Flirting With Fortune

your permission, as well as your blessing, for me to ask for Lady Beatrice’s hand in marriage.”

“As I suspected,” Raleigh said with a nod. “Well, I’ve never done this sort of thing before, but I assume we must first hash through all the proper financial bits and pieces. No, actually, let’s do that second. First, let me say that I’m damn glad to hear of your interest. Especially since I believe we understand each other so well.”

An oddly jovial threat if Colin had ever heard one. He smiled as well as he could manage and nodded in acceptance of the earl’s statement. “Thank you, my lord. And, yes, it is always best to have full understanding of where another stands.”

“And though Beatrice will have the final say as to the acceptance of your offer for marriage, it is my opinion that the two of you will suit quite well. Now, then,” Raleigh said, setting his drink down and sitting up straight in the chair, assuming a more businesslike tone, “on with the monetary part of the arrangement. Beatrice’s dowry has been set at twenty-five thousand pounds. I am aware that you have an estate in Scotland and that you are training to become a barrister. What are your prospects?”

If ever there was a loaded question. Since it probably wasn’t a good idea to start the conversation by saying, “Utterly dreadful,” Colin started with the good news. “The estate is quite stable and brings in around two thousand a year. My brother and sister live there now with my grandmother. I have another year at the Inns of Court, but after that I have every expectation of pursuing a career as King’s Counsel.”

He went on, discussing all of his careful plans that he had spent years developing. He was concise, factual, and clearheaded, wanting to be very sure that Raleigh understood his ambition and character. Raleigh nodded every now and then, allowing him to say his piece.

And then came the part he had been dreading since he got there. Hell, he’d been dreading it since the moment he decided to come to London to find an heiress. Taking a deep, bracing breath, he dove in. “When I arrived in the city, it was with the knowledge that it was time for me to choose a bride. It never occurred to me that Lady Beatrice might be that bride. As far as I could tell, she was—is—above me in almost every way possible.”

The earl cracked a smile, but didn’t interrupt. Colin gathered he agreed with the sentiment. “But then I came to know her, and I discovered her to be the talented, confident, beautiful woman I had always suspected her to be. What I didn’t expect was for her to find something of interest in me. But I believe that she did, and beyond that, I feel that we suit perfectly, in a way I never imagined any woman might. When I am near her, I feel like a better person for it.”

His fingers wrapped around the curved wooden armrest of his chair as he willed himself to speak plainly about his situation. “Unfortunately, I did not have the luxury of choosing a wife based on compatibility and mutual affection alone. This is because my father chose to mortgage the estate against a business loan he procured in hopes of starting a successful engraving business. I was unaware of this decision until a month ago, when his creditors arrived at the estate to inform me that the loan will be due in January.”

For the first time, the earl’s affable facade slipped. “Cannot the business be sold to satisfy the debt?”

Heat crept up Colin’s chest, a combination of lingering anger and shame. “The business failed. The property has been sold, as well as the equipment, but much of the original investment has been lost.”

“How much is owed at this point?”

“Ten thousand pounds.”

Raleigh’s jaw clenched at the amount, and he sat back in his chair. Nothing remained of his earlier enthusiasm. “Why don’t you sell the estate? I know it’s not entailed, and it hasn’t even been in the family for long.”

“I would happily do just that, but unfortunately, my father agreed to some rather atrocious terms in his enthusiasm to get the business going. He actually signed the estate over to the creditors in trust, so that if the loan defaulted, the creditors get it all.”

“Bloody hell.”

If that didn’t sum up the situation, Colin didn’t know what did. “Yes, quite. Which brings me to my offer of marriage. Originally, I had planned to find a bride whose family would be happy to have a baronet. A business transaction of sorts: She would bring the funds necessary to release the estate, and I would be able to offer whatever good standing I have in society. What I didn’t plan on was losing my heart to a lady so thoroughly without need of my very minor title.”

Raleigh didn’t say a word, but clearly he agreed with him. With the worst of it out, Colin sat up a little straighter, looking the man in the eye. “So here is what I propose. It was never my intention to live off of anyone’s dowry. The estate’s income, combined with what I’ll earn when I am a barrister, is more than enough to have a comfortable life. Though I do need the ten thousand to pay off the debt, the rest of the dowry, in its entirety, shall be signed over to my wife in the marriage settlement. I also want you to know that, in addition to the forfeiture of the remaining dowry, it is my intention to gift her my father’s studios, in hopes that she will continue to create her beautiful artwork.”

Having said all that he’d intended, Colin closed his mouth, settled his hands in his lap, and waited. For a few moments, the only sounds in the room over the pounding of Colin’s heart were the ticking of the clock and the distant rumbling of carriage wheels on the street beyond the window. The earl watched him through narrowed eyes, either deciding what to do with him or wishing him to perdition.

Probably the latter.

At last, Raleigh blew out a harsh breath. “Christ.” He dragged a hand through his hair, a show of emotion that might have surprised Colin in another man but fit the unconventional earl. “Confound it all, man—why did you have to put me in such a bloody awful position?”

Colin tilted his head in confusion. Of the two of them, Colin was most definitely the one in the bad position. No man wanted to lay bare his family’s failures, opening himself up for judgment and rejection. “It was never my intention to cause you difficulty.”

The earl sighed with exasperation, crossing his arms over his chest and leveling his disconcertingly clear gaze on Colin. “My whole responsibility in this transaction is to look after my sister’s best interest. If she thought for one second you were marrying her for her money—”

“I swear to you I am not. You’ve heard my plan. No man would make such a proposal if they wished to marry for money alone.”

“I believe you.”

The statement should have been more reassuring than it was. Perhaps it was the subtle emphasis on the word “I,” implying that no one else would.

“The problem is, Beatrice has it in her mind that there is no greater devil than a fortune hunter. She’s been hurt in the past, as has one of her friends. I love my sister very much, but sometimes she can get a thought into her head and it can take an act of Parliament to get it out.”

“You doona think she would accept me, under the circumstances?”

“I know she wouldn’t accept you.”

Bloody hell. There was no plainer answer than that. His chest ached as if the words had been knives, piercing straight through to his heart. She could never love him. How was that possible, given the strength of the feelings he had for her? And he knew that she had strong feelings for him as well. Had she not practically asked him to ask for her hand? He sat for a moment, absorbing the pain, absorbing the blow to his hopes. Had he not known all along that this was a possible—hell, even likely—outcome?

The thing was, he had foreseen rejection from her brother, but not from her. He needed to regroup, to have some time to sort out what the hell to do next. It wasn’t something he could do with Raleigh’s keen gaze lying heavy on him. He started to stand, but the earl held up a hand.

“Stay where you are.”

In general, he didn’t allow himself to be commanded by another man, but something in Raleigh’s tone had him obeying.

“The reason why you have managed to put me in a rather shit position is because I know she won’t accept your suit, given the circumstances of your finances, but I also know how she feels about you.”

Colin’s face was completely impassive. He knew because he was concentrating every ounce of his willpower to accomplish just that. Everything inside him wanted to beg Raleigh to expound, to tell him exactly how Beatrice felt. His ribs ached with the force of emotion ricocheting beneath them. With a neutrality born from his years