had brought along for them to share. It took several deep swallows of the smooth, mellow brew before he felt calm enough to indulge in the conversation his friends so obviously wished to have with him. Ashton decided to succinctly answer all their questions about Clarissa before they asked them.
“My fiancée was not pleased with the ring,” he said. “She had obviously been anticipating the Radmoor emerald. Both she and her brother expressed surprise that I was at all annoyed by the announcement, claiming they had thought that everything had been settled. Even graciously offered to retract the announcement.”
“An offer you politely refused, of course,” said Brant.
“Of course. Mercenary bastard that I am, I need that money. I am barely hanging on as it is.” He grimaced. “Unless some miracle befalls me, I will soon marry Lady Clarissa. I have no choice. Even less choice than I had thought for Lord Charles holds a rather large number of my father’s markers.”
“He threatened you?”
“Not precisely, but then such a thing is rarely done precisely, is it. The information was very delicately inserted into the discussion of the marriage contracts. However, the implication is very clear. Marry Clarissa or find myself facing a demand for immediate payment, something I could never honor, not without plunging my entire family into utter destitution. Part of Clarissa’s dowry is already earmarked for the payment of those markers so I will get even less than I had hoped for.” He shook his head when all four men started to speak. “No. No loans. The debts my father bequeathed me are almost more than I can bear. I will add no more.”
“It would not be a matter of adding, but exchanging,” said Brant, “but we will not argue that now. While we were waiting for you, Marston brought us the information on the Wherlockes as he promised.”
Ashton studied the four very serious faces of his friends. “You are about to give me bad news.”
“It can wait,” Brant began.
“No. Spit it out.”
“Well, even though Marston says he is not finished, the lineage he did give us is very impressive. The Wherlockes and the Vaughns are intertwined with many of the most important families in England. At the moment, what most concerns you, us, is one marquis of Salterwood, a Wherlocke, who married one Minerva Wherlocke, a very distant cousin. He bred one child on his wife, a girl, and died ten years almost to the day after his marriage. His widow then married the baron of Haverstile three years later and died within four years of her wedding, along with her husband, in a boating mishap. The baron adopted her child shortly after the marriage, making that child Penelope Wherlocke Hutton-Moore.”
“Hell.”
Chapter Five
“You should have heard her, Artemis,” Penelope said as she kneaded the bread while her brother removed peas from their pods. “She was absolutely furious that Radmoor had given her—how did she put it?—some pathetic, tawdry little ring of sapphires and diamonds and not the Radmoor emerald.” She looked across the kitchen table at her brother. “She truly cares nothing for the man.”
“You suspected that all along,” said Artemis, then opened a pod and rolled the peas inside into his mouth.
“I did, but feared it was my own jealousy making me think such things. After all, Radmoor is very handsome and a viscount, with a strong chance of gaining more titles. Even though his father leapt from scandal to scandal and bed to bed and apparently left little more than debt behind, Lord Ashton is still accepted in society. Except for the previous viscount, the Radmoors have a long and illustrious heritage. Marrying into that family would be quite a coup for the daughter of a baron who gained his title because he procured women for the prince.”
“Really? You can get a title for that?”
“Oh, aye. Do not forget that some very high titles have been given to people simply because some king or prince begot them on the wrong side of the blanket. Compensation for the cuckolded husband, I suppose.” She set the bread dough in a bowl and draped a cloth over it before moving to the sink to wash her hands. “So much anger,” she murmured.
“At the Hutton-Moores’?” Penelope nodded and Artemis grinned. “So that is why you arrived here far earlier than you usually do.”
“It is. Clarissa and Charles were so consumed by their anger, they did not notice me slip away.” She frowned as she dried her hands. “I think they may have threatened Radmoor.”
“With what?”
“There was something said about his father’s debts. I think Charles may have gained hold of some of them, a lot of them, and now holds the markers over him like a sword of Damocles. Think, instead of a lot of men owed smaller sums, many of them willing to take payments or wait, Radmoor now faces one man who could bring him to his knees by simply demanding immediate payment of many debts.”
“Clever,” murmured Artemis and shrugged at his sister’s scowl. “I did not say it was right, just clever. Evilly so.”
She shook her head at his weak attempt to slither out of a scolding for his remark. “I also think they put the notice of the betrothal in the papers before there was any actual proposal made. Clarissa said something about the ring being an insult, one delivered because they had rushed the man.” She gathered up a small basket of apples that had wintered over very well in storage, sat down at the table, and began to peel them. “It is the why of such machinations that I cannot understand.”
“They want those titles in the family. Titles that actually carry a little power and respect.”
“Perhaps. Charles would benefit through Clarissa. I fear Radmoor is quite firmly trapped. He is badly in need of money. He certainly does not have what would be needed if Charles called in those debts. It is sad when fathers decimate fortunes, leaving their families to suffer. From the way Radmoor’s father behaved, I have to think that his parents did not have a happy marriage and the man then bequeathed his son the need to endure the same.”
Artemis frowned as he snatched a slice of apple. “It would seem to me that some of the aristocrats do not want to give up anything. Not their fancy clothes, not their fancy carriages and fine horses, not the balls and the opera.”
Penelope nodded. “That is some of it. They would rather plunge themselves into a miserable marriage that will last a lifetime just to be able to keep buying embroidered waistcoats from whatever tailor is au courant. I must say that, if Radmoor thinks Clarissa will give up even one small luxury while he repairs his fortunes and his lands, he has failed to see her clearly. Sadly, Clarissa is the sort of woman who will constantly remind him that she was the one who pulled him out of debt. Nay, I change my mind. The truly sad thing is that I think he would do his utmost to be a good and true husband, but Clarissa has no interest in that. She will turn what could be a good marriage into the same miserable, faithless union too many in society endure. The same sort of marriage his parents had.” Penelope sighed and stared at the bowl full of apple slices in front of her. “I think that is what troubles me most of all. She will not make him happy.”
“Do you care for him that much then?” Artemis asked quietly.
“I think I might. He has fascinated me from the first moment I saw him. But I do not have what he needs. Whatever inheritance was left to me is in Charles’s hands and I doubt much of it, if any, will remain when I reach the age to take control of it. What little I get now, and that is given most reluctantly, is spent here. It would not help Radmoor anyway.”
“But you would make him happy.”
“Would I? He has three sisters, a mother, two aunts, and two brothers to support. If he loses even one of his properties, there goes a dower for a sister or a living for a brother. If he married a woman like me, one without a fortune, he would soon see the loss of one property after another and his sisters denied their seasons and thus a good and prosperous match. Two of his sisters are already past the age when they should have made their debut due to the family’s lack of funds. I think all that loss