The Indebted Earl Erica Vetsch (iphone ebook reader txt) 📖

as soon as possible. Our union would be for the sake of the girls, the estate, and my debt to Major Richardson. You would have a home and safe place for Lady Richardson, and a way out of any marriage plans your mother might concoct.”

“A marriage of convenience.” She tried to organize her scattered wits.

“Yes, that’s it. What do you say?”

What could she say? Would marrying in such a manner be disloyal to Rich’s memory? What would Marcus think? And her mother?

She stared out to sea, pressing her lips together. Not ten minutes prior she had been crying out to God for a way out of her situation, for a clear path that would allow her to look after the girls and stay at Gateshead, at least through the summer. And here she was being offered a permanent place.

Once, when she was young, she heard a preacher say that God’s children should pray so specifically that when the prayer was answered, they would know it was God who had done it and not coincidence.

Peace dropped into her heart. This must be God’s answer to her specific prayer, though she never would have imagined a proposal of marriage.

The captain waited, standing almost at attention, his hands once more clasped behind him.

“Lord Rothwell, I accept your proposal and your terms. I will marry you and stay on as the mistress of Gateshead and co-guardian of your wards.”

He relaxed, a slight smile touching his lips. He reached for her hand and, to her surprise, placed a chaste kiss upon her cheek. “I do think it would be proper for you to call me Charles now. My dear, you’ve made me most happy.”

And oddly enough, she felt happy too. Perhaps that boded well for their future. Her fingers touched the place his lips had made contact with her cheek, and for a moment she wished he had given her a proper kiss on the lips to seal their agreement.

C

HAPTER

9

“YOU’RE GETTING MARRIED?” Penny leapt up from the rug where she had been leafing through a book of fashion drawings from twenty years ago. “Oh, that’s the most romantic thing ever.” She hugged Sophie. “You’re going to be a beautiful bride. I’ve never been to a wedding before.” Looking down at her plain muslin dress, she made a face. “I wish I had something elegant to wear.”

“Why? Why are you getting married?” Betsy tugged on Sophie’s dress. “Do you have to? Are you sad? What does married mean?”

Sophie knelt and hugged Betsy. “Girls, I hope you’ll be happy about the news. It means you can all stay here at Gateshead with us. No boarding school, no orphanage. Lord Rothwell will continue as your guardian. And yes, Betsy, I’m quite happy to be getting married. It means that the earl and I …” How did one describe marriage to a child as young as Betsy?

“It means they promise to love only each other and live together forever.” Penny clasped her hands under her chin and swayed, as if overcome by the romance of it all.

Sophie tugged her bottom lip. She wasn’t marrying for love but for expediency. But that was the business of herself and the captain, no one else. It was essentially what her mother was goading her to do. Sophie had just taken the decision out of the dowager’s hands.

Thea sat up on the bed, then bounced to her feet and jumped on the mattress. “Yes! No more place like Miss Fricklin’s.” Hop, hop, hop, squeaking the bedsprings. “No more stupid rules, no more oatmeal every morning, and no more boring lessons.”

Sophie hurried over and took Thea’s arm. “You’ll wind up needing a new bed if you continue. I agree, no more boarding school, but you will have lessons, both academic and social. Someone needs to keep you from becoming a complete hoyden.”

Thea scowled and plopped onto her backside on the rumpled coverlet. She shrugged. “Lessons here have to be better than lessons at Miss Fricklin’s.”

Sophie grinned at the girl’s philosophical approach to life. Dorothea Pembroke would go far in this world.

“When are you getting married? Will the banns be read tomorrow at church?” Penny asked.

“No, the earl has decided we should marry quickly. Neither of us wants a large wedding. We’ll marry in the small chapel here on the property this Wednesday morning. We’ll have a picnic wedding breakfast near the cliff, and then we’ll take a quick sail on the Shearwater to celebrate.”

“Oh, won’t that be nice?” A dreamy look drifted into Penny’s eyes. “Are we all invited? To go sailing, I mean.”

“You just want to see Miles again.” Thea snorted.

Sophie studied the girl. Penny was only a handful of years younger than she, and here Sophie was, stepping in to act the role of mother. How did one guide a boy-crazed girl through adolescence and see her safely launched into adulthood?

“What did Miss Mamie say?” Thea asked, dangling her feet over the edge of the bed and kicking randomly.

“I’m going to tell her now.” Sophie’s stomach muscles tightened. She hoped Mamie would understand and not be offended. It was only a quarter year since Rich had passed away. “I’d like you girls to make a list of your belongings, your clothes and shoes and the like. Write it neatly in columns, and bring it to the parlor when you’re finished, all right?”

She left them dragging dresses and nightgowns out of the wardrobe and headed to the parlor.

“Hello, darling Mamie. What are you making there?”

Mamie tugged a length of fine wool from the ball in her knitting basket. “Stockings for Rich. The air is so damp at sea, I worry about his feet getting cold and him falling ill.” She sighed, but her needles never stopped.

Sophie’s heart sank into her slippers. Mamie had been having such a good day. She knelt before the older woman and put her hands atop the knitting. “Mamie, dear, you know that Rich is dead, right?”

Mamie’s lips trembled, and doubts crept into her faded-blue