A Royal Proposition. Marion Lennox

Louis inherited.’

      Alastair shook his head, and the impression of weariness intensified. ‘Louis never formally inherited, and the cousins started legal action to recover the property. His death forestalled that, and legal opinion is that the estate and the title is now mine—as long as I do marry. As long as I do what Louis didn’t.’

      ‘And…your Belle’s not a lady of virtue?’ Bert butted in. He had things in his stride here—almost. His fierce intelligence was working overtime. ‘No?’

      ‘Belle’s a wonderful woman,’ Alastair said quickly. ‘But there are…shadows…in her past.’

      ‘I’d imagine there might be.’ Bert’s team had little time for a woman they’d decided from the first was prone to giving herself airs. On the first few days of working here there’d been a wall collapse on one of the men. Belle had been seen at the window, watching, but hadn’t enquired as to the state of Steve’s health or even sent down to ask whether she should contact an ambulance.

      With Bert carrying a cellphone, her disinterest had been a minor enough offence and hadn’t mattered, but it had rankled.

      ‘What…?’ Bert said slowly, his eyes moving from Penny-Rose to Alastair and back again. ‘What makes you think our lass here is any different? Virtue-wise, that is?’

      ‘Hey!’ Penny-Rose said, shocked into comment. ‘Can we leave my virtue out of it?’

      ‘Well, that’s it. We can’t,’ Alastair said heavily. ‘My mother—’

      ‘I might have known she’d come into it somewhere.’ Bert seemed to be almost enjoying himself now. He had the solid workman’s view of the aristocracy, and he didn’t mind this man’s discomfort. ‘Now, there’s a lady of virtue.’

      Marguerite, when she’d heard of the same accident a day later, had been horrified and had sent every possible comfort to Steve. Settled into the local hospital with a broken foot, Steve had appreciated the attention very much indeed, and so had his mates on his behalf.

      ‘My mother’s a lady who thinks ahead,’ Alastair told them. ‘While I’ve been seeing to the everyday running of the estate and trying to figure out financial ways of saving it, she’s been figuring out the only logical way. Which is marrying Penny-Rose. For a year.’

      ‘But—’

      ‘Like I said, it’s a business proposition.’ Alastair spread his hands. ‘I know this sounds intrusive, but my mother had Penny-Rose’s background checked. She’s employed investigators, and there’s now little she doesn’t know. In every respect, this is the sort of woman I need.’

      He paused, and then said in a softer tone, avoiding Penny-Rose’s eye, ‘My mother also says she badly needs money.’

      It had stopped being even remotely amusing. Penny-Rose’s colour mounted to a fiery crimson and she took a step back. Investigators… ‘My circumstances are none of your business,’ she snapped. ‘How dare you?’

      But Bert was looking back and forth at the pair of them. ‘It seems to me the conversation’s getting private,’ he said.

      ‘It seems to me the conversation is over,’ she flung back, and Bert nodded.

      ‘Yeah, OK. But the man’s right. You’re strapped for cash, girl, and you know it.’ It was Bert who organised a huge percentage of her wages to be sent back to Australia. She kept so little for herself that he’d been horrified. ‘Maybe it’s like the man says—you need to listen to his proposition.’ Bert’s sunburned face creased in resigned amusement. ‘Now, what I suggest—’

      ‘Is what you suggested first and send for a strait-jacket,’ she said through gritted teeth, but Bert shook his head.

      ‘No. The man’s got a problem, and it’s a real one. I’m seeing it now. I don’t say his solution will work but you could do worse than to listen to what he’s proposing.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘So… It’s two o’clock. We knock off at four. When we do, you go down to the village, Penny-Rose, get yourself washed and into something decent, and you…’ He turned and poked a finger into Alastair’s chest. ‘You take her out to dinner. Properly. Pick her up at her lodgings at six and do the thing in style.’

      ‘I don’t need—’ Alastair started, but Bert was on a roll.

      ‘You ask a lady to marry you, you do it properly.’

      ‘I don’t want—’ Penny-Rose tried, but the stubby finger was pointed at her in turn.

      ‘Give the man a chance. You can always refuse, and that’ll be the end of it. You made me listen to him. Now you do the same. If he badgers you after tonight, he’ll answer to me.’

      ‘Bert—’

      ‘No argument,’ Bert said. He’d wavered, but now his decision was made. It was time to get on with what he was here for—stone-walling. Everything else was a nuisance. ‘That’s my final word.’ He turned back to Alastair. ‘Now, you get back to your castle where you belong and you, girl, get back to sorting your stones. There’s to be no more talk of marriage before tonight.’

      ‘Bert, I can’t go out with this man.’

      ‘You can,’ Bert said heavily, and the amusement was suddenly gone from his voice. ‘This is the man who’s paying us, girl, and he’s in trouble. You made me listen to him. Well, I have. You can put the good of the team before everything for the moment and give him a fair hearing. That’s all I ask.’

      ‘And that’s all I ask,’ Alastair said, his calm brown eyes resting on her face in a message of reassurance.

      Which was all very well, she thought wildly as she sent him a savage glance. Reassure all you like.

      Marriage!

      The man was seriously nuts!

      ‘Six o’clock, then,’ he said. ‘You’re staying with the Berics? I’ll collect you there.’

      ‘How do you know where I’m staying?’

      ‘I know all about you.’

      ‘Then you know what I’m about to say to your crazy proposition,’ she flung at him. ‘No and no and no.’

      ‘Just listen.’

      ‘I’ll listen. And then I’ll say no.’