He nodded. “Yes, yes, but do you intend to marry him?”
He watched her purse her lips in thought as her gaze turned toward the window again. “That is the question, is it not? Everyone seems to wish for the union. Even my father. His health is not the best, you know, and he worries what will become of me.”
Yes, he had noted her father’s pallor. “He did not cough overmuch today.”
She nodded. “Five times this day. But then it mostly troubles him at night when he tries to sleep. And that prevents him from resting as he ought.”
He nodded, his concern for his mentor momentarily overriding his other thoughts. But a minute later, he returned to her. “You have no other suitors, then? No gentlemen whom you fancy?”
He watched her jaw tighten as if she bit back an acerbic comment, and no wonder. His questions were highly impertinent.
“No, Mr. Anaedsley, there is no other gentleman whom I could reasonably expect to marry.” Then she sighed, and her gaze focused on the night scene beyond her window. There was nothing there. Even the moonlight had deserted it, but she gazed out and her words drifted between them. “As a child I dreamt of love and thought of princes who would carry me away to my castle. It was ridiculous, of course, because we had so little money, and you were the only male of my acquaintance even close to a prince.”
Her tone of voice indicated he was a preposterous choice, and though his vanity was pricked, his mind agreed completely with her assessment. As a boy, he’d thought her gawky and completely untutored in the ways of what a real girl should do. Real females, in his young opinion, should wear ribbons and pretty dresses. They should not read books, and certainly not be better at his lessons than he was.
“I was a complete idiot as a boy,” he said, “and so you are forgiven for not wanting me to carry you off.”
She might have snorted in response, but as she was sipping her brandy, he couldn’t be sure of her response.
“So you have not met any other princes?”
“Worse,” she said in a dry tone. “Ronnie is determined to become my prince.”
Yes, he could see that her cousin’s romantic nature would attach to her childhood desire.
“And even more than that,” she continued. “We made all this money. Suddenly I am managing a big house, we have all these servants, and we live here in the country.”
“I like it here.” In truth, he loved it here away from the bustle of London. A man could study science in peace without constantly being badgered to choose a bride and continue the family line.
“But no one here will marry up to a woman like me, and none of your set will marry down.”
“That’s not true,” he said, thinking through her difficulty. “There are many who would marry a well-dowered girl.”
“But you are the only aristocrat who comes here.” Her tone said quite clearly that he was still completely off her list as a potential husband. “And I haven’t the money to go elsewhere.”
“That can’t be right. You have gads of money.” Her uncle ran a mill that brought in thousands of pounds a year.
She turned to glare at him. “My father has money. My uncle has money. I have nothing.”
It took him only a moment to assemble the pieces, to fit the cogs into the wheels that turned this situation. She had been furious with him this morning for interrupting her demonstration of a new cosmetic, one that would garner them money. Or more accurately: garnerhermoney.
“That’s why you won’t give over the formula unless you earn the money. You wish to travel then, in the way of Lady Stanhope?”
Her mouth opened in surprise as if she couldn’t believe he’d guessed her plans. But her next words contradicted his guess. “Nothing so grand as an archeological expedition.”
She was looking away from him then, curling her fingers about her brandy glass though she didn’t drink. Clearly she had a plan, although she was loathe to tell him. But he had a very curious mind, especially when people didn’t act as he expected. “Come, come. You must tell me what you want. Otherwise how can I help?”
“Why would you help me?” she challenged.
“Because I suspect we can help one another.” She looked up sharply, but before she could ask, he held her off. “I will explain my thoughts in a moment. First, you must tell me—specifically—what you want.”
“A lot of money.”
“Why?”
“So I can travel. So…” She drained her brandy glass. “So I can meet men.”
Ah. So it was as he suspected. She was desperate for a means to find someone other than Ronnie. “What kind of men, exactly?”