Chapter Ten
JANE WOKE WITH A START next morning while it was still dark.
The air in her room was chilly, as her meager fire had died long ago.
Chaotic images tumbled around in her mind—of Anna off teaching, Kit somewhere on the wide Atlantic Ocean bound for who knew where, Lady Elizabeth and Dr. Logan glancing longingly at each other when they thought others weren’t looking, Dalton’s solemn face with intent brown eyes boring into hers.
No wonder she couldn’t sleep. She was wasting time attempting to second-guess the future and imagining dangers for her family and friends. One day at a time, Jane, she directed herself.
Wearily she threw back the covers and plunged her toes into the thick rag rug beside her bed.
Avoiding the vast timber floor that surrounded it, Jane stepped to the basin near her bed and began washing with the icy water in the urn.
By the time she had finished, her teeth were clacking together from the cold.
She dressed quickly and pulled her long hair into her usual plain arrangement, then instead of setting a flame to the kindling in her fireplace she rushed downstairs to the warmth of the kitchen where she had taken to eating breakfast. It saved them money if they heated as few rooms as possible.
Housekeeping tasks with Mrs. Creevy done and lessons for Katherine set, Jane sped upstairs to her room to remove her apron and tidy her hair before the Marquess arrived.
Butterflies took flight in her stomach at the thought of seeing him again.
They doubled in size when she considered accepting his assistance to resolve her financial problems. She hardly dared hope he had some good ideas for saving her family from a dire future.
At ten o’clock, Jane sat in her tiny sitting room, a small fire crackling in the grate.
She jumped when the front door knocker rapped.
Hands gripped together in her lap, she waited for his entry.
Within moments, the door opened and Dalton stepped through to greet her.
He looked his usual immaculately dressed self, handsome in his close-fitting black superfine coat matched with gray trousers and black half boots.
“Lord Dalton. Thank you for coming today to assist us,” Jane offered.
“I only hope that I can help you, Miss Brody. I am sorry that you have been suffering more than your father’s loss in the last few months.
It is a terrible thing to be forever penny pinching, as I know from my time before inheriting my title.
My father kept me on a very tight rein, you see. ” He smiled tightly.
Jane nodded in acknowledgement of his words. She indicated a chair at the table. “Please be seated, Lord Dalton. We may devise a plan of attack better at the table, I think.”
“Perhaps not, Miss Brody. Come and be seated with me on this sofa. We can be comfortable to talk there, I believe.”
Surprised, Jane sat where he indicated. Their proximity was that for an intimate tête-à-tête. Jane gripped her hands in her lap to still them and looked up at his handsome but serious face.
“Now, Lord Dalton, please tell me how we can get ourselves out of this financial morass. I still hold hopes of getting more pupils in this area. It is full of middle-class families who surely want to improve the lot of their offspring. It will just take time for them to know us and trust us.”
“Yes, you may certainly do that, Miss Brody. It will bring you in some money but will require a lot of your time establishing and running it. It is a worthy cause, however.”
She nodded, wondering what else he could suggest.
“You do not have enough money to invest in bonds and shares, do you?”
Jane was emphatic. “Indeed, we have nothing to spare.”
“So that is out of the question. Your brothers, I presume, still do not have established careers allowing them to assist you in any way?”
“My brothers have assigned us some of their salary, of course, but it is insufficient. They offered more, but they have so little themselves, I refused outright. I’m sure that in time they will be able to assist us further, but not yet.”
He briefly considered her response. “You don’t have any wealthy aunts or uncles willing to assist you?”
Jane laughed dryly. None would recognize them. “None that I know of. I have applied to our maternal grandfather, who cut off our mother when she married Papa, but the answer was a decided ‘no’ and no wish for further contact.”
“That would be old Baron Tindale, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes.” Uncomfortable with such personal questions, Jane fidgeted in her seat.
“Well, he is in very good health for his age, so I wouldn’t count on him dropping off his perch anytime soon.”
“No, indeed.” Jane wondered what his next angle of inquiry would be.
He paused. “There was no pension due from the parish that your father served?”
“No, I checked with the bishop, but he was adamant that there was nothing due to my father upon his death.”
“And you father’s independent income is what you are living on at present?” Dalton continued to probe.
“Yes. It is paid quarterly, but it is very hard to make ends meet on so little. I have asked the servants if they wish to obtain other employment but they do not. They wish to remain with us. That is wonderful and makes life easier, but they must be paid soon. Their wages plus rent take most of the interest from father’s invested funds. ”
He raised an eyebrow. “That leaves nothing else I can think of, except accepting charity from your friends.”
“Well, we certainly won’t do that!” Jane exclaimed.
He closed his eyes. “Will you be able to pay all your bills on the income that you receive from your father’s invested funds?”
“Not without my sister or myself working as a governess or by moving to an even smaller house in a much less respectable area in London, which will make it almost impossible to run our school.”
“And that is the way in which you and Anna wish to earn your living for the rest of your days?”
“Well, I do, but Anna wishes to marry one day, and so does Katherine. That is why I need to earn more money, so they have some dowry to give them the option to marry.”
“By that time your brothers may be able to assist you though?”
“Hopefully, but I cannot rely upon it. Besides, they may wish to marry themselves and would need to support their families. Francis, I know, has a sweetheart, and my other brothers may do also. I must find a way to sustain myself and my sisters without relying on anybody else.”
He leaned forward. “What are you willing to do to achieve that?” he asked.
“I don’t know.” Jane was confused about where this conversation was leading.
“Are you willing to put aside some of your principles?”
Jane sat upright and exclaimed in surprise. “My principles? Why should I put them aside?”
“Answer the question, Jane. What are you willing to do to save your family from penury?”
She slumped forward, all pretense of hope gone. “Almost anything.”
“Would you lie? Would you cheat? Would you steal?”
She shook her head. “No. I have not reached that level of desperation yet.”
“Would you be willing to marry for money and security to save your family?” He leaned back, his head tilted to one side, looking at her speculatively.
Jane hesitated. To whom? He couldn’t mean himself as she had already refused him.
“Perhaps. But I have nothing to bring to a marriage. I have no dowry. I have a tarnished reputation in society because of my views on the education and rights of women. Who would be willing to take that blemish into their family?”
“Perhaps some wealthy man of middle-class origins who wishes to align himself with a descendant of an aristocrat who can bring an association with the rich and powerful?”
She almost laughed outright at his suggestion. Her low voice was firm and sure. “Well, that isn’t me, because my grandfather won’t recognize us.”
“All right then, maybe someone who doesn’t need your name and connections to add luster to his family. Someone who is wealthy enough not to need a dowry, nor even to want his wife to have one.”
Jane did laugh at the suggestion. “Believe me, I know of no one who fits that bill!”
“Do you not?” he asked quietly, his eyes searching her face.
“No,” she scoffed. “What does that generous soul get in repayment for his troubles?” She knew of few men who did not judge a potential wife by what she could bring to him.
“You, of course.”
“Ha!” Mirth and disbelief burst from her. “I don’t think I’m the usual bargain that men get in marriage. I am not passive, biddable, concerned only with the home nor only interested in raising children and bringing social status to my husband and family.”
Dalton plowed on. “No, you are not. Perhaps then the bargain should be made with your sister, Anna? She is all of those things, from what I can gather. The only detriment to her that I can perceive is her relationship with you.”
Jane was immediately serious. “No! Anna will not be sold off to the highest bidder. She is all that is beautiful and innocent. I won’t let her be harmed by marriage for mercenary reasons.”
The delivery of his logical reasoning was implacable and direct. “Then that only leaves you, doesn’t it?”
Jane froze. “Yes, it would have to be me.”
He dipped his chin. “I agree entirely.”
A lead weight settled in Jane’s stomach. “Yes, but where is this mythical paragon who wishes to marry me, to save my family, despite all the things against my name?” Jane set her mouth into a disbelieving line and made her voice scathing so he would not doubt her skepticism.
His voice vibrated with an emotion she didn’t recognize. “Jane. You are looking at him.”
Ridiculous! “You?”
“Who else, Jane? I have offered for you already. Can it be any surprise that I would still wish to marry you?”