The Wedding Game(41)

It was finally over. Though people claimed that hope was necessary to live, the destruction of hope was better than living in dread that it would happen. His future might be in tatters, but Ben felt a tranquillity he had not known in years. ‘So you know my past. What do you mean to do with the information?’

Summoner pushed his papers aside to give his full attention to Ben. ‘What I do depends on what you do.’

‘Knowing what you know, you cannot seriously want me to marry your daughter,’ he said. Now that Summoner had the truth, it was unlikely that he could marry either of them.

Summoner smiled again. ‘On the contrary. I chose you for Arabella specifically because of what I knew. Men with no secrets are much more difficult to control.’

‘Blackmail?’ Ben said in surprise.

‘Hardly,’ Summoner said, with an expression of distaste. ‘It is not unusual that I should want to know the particulars of my prospective son-in-law. And as I said before, I had no problems with them when we agreed on the marriage. But I also told you there would be no turning back from an offer, once it was made. You must have known that I had the power to enforce the agreement.’

‘I assumed that would not be necessary. My word of honour...’

‘Is worthless,’ he finished. ‘You demonstrate the fact by coming here today.’

‘As is yours, sir, if you think you need to use lies and blackmail to catch a husband for Belle. Had I known the whole truth, I never would have agreed to the engagement.’

‘Nor should you have considered another, when you were already affianced,’ Summoner countered, making no effort to deny his duplicity. ‘The previous commitment outweighs the latter.’

‘Normally, that would be true. But the heart is not so easily managed as the head. If I cannot treat your daughter with the respect she deserves...’

‘You can and you will,’ Summoner said in a tone that brooked no further argument. ‘You will go ahead with the marriage as planned. What happens after is between you and your wife. If you insist on following your heart?’ He gave a cynical shake of his head. ‘There is nothing stopping you. If you have not already realised it, Belle will hardly notice should you stray.’

Now it was Ben’s turn to be incredulous. ‘You are suggesting I be unfaithful?’

‘I am suggesting nothing. I am telling you that what happens between a husband and wife is no one else’s affair.’ His manner gentled. ‘All I wish is what I requested from the first. When she leaves this house, she must be secure and happy. You have money enough to keep her safe and she is surprisingly easy to please. Let her keep the damned dog. Buy her dresses. Take her to places where she can dance and eat cake. That is all that matters to her. In exchange, you will have a seat in Parliament and all the advantages I can offer.’

‘And if I tear up the licence and end this before it begins?’

Summoner was smiling again. ‘Then I will ruin you. Like a Biblical judgement, no stone of your life shall rest on stone. Hurt my daughter and I will make you, your lover and anyone else I can find pay for your perfidy.’

If he took Summoner’s advice, he could have them both. But eventually, someone would realise the truth and the scandal would be even worse. Nor could he live with himself if all he had to offer Amy was a clandestine affair with her sister’s husband. A woman with such wit and beauty deserved more than just a pitifully secret slice of his life.

It did not really matter if Summoner destroyed him. In fact, the thought was liberating. He would still have the Duke’s bequest. It was more than enough to start again. But without Summoner’s support, there would still be a scandal. He might be destroying one sister in an attempt to have the other. In the end, he would lose them both and gain nothing.

‘Very well, then,’ he said, bowing his head and recognising his defeat. ‘I will say no more about it. I will abide by my promise to your daughter. She shall want for nothing.’

Summoner’s smile returned to the good-natured beam it had been when he entered the room. ‘I am glad you have come to your senses. And, of course, I will keep my half of the bargain as well.’

‘On the contrary,’ Ben said, raising his head to stare, unsmiling, into the eyes of his future father-in-law. ‘I will take nothing from you, no matter how willingly it is given. It will not be said that the decisions I’ve made are based on the bribes of a powerful man. I might lose my heart over this. But I mean to keep my honour as my own.’

With that, he turned and left before Summoner could say another word.





Chapter Fifteen

Ben had visited her father. When she and Belle had returned from their morning ride, he had been at the door, collecting his hat and stick from the footman in preparation of leaving. He had greeted them with perfunctory courtesy, a hollow smile and the standard lament that he could not stay longer to have tea with them.

But there was something in the stiffness of his bow that announced he would rather be anywhere than where he was. Though he probably considered himself trapped in a marriage he no longer wanted, there was no sign that he held the bait responsible for his predicament. The smile he gave to Belle in their brief conversation was as near to genuine as he could make it.

In Amy’s opinion, it spoke well of him. No matter what he thought about his future, he would take good care of her sister. But his feelings for her father were clear enough, if one bothered to look. Before he’d left, he’d cast a brief look of undisguised loathing down the hall towards the office. Whatever had been said between them, it had not gone as Ben Lovell had hoped.