A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting(74)

Kitty had meant the thanks sincerely, but Radcliffe did not look at all pleased to receive them, giving a short bark of bitter laughter. She frowned, unsure of how she had offended him.

‘Can you really mean to marry someone you do not love?’ he asked her, quite abruptly.

Kitty’s hand faltered as she lifted her glass to her mouth.

‘People marry without love all the time,’ she reminded him, her voice hardening. ‘It is not so rare. You think my déclassé background makes me more mercenary, but marriages of convenience are the creation of your class, not mine.’

‘It has never been your background that has given me most pause, Miss Talbot,’ Radcliffe said, affronted. ‘Merely your willingness to sacrifice Archie’s happiness for your own ends.’

She looked at him, assessing.

‘And if I had truly been in love with him. What then?’

‘I don’t follow.’

‘Would you have accepted our relationship, our engagement, had my background been the same, but my feelings for de Lacy been true?’

‘Had I been sure your affection was real, and his also, I don’t see why not,’ Radcliffe said slowly, sensing there was a trap but unable to detect where.

‘Liar,’ she said, almost affectionately. ‘You would never have countenanced it. You protest that your issue was my deceit, but the gap in our social standing would always have prevented your approval. You would never have given it – even if you believed my sentiment to be true.’

‘And how could I ever have believed your feelings to be true?’ he said roughly, ‘When you are so clearly willing to marry anyone who is rich enough, sentiment be damned?’

‘Tell me this, then,’ she said. ‘Could you ever have looked past my birth? Past my circumstances? Could it ever have truly not mattered?’

Her voice was infused with more emotion than the argument warranted, but she did not care. She had to know. He did not answer, staring at her with eyes full of some unnamed emotion.

‘I—’ he began, but he could not finish.

‘You could not,’ she finished for him. They were talking about more than just Archie, now, and they both knew it.

‘You would never have wanted Archie more than you needed his money,’ he said hoarsely.

‘And is that so important?’ she asked. ‘Is want so much more important than need?’

‘It’s everything,’ he told her, voice raw.

‘I understand,’ she said.

And she did.

She looked down, then cleared her throat loudly, twice. ‘I actually had something quite different upon my mind, to say to you,’ she said, brushing past the emotion of their exchange with sheer force of will.

There was a long pause while he appeared to master himself. ‘Yes?’ he asked at last.

‘I thought it best to warn you that it appears Archie is in a spot of trouble. He has been seen in the company of Lord Selbourne, haunting all the worst gambling spots in London.’

Radcliffe blinked – he had not expected that. ‘Thank you for your concern,’ he said dismissively, ‘but Archie is quite all right. It is the duty of any young gentleman to walk a little on the wild side, at some point in his life.’

It was Kitty’s turn to blink now – for she had not expected that. ‘You think it is his duty to develop a gambling addiction? For that is what my aunt has warned me of – he spends his nights in the company of men who are not even allowed in the faro houses.’

His lip curled. ‘You’ll forgive me if I trust my understanding of the situation over Mrs Kendall’s.’

‘Because yours is so superior?’ she flashed at him. ‘I’m afraid your prejudice is showing, my lord.’

‘Do be calm, Miss Talbot,’ he said. ‘Consider your warning heeded – but I assure you, Archie is in no danger. Do you not think, perhaps, that your experience with your father is colouring your judgement?’

She reared back as if she had been struck. She had told him of her father in assumed confidence, in one of their quiet conversations together – the ones where she felt she might say anything, and it would be held safely. Apparently not.

‘Perhaps your experience with your father is blinding you,’ she flung back at him. ‘Perhaps he had good reason for sending you away all along, if you were going the same way as Archie.’

‘As if you care about my brother,’ he snarled. ‘I’d ask you to call him Mr de Lacy – you have long given up the right to use his first name. And since we are exchanging advice, perhaps your attention is better spent on your own family, rather than mine.’

‘And what is that supposed to mean?’ she demanded.

‘Do you not think it unwise to let Miss Cecily and Montagu pursue their romance so boldly?’

‘Cecily and Lord Montagu?’ She was startled out of her anger for the moment, turning to look for her sister. The pair were standing, heads bent next to the refreshment table. Alone once more – which was not, admittedly, very wise. She ought to say something again to her, the poor girl had no idea what it looked like. She turned back to Radcliffe. ‘They are friends, no more – they share an interest in intellectual pursuits.’

He scoffed. ‘You are blinded to the truth – they consider themselves very much in love, any fool could see it.’