Chapter Two #2
It was not in Samuel’s nature to grow irritated with tradespeople, and he supposed being a solicitor was not quite a tradesman. But he was hardly a gentleman, and to be spoken to in such a fashion! The cheek of the man!
Ah.
Dear Lord, it was remarkable how quickly one took on airs and graces. He’d only been a marquess for five minutes. Not even officially one until papers were drawn up.
“‘Won’t do’?” repeated Samuel.
The solicitor chewed his lip as he quickly rustled through the papers before him. “No, no, let me see… Yes, the precise wording is ‘And I leave all my otherworldly goods and possessions to my eldest great-nephew and his wife.’”
The man looked up at Samuel, his eyebrows drawing together as he grew still, as if to observe the new marquess before him. Samuel waited for the rest of the sentence, which would surely explain why the man was so troubled.
“And?” he said eventually, when Mr. Todd said no more.
The solicitor took off his spectacles and looked seriously at Samuel.
“My lord, the wording is quite specific. If you are unmarried by the time the estate must be passed over, one week from today… Well, I cannot sign it over to you. It must go to the late contessa’s eldest great-nephew and wife.
Without the wife, there is no fortune of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds. ”
There was a great deal of silence in the room as everyone attempted to take in the man’s words.
Samuel blinked. Then he blinked again. The solicitor was saying more, but he could not hear the man.
This… This could not be. It was a trick of the law and could somehow be undone, could it not? Surely, he would not be prevented from accessing the greatest fortune in the family merely because he was unmarried?
The silence was broken by his sister.
“Contessa? Great-Aunt Tessie was a contessa? And what was that name you referred to her as… So are you telling us,” Frank said slowly, as though weighing every word carefully, “are you saying that…that Great-Aunt Tessie’s name was not Tessie, but that it was a nickname due to her title?”
“Frank!” cried the whole family in censure.
Well, the whole family save for Samuel. He was still reeling from the news that due to a lack of wife, there would soon be a lack of fortune.
“M-My aunt has always b-been—was always—that way,” said the marchioness.
“She spent almost her whole life abroad, d-doing who knows what. At one point, she b-became a c-contessa and visited home. W-Wouldn’t tell us why she’d g-gotten the title, muttered something about a brief marriage.
We d-d-didn’t ask an-ny questions. It b-became a bit of a joke with my family. ”
Mr. Todd nodded, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes, as if this tidbit of family history were hardly worth considering.
“I am afraid the wording is precise and the stipulation specific.” He put his spectacles back on as he re-examined the paper before him.
“I suppose, if you were to marry in the next week, though a special license would need to be procured and the Archbishop of Canterbury—”
And that was when the stupidest words that Samuel had ever uttered slipped from his mouth, so fast, he could not catch them back.
“I am married.”
Samuel froze, almost horrified at what he had said. His father’s eyebrows rose, Frank’s mouth fell open, Benjamin merely stared, immobile, and his mother cleared her throat.
“S-S-Samuel, dear, the m-money does not matter. It will st-stay in my family, after all. I b-b-believe my cousin’s son m-married only last year. P-Perhaps he will inherit.”
“I am married. Secretly. I got married secretly.” With every syllable, Samuel knew he was making the situation worse and yet he did not appear to be able to stop himself.
The lies kept slipping out, more and more.
“I didn’t wish to tell anyone because… because…
Well. I didn’t want a fuss. Look at Lilianna, such a large wedding. No, I didn’t want—”
“You mean to tell me that you are married?” his father interrupted him with wide eyes.
“Rubbish!” said Benjamin at the same time. “When would this have happened? Where has she been?”
“It’s not like you’re ever long from home, brother dear,” said Frank with a tad of mockery added to the term of endearment. “When have you been seeing this bride of yours?”
Samuel ignored his siblings and focused on his father.
He did not know how he’d explain away this story, but he’d spent time away from his family over the past year.
Even a couple of days would explain it. And his wife, well…
He’d come up with some reason why she’d stayed away from the Chance family home.
Samuel opened his mouth and then hesitated. He had never lied to his father. He was not a liar. But now that he had said the words, and with a solicitor—and more importantly, his mother—present, there did not appear to be a way to escape. “Yes. Yes. I’m married.”
Silence once again fell in the solicitor’s office, until Mr. Todd cleared his throat. “Well, that’s that settled, then. If you and the marchioness will come in next week, we can finish the matter.”
“But my mother will be returning to—” Samuel caught himself, though not quickly enough.
Of course. The damned man meant Samuel’s own wife… The wife who did not exist. Damn.
“Yes, yes,” he said instead, hoping to cover the blunder.
Benjamin was smirking. “So when do we get to meet the new Marchioness of Aylesbury?”
“Soon,” said Samuel, hoping to goodness his mind would soon crank into gear and offer him solutions. “Soon.”
His mind gave him absolutely nothing as the Chance family rose and shook hands with Mr. Todd, the marquess—the dowager marquess, Samuel supposed, if he followed his uncle dowager duke’s odd titling convention—leaning close to discuss something that Samuel didn’t hear.
His mind appeared to have no thoughts whatsoever as they left the solicitor’s office, his head numb and his fingers cold as they stepped out into the cold Brighton air.
“All right, then,” said the dowager marquess as he led his wife to the conveyance awaiting the family.
“Let me help you into the carriage, my dear, but I must stay a short while behind. Mr. Todd has agreed to draw up the paperwork transferring the title and estate to our son posthaste. Best to get it done before his other inheritance paperwork.”
“Of-Of course,” said the dowager marchioness. “The ch-children and I will just be returning to the hotel for a sp-pot of luncheon. S-Samuel, do you need to stay behind as well? Th-That is, I would like to hear more about where you’ve been keeping your wife, b-but…”
Samuel waved a hand, barely following along with what everyone else was talking about. “Yes. Yes, I suppose. All in good time. I, erm, I’ll go for a walk along the seafront first.”
“Good man,” said his father approvingly. “Clear your head. We need some time to finish the paperwork regardless. All we’ll need is for you to sign.”
It isn’t possible to clear my head any further, Samuel wanted to say, because it was completely empty when I spoke and now I don’t know what to do about this lie!
Instead, he said, “Yes. Yes. Clear my head.”
Clear his head. As though my mind weren’t already clear, Samuel thought forebodingly as he stomped away from his family and toward where he presumed the sea to be. Empty of all sense.
What had possessed him to say such a thing? Telling his family—his mother!—that he was married?
It was a lie, a lie that would have consequences. He couldn’t live in that lie forever. His family would expect to meet this mysterious wife of his. That lawyer man, Mr. Todd, would expect him, Samuel, to turn up next week and sign a document alongside his wife. A wife who did not exist.
Well, I will have to think of something, Samuel thought feverishly as he marched along the street almost without taking in his surroundings. He could hardly expect the solution to fall into his lap—
“How dare you attack me, you brigand!”
Samuel stared down at a woman who was lying on the pavement before him. Why was she doing such a thing? “That’s a rather salty tongue you’ve got on you.”
The words were instinctive, the sort of teasing jest that he would say to his sister Frank. Now he came to think about it, he rather thought he had said such words to Frank.
There was a strange ache within him. For a moment, Samuel thought it was the remnants of guilt for lying to his mother…then he realized that the woman, whoever she was, must have walked clean into him.
Honestly! Could she not look where she was going?
“Are you going to help me up,” asked the woman peevishly, “or are you a complete cad?”
Samuel bristled but offered a hand. “I am not a cad.”
“No, mountains cannot be cads,” muttered the woman as she grasped his hand and used him to pull herself up. Now upright, she dusted herself down then glared up at him, as though he had committed a mortal injury. “What?”
What… What? What? “What?” Samuel repeated stupidly, his mind still panicking in a corner of Mr. Todd’s office.
The woman rolled her eyes. “Lord save me from idiotic men today—what are you looking at, sir?”
Samuel swallowed.
You, he wanted to say. You. You’re… You’re beautiful.
She truly was. Oh, she was not dressed particularly beautifully; the coat had seen better days, and one of the scarves that had been around her neck had fallen to the pavement but had immediately blended in with the grey stone.
But her hair…her hair was golden and beautifully pinned.
Her figure was slight, but strong—he could tell even through the thick folds of the coat—and her face…
Samuel swallowed. He came from a family of particularly good-looking people, he knew, and so in a way, he was inured to the presence of beautiful women. His own sister Lilianna was a renowned beauty, but Samuel had never really noticed.