Chapter 4 #2
“A fortune I did not know included, for me at least, a husband.”
“No,” he conceded quietly.
“Good God.” She now glared at her parents. “The house we believed to belong to Grandmama and have visited and stayed in so often has belonged to the Wolfingham family all these years.” She could not quite keep the horror of that realization from her tone.
“You are all still welcome to stay here for as long and often as you wish,” Wolfingham put in softly.
“Only with your permission,” she accused. “This whole situation is— I cannot believe you are any happier with this arrangement.” She eyed him suspiciously. “Why are you not as angry about this arrangement as I am?”
“I expect because I have known about it for far longer than you have,” he admitted.
“How long?” she demanded.
He released a long breath. “I be— My father felt it was his duty,” he amended when Julia gave him another glare, “to confide the arrangement to me when Arthur died and I then became the eldest son mentioned in the agreement between your grandfather and my father.”
Julia turned to frown at her pale-faced parents.
“None of what you have said explains why no one in my own family has ever had the decency to tell me of this archaic agreement before it was read out today by a complete stranger.” Now that the shock had faded somewhat, she was becoming too angry, too infuriated, to even offer the lawyer a look of apology for including him in her resentful outburst.
“Julia—”
“No, Mama.” She shied away when her mother would have reached out to grasp her arm. “I am nineteen years old, but this agreement was made between my grandparents and the previous Earl of Wolfingham when I was too young to raise any objection.”
“I am sure you must agree that it is a good connection, one that will instantly elevate you into being a countess?” the lawyer put in.
“It would only be a good connection if I had any desire to become the countess of the present Earl of Wolfingham,” she challenged. “Which I do not,” she added in case anyone had a differing opinion.
Masterson frowned. “I fail to see any disadvantage in the match.”
“The disadvantage would be that I would become his countess. A man who is known throughout Society for being a complete rake.” She gave Wolfingham a look of narrow-eyed dismissal before once again turning to her parents.
“You have had all these years to tell me of this agreement between the Roxburgh and the Wolfingham families, and yet you have chosen not to do so.” She failed to hide the hurt she felt, despite her anger.
“We wanted you to have the pleasure of enjoying a couple of Seasons with your friends before the subject of a betrothal was even mentioned,” her mother defended.
“That was not kind of you,” Julia said heavily.
“In the beginning, we believed it would be Arthur that you married, not Nicholas,” her father put in softly.
“Arthur has been dead for ten years, and he was even older than Nicholas is!”
“Only by a few years,” her mother reasoned.
“I do not care who it was you thought I would marry, or what their age is or was,” Julia snapped, once again unable to contain her anger.
“The situation as I see it now is that I appear to have been betrothed, for many years, to whoever is the eldest son of the Harding family, and that not a single one of you, not one, ever thought to tell me of it. An omission I will never forgive you for!” She gave them all another sweeping glance of contempt.
“I have no intention of marrying Nicholas Harding, now or at any time in the future.” She turned on her heel and hurried from the room.
She had no idea where she was going, only that she needed to get away.
From all of them, but especially from him, the man she had just learned she had been destined to marry, and that he had known was the case since his older brother died ten years ago.
Now she knew exactly why Nicholas had remained after the funeral to hear the reading of her grandmama’s will with the family.
Also the reason he had told her all would become clear to her very soon.
Because he had known all along that she was destined to become his countess.
* * *
“Well, that went far worse than I had imagined it would,” Nicholas drawled ruefully, breaking the stunned silence which had followed Julia’s rush from the room.
“Did it?” Amanda Styles’ green eyes flashed with anger as she turned to him.
“You knew, you all knew about this clause in Grandmama’s will regarding Julia’s future.
” She turned to glower at every member of her family.
“And instead of telling poor Julia, you chose to leave her completely in the dark about the fact that her future had already been decided for her when she was in the cradle.”
“That is the second time that statement has been made, and I believe, if we are to be completely accurate,” Giles Masterson put in evenly, “the decision was made fifteen years ago, when Lady Julia was aged four rather than still in the cradle—”
Amanda glowered at the lawyer. “I do not believe anyone asked for your opinion.”
“Amanda, do you think it quite fair that you are taking out your displeasure on Mr. Masterson? He is merely the messenger—”