“Don’t be difficult. We’ll start with Lady Jersey. She loves it when the gossip comes to her first. We’ll show up early to Lady Castlereagh’s musicale tonight and tomorrow I’ll get you into the Willrich ball somehow—”
“No! Stop!” Lilah held up her hands. “Lord Kittrel is not responsible for my choices.”
“Very egalitarian of you, but that’s not how society works. I thought you understood that. Now—”
“He will not marry me!”
Lady Byrn grinned. “That’s where you’re wrong, Lilah. We can make everyone believe—”
“I’ve taken a position at a registry office. Starting tomorrow, I’ll run the place. You needn’t worry about this house. I’ll make sure that everything is in order for you here.” She squared her shoulders as she continued. “I won’t be calling on anyone, and I won’t go to any balls. I’ll be a working woman from now on.”
Her adoptive mother’s eyes widened in shock. Her mouth even hung open for a few very long moments. Then she snapped out a very firm response. “Absolutely not! If you’re working, you’ll never marry the earl.”
“He’s not going to marry me in any event. He said so quite specifically.” And several times, no less.
“What do men know about these things? I can count on one hand the marriages that were the man’s idea first. It’s always arranged beforehand by the women.” She leaned forward. “It’s fortunate that Kittrel’s mother isn’t in London. She would be the difficult one to persuade.”
Lilah leaped off the mattress. “Stop it!” she cried, startling herself at the violence in those two words. It took her a few deep breaths, but she managed to moderate her tone. “He has said no.”
“But—”
“I say no.”
“Now you’re being difficult!”
“I’m going to work in the morning. I am going to run a registry office. It’s a respectable position that I’m proud of.” She swallowed. “And maybe I’ll meet a respectable man with a position of his own. We’ll marry, have children, and be happy.”
“Now you listen here,” Lady Byrn said as she pushed herself out of bed. With every word, she advanced on Lilah. “I didn’t bring you into my home, raise you as my own, just to have you throw it all away. So stubborn!” Her hands clenched into fists as she banged them down through the air. “You, of all of my children, have been the most biddable, and yet here you are, being stubborn. I cannot understand it!”
Neither could Lilah. That was the first time that Lady Byrn had named her one of her children. Never had Lilah been lumped together with her half-siblings as if she were one and the same with them. It stole her breath enough that she barely processed the lady’s next words.
“You are of noble birth, and you will not shame me by acting beneath your station!”
“I’m illegitimate.”
“I know it! And yet, if you would but listen to me, I can get you a good match. An earl!”
Lilah shook her head. “But you can’t. He won’t marry me.”
“Have a little faith in me. Haven’t I proven myself? Diana and Gwen married spectacularly. I can do the same with you.” She squared her shoulders in much the same way Lilah had. “Indeed I promised your father that very thing. He loved you. He wanted the best for you, and I will provide it. But you must do exactly as I say.”
The lady was so fierce in her determination, so absolutely confident of her abilities, that Lilah believed her words. The woman could find a way to force Aaron to the altar. She could manipulate thetonsuch that he would have no choice.
Part of her wanted that. To marry Aaron would be the fulfillment of so many dreams. But to force him into that would poison the very marriage she wanted.
“I won’t do it,” she said. “I won’t force him.”
“Don’t think of it like that. Think of it as the proper remedy after he ruined you.”
“He didn’t!” Lilah swallowed her protests. Facts made no difference here, only appearance and the pressure of public opinion. Lady Byrn was a master manipulator when it came to that.
“I can make it work for you,” the lady said. “Now that you have baited the hook, I can see him reeled in.”
And that was the end for Lilah. Whatever temptation she’d felt disappeared at the image of Aaron hooked like a fish. Whatever guilt she felt at denying her adoptive mother faded to nothing at the image of Aaron hung on a line and dropped into a church.
“I won’t do it,” Lilah said. Then she invested strength in her words. “I know you don’t understand it, but my future isn’t with the peerage. I’m going to run a registry office and be happy there.”
“No, you won’t,” her mother declared. “You’ve been raised with much finer things. Do you know how they treat those women? Do you know what happens to women who work?”