“He will. He will find a way. If nothing else, he will delay long enough that it is the same as saying no.”
“He will give it to me. He loves me.” After all, he’d already given her a little of her portion. How much harder would it be to get the rest?
“That is exactly why he will not. Damnit, Gwen, think! I wouldn’t let you have your money if I were him. You cannot spend your fortune on a risky gambit with a known fortune hunter.”
“But you’re not a fortune hunter. And you want to take the risk with your sisters’ money. Why not with mine?”
He had no answer to that. She could see it in his frustrated glower. She returned it with equal measure. And in such a state, they arrived at his titular castle. And a more ramshackle, disaster she’d never seen.
She loved it.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Was there evera more maddening woman? He’d taken her on this trip specifically to propose to her. He wanted to marry her! But before he could even get to the romantic setting he’d planned, the woman brought up the idea that they wed for her money. It didn’t matter that that wasn’t her intention. She’d brought up the specter of fortune hunting, and he couldn’t propose now without her thinking that he wanted her for her dowry.
It was his fault for doing this when he was ill-tempered. His father was immovable and, truth be told, Jackson couldn’t fault the man for his caution. All she’d had to do was suggest in her gentle way that perhaps his father had a point, and it all came tumbling out. His frustration, his fears that he was taking too huge a risk, and his absolute determination to see it through to the end.
Then, just as they were crossing the moat into the castle grounds, she’d had the audacity to say she never intended to get married right before jumping out of the gig and running pell-mell into the castle ruins. He’d never seen her this gloriously uninhibited before. Most people would inspect the crumbling walls of the keep, the still-sturdy front archway, or the debris-clogged moat. Not Lady Gwen. She ran to a clutch of weeds and was already kneeling in the dirt to look closer.
She’d never looked more charming, especially when she turned to him with an excited grin. “Look what I’ve found!”
He sighed, but the sound soon turned into a chuckle. He loved it when she was happy. “Tell me what it is while I take care of the gig.”
She began speaking, her voice rushed and barely heard, especially when she faced the plant and not him. He caught perhaps every third word, but it didn’t matter. He gathered the plant was rare and she wanted cuttings.
Once he’d set the horse free to graze, he grabbed the picnic basket and headed toward her. “If I’d realized how delighted you’d be with this place, I would have brought you sooner.”
“If I’d known it was here, I would have found a way to get here on my own.”
So independent. “I promise to take you whenever you want.”
She waved away his chivalrous comment. “You’ve plenty to do and no interest in watching me grub around in the dirt.”
Now there was a turn of phrase. He’d wager anything those weren’t her words. “Did your mother say that to you? When you were growing up?”
“Hmm? Oh yes. Nanny, too.” She straightened up. “I don’t have to take a cutting now. I can come back later, if you prefer.”
“Heavens no. I delight in watching you be delighted.”
She snorted as she inspected the moss on the wall. “I doubt that.”
“And yet it’s true.”
She looked back at him. Her head tilted a bit to the side, and the sunlight made her honey colored hair appear shot with gold. It was beautiful, but what he liked most was the way her nose wrinkled at him.
“You’re flirting with me,” she stated, and there was curiosity more than accusation in her tone.
“Not really.” He took a deep breath, and as he exhaled, he pushed aside all thoughts of risk and reward, money and management. He was with her now and nothing was more important than that. “Take all the time you want. Look at whatever you want. I’m going to take our picnic basket back to the chapel. It’s through there and to the right.”
She followed the line of his gesture and nodded. “Is the roof stable?”
“Collapsed years ago. Has all sorts of interesting things growing inside. You’ll love it.”
She grinned and hurried to his side. “I can’t wait.”
He laughed and held out his hand to her, feeling very pleased when she took it. His excuse was that the ground was uneven, and he was helping her past the crumbled ruins of some small structure. He had no idea what. But once she’d stepped over the patch of stones, he refused to let her go. He liked entwining their fingers together and she seemed content to remain with him.
As they walked, he gave her a brief history of the place. It had been built in the twelfth century on the ruins of an old Roman fortress. His family had lived here through the generations until his mother was pregnant with him and the chapel roof collapsed. That was enough to convince his father to pack up the whole lot of them—his grandfather was still alive then—and move to the dower property, which was where they lived now.