She shook her head. “I am afraid you are making a bad bargain. My sulks are truly not that interesting.”
“Neither are mine, so we are a pair. And since misery loves company, pray will you tell me what is amiss?”
She grimaced and dropped her chin on her hand, and suddenly she did not seem so interested in his naked torso. It was quite lowering to realize she could dismiss it so quickly.
“I have discovered that I want a husband.” And though he didn’t say anything, her tone turned sharp. “I know I am incredibly old for this realization. Most girls discover it at a very young age, but I have been content with my books on botany and…” Her cheeks pinked. “And my other books. But then a few weeks ago I realized there are distinct advantages to having a husband.”
“And several drawbacks, I should think. What appeals to you specifically?”
“I do not wish to live forever with my mother, for one.” She sighed. “There is not enough money for me to set up my own residence.”
“Then the problem is not so much the lack of a husband as the lack of funds. And in that, I fear, we have the same difficulty.”
She arched a brow at him. “You don’t wish to live with your mother?” He could tell she was teasing him, and he answered in kind.
“My mother is several years gone, I’m afraid. I have no wish to live with my three younger sisters who hope to find husbands of their own after a Season of hunting in London.”
“Three sisters? One Season is expensive enough. Three would be—”
“Astronomical.”
She leaned back and gave him a smile. “Numbers alone would suggest that you win.”
“Win?” he asked.
“Three sisters to one mother suggests that you have the more difficult problem. But I submit to you that my mother could indeed be the match of three biddable girls. Indeed, I submit to you that she could make them miserable in the morning and still have time to poke at me.”
“Goodness. I had no idea Lady Byrn was such a harridan.”
Lady Gwen snorted. It would have been an inelegant sound except that somehow it matched her costume and charmed him instead. “Mama is not a harridan to anyone else. It is merely to me that she shows her worst qualities.” She flashed him a rueful smile. “And I to her, I’m afraid. We have been at odds as long as I can remember.”
“It shows good character that you can admit your part in your disagreements.”
She shrugged. “Well, she has the larger blame, of course, being older. Isn’t one’s parent supposed to indulge the offspring?”
“That has not been my experience,” he said dryly.
“Nor mine,” she echoed in an equally glum tone. Then she lifted her gaze back to his face. “So that is my tale of misery. What is yours?”
“I told you. Three sisters who want Seasons in London.”
“But you are a charming, intelligent man. Surely you can find—”
“Land to magically drop money into my open palms?”
She shook her head. “No, silly. Land is expensive and generational. Use your popularity.”
He stared at her. He didn’t know why he was conversing about money with a woman. She might be delightful, but he was the one who had studied the ins and outs of commerce these last ten years. And yet, she intrigued him, this woman in a mismatched dog costume. He pushed her for an explanation.
“I’m afraid I’m not as intelligent as one could hope. How, exactly, am I to use my popularity to get money? I assure you, it is a lot harder to wed an heiress than one might think.”
“At least as difficult as it is for me to find a husband, I should think.”
There was no polite way to respond to that. In truth, with a little help—and a total change of her wardrobe—he thought Lady Gwen could do well on the Marriage Mart.
“Then how should I—”
“It’s fairly simple. Make something you own popular. You have the charm to make that happen. Whatever it is, make every hostess want to display it and every gentleman want to set it upon his desk. Do you recall when everyone was desperate to wear Prussian blue? Mama searched all of London for a dress that color, but a single swath of blue cloth cost the earth. She had to settle for blue embroidery on the bodice of one gown. She called it the calamity of the Season.”