the ton. Was aware of it, and deplored it. “I fail to see which of those three things could have prompted you to offer for me, my lord,” she taunted.
The earl sighed his irritation. “I suppose, as my future wife, you have the right to know my reasons for marriage—”
“You suppose…?” Alice echoed incredulously.
Daniel gave a haughty inclination of his head. “To put it simply, my father, in his infinite wisdom—” his mouth curled disdainfully “—saw fit to leave the earl of Stanford’s fortune outside of the estate, with the condition that I, as his heir, would inherit half that fortune if I marry within the year following his death, and the second half if a future heir is born during the first year of that marriage. Failure to do those things would see half, or all, of that fortune in the hands of a cousin who, I do assure you, is even less deserving of it than I am.”
Alice found that very hard to believe. Daniel, at the age of nine and twenty, had the reputation and handsome looks of a god fallen from Mount Olympus; his hair was the gold of ripe corn, his wickedly sensual eyes the blue of the sky in a face etched and hewn as if from granite, and softened only by a sinfully moulded mouth. His shoulders were wide, waist tapered, hips and legs elegantly muscled, his every movement a delight to a woman’s senses.
Was it any wonder that women of the ton, both young and old, so often fell into the snare of those sensuously golden good looks?
Was it any wonder that Alice, too, had fallen under the spell of that sensual attraction the first time she set eyes on him a year ago…?
CHAPTER TWO
Alice may not have been introduced to the earl of Stanford until their betrothal a month ago, but that had not stopped her from being completely aware of him on the rare occasions he deigned to attend balls or parties given during the season. Occasions when he stood arrogantly removed from all but his close circle of friends, and seemingly immune to the gossip and speculation about him.
Alice’s heart had stopped beating altogether four weeks ago when her brother, Jonathan, called her to his study and introduced her to Daniel as the man who had come to offer for her hand in marriage. Alice had been ecstatic, convinced that the earl must have seen her at a recent ball and fallen secretly in love with her. His coldness during that initial meeting, and the one following, and then his disappearance for three weeks to his estate in Bedfordshire, had quickly cured her of that childishness.
She gave a dismissive shake of her head now at her own naïveté then looked Daniel straight in the eye. “Your father’s will does not explain why I have the dubious pleasure of becoming your choice of bride.”
“‘Dubious pleasure,’ Alice?” Daniel echoed mockingly. “I assure you, my dear, that I have so far received no complaints from any woman on the subject of ‘pleasure’!”
Alice felt the heat in her cheeks. “There is always a first time for everything, my lord.”
“So there is,” he dismissed tauntingly. “As to my reason for choosing you as my wife…Quite bluntly, my dear, your brother, Jonathan, has become rather too fond of the card table of late. So much so that he owes me rather a lot of money. Money he informs me he does not possess. I am willing to forgo those debts on the occasion of our marriage tomorrow.”
Alice felt her face go pale as she realized she was to be the sacrifice on the altar of her brother’s recently acquired liking for the card table. “We have had no chance in which to even become acquainted with each other, my lord.”
Daniel’s patience with this conversation had come to an end. “I assure you, that omission will have been rectified by this time tomorrow.”
Alice’s mouth tightened. “No.”
He raised questioning brows at her vehemence. “No…?”
She gave a determined shake of her head. “Understanding your reason for marriage is one thing, my lord, accepting my own role in that cold-blooded plan is something else entirely.”
Daniel’s mouth thinned. “You are refusing to marry me?”
The fact that she swallowed hard before answering showed Daniel that Alice was not as composed as she wished him to believe. “I assume that if I do then my brother’s debts to you would become pressing?”
“You assume correctly,” Daniel grated.
She stood up, a slight figure in her pale yellow gown against Daniel’s superior height and heavier build. Slight, but most definitely not downtrodden, Daniel acknowledged with grudging admiration. He had expected—hoped—that Alice would be an obedient and biddable wife, but perhaps a wife with at least some fire in her might be less tedious to his jaded palate.
Damn his father to the hell in which he belonged, anyway!
The dissolute life Daniel had chosen to live these last ten years had been the only way he could think of in which to repay his father for his years of neglect and cruelty to Daniel’s mother before her death. It was a retribution his father had more than returned by placing these conditions in his will.
“I have every intention of becoming your wife tomorrow, my lord,” Alice softly interrupted the bitterness of Daniel’s thoughts.
“I am sure that your brother will be relieved to hear it,” he drawled mockingly. “Tell me, why does he gamble when he is obviously so bad at it…?”
Her perfect bow of a mouth turned down slightly. “I believe for the same reason I have agreed to marry a man I do not know, let alone feel—affection for.”
Daniel’s mouth tightened. “Which is?”
“You are acquainted with my stepmother, my lord.” It was a statement rather than a question.
Yes, Daniel had met Lady Constance Fortesque several times.
And each time he had disliked the woman more than the last. In fact, if anything could have deterred him from offering for Alice Fortesque then it was the thought of having the shrewish, social-climbing Lady Constance as his mother-in-law.
Alice sighed. “Unfortunately she is not only Jonathan’s stepmother but also his mother-in-law. It was Jonathan’s marriage to her daughter Charlotte that brought Lady Constance into our lives,” she explained. “And that of our father,” she added heavily.
“Good God…” Daniel was stunned at Jonathan’s misfortune.
“Indeed.” Alice gave a graceful acknowledgment of her head. “Our stepmother has become even more impossible to live with since our father died two years ago.” She frowned.
“Forcing Jonathan to find his entertainment outside of his own home,” Daniel drawled knowingly.
Her green eyes flashed resentfully. “Only when it comes to the card table. I believe Jonathan is still faithful to Charlotte and their marriage, that he does still love her.”
Daniel nodded. “Then it is only the mother-in-law he despises. In that case, why does he not ask her to leave his home?”
Alice gave a humorless smile. “To go where, my lord?”
“Hmm, you have
