Rob shook his head. "I don't understand why you find the idea of marrying her so repellent. You want her. You told me so yourself. And she wants you." He thought for a moment. "No, it's more than that. She loves you. Her heart is in her eyes every time she looks at you. You have to know it. You have to have seen it."

"I have and I do," Jarrod answered. "It hasn't changed. She's looked at me that way since I was three and ten and she was five."

"Then you should fall to your knees and thank your lucky stars for the gift of her love."

"Why?" Jarrod asked. "I never wanted it. I never asked for it. And I never encouraged it. Just the opposite." He blew out a breath. "I've done everything I know to do in order to discourage it. But she won't listen."

Jarrod sounded so much like a petulant child that Lord Rob couldn't help but smile. "Her love is a gift. You didn't have to want it. Or ask for it. Or encourage it. It is simply there for the taking."

"But why?"

Lord Rob shrugged his shoulders. "Who can say why we love the people we love?" He smiled at the man he loved as a son. "She loves you for reasons you may not understand. For reasons she may not understand. But for whatever reason, you are the man she loves. And nothing is going to change that."

"I don't want her to love me."

"Why? What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing is wrong with her," Jarrod said. "If I were in the market for a wife, Sarah is the first woman I'd ask. But I'm not in the market for a wife."

"You are the Marquess of Shepherdston," Lord Rob persisted. "A man with land, wealth, and hereditary titles. You have to marry someday in order to ensure succession of your line. It's your duty to your country and to your family."

"I do my duty to my country in other ways," Jarrod said. "And you are my only family. As for marrying to ensure the succession of my line, I don't intend that my line shall continue when I am gone."