read whatever books and tracts I wish."
The black tossed his head as Ravenwood swore under his breath. The stallion
steadied as his master exerted expert pressure on the reins. "Let me be quite
certain I have got your demands clear," Ravenwood said in a voice that was
heavily laced with sarcasm. "You will not be banished to the country, you will
not share my bed until it pleases you, and you will read whatever you wish to
read in spite of my advice or recommendations to the contrary."
Sophy drew a breath. "I believe that sums up my list of demands, my lord."
"You expect me to agree to such an outrageous list?"
"Highly doubtful, my lord, which is precisely why I asked my grandfather to
refuse your offer this afternoon. I thought it would save us all a great deal of
time."
"Forgive me, Miss Dorring, but I believe I understand perfectly why you have
never married. No sane man would agree to such a ridiculous list of demands. Can
it be you genuinely wish to avoid matrimony altogether?"
"I am certainly in no rush to plunge into the wedded state."
"Obviously."
"I would say we have something in common, my lord," Sophy said with great
daring. "I am under the impression you wish to marry solely out of a sense of
duty. Is it so very hard for you to comprehend that I might not see any great
advantage in marriage, either?"
"You seem to be overlooking the advantage of my money."
Sophy glared at him. "That is, naturally, a strong inducement. It is, however,
one which I can be persuaded to overlook. I may never be able to afford
diamond-studded dancing slippers on the limited income left me by my father, but
I shall be able to get by in reasonable comfort. And, more importantly, I will
be able to spend that income exactly as I wish. If I marry, I lose that
advantage."
"Why don't you simply add to your list of demands that you will not be guided by
your husband in matters of economy and finance, Miss Dorring?"
"An excellent idea, my lord. I believe I will do exactly that. Thank you for
pointing out the obvious solution to my dilemma."
"Unfortunately, even if you find a male who is sufficiently lacking in reason as
to grant you all of your wishes, you will have no legal way of guaranteeing that
your husband abides by his word after the marriage, will you?"
Sophy glanced down at her hands, knowing he was right. "No, my lord. I would be
entirely dependent on my husband's sense of honor."
"Be warned, Miss Dorring," Ravenwood said with soft menace, "A man's sense of
honor might be inviolate when it comes to his gaming debts or his reputation as
a sportsman but it means little when it comes to dealing with a woman."
Sophy went cold. "Then I do not have much choice, do I? If that is so, I will
never be able to take the risk of marriage."
"You are wrong, Miss Dorring. You have already made your choice and now you must
take your chances. You have said that you would be willing to marry me if I met
your demands. Very well, I will agree to your requirements."
Sophy stared at him openmouthedly. Her heart raced. "You will?"
"The bargain is made." Ravenwood's big hands shifted slightly on the stallion's
reins and the horse lifted his head alertly. "We will be married as soon as
possible. Your grandfather is expecting me tomorrow at three. Tell him I wish to
make all the arrangements at that time. Since you and I have succeeded in
arriving at a private agreement, I will expect you to have the courage to be at
home tomorrow when I call."
Sophy was dumbfounded. "My lord, I do not fully comprehend you. Are you quite
certain you wish to marry me on my terms?"
Ravenwood smiled unpleasantly. His emerald eyes gleamed with harsh amusement.
"The real question, Sophy, is how long you will be able to maintain your demands
once you are confronted with the reality of being my wife."
"My lord, your word of honor," Sophy said anxiously. "I must insist upon it."
"If you were a man, I would call you out for even questioning it. You have my
word, Miss Dorring."
"Thank you, my lord. You truly do not mind that I will spend my money as I
wish?"
"Sophy, the quarterly allowance I will provide you will be considerably larger
than your entire yearly income," Ravenwood said bluntly. "As long as you pay
your bills out of what I allot you, I will not question your expenditures."
"Oh. I see. And… and my books?"
"I think I can handle whatever harebrained notions your books put into your
head. I shall undoubtedly be annoyed from time to time but perhaps that will
give us a basis for some interesting discussions, hm? God knows most women's
conversations are enough to bore a man silly."
"I shall endeavor not to bore you, my lord. But let us be certain we understand
each other perfectly. You won't try to keep me buried in the country all year
long?"
"I'll allow you to accompany me to London when it's convenient, if that's truly
what you want."
"You are too kind, my lord. And my… my other demand?'
"Ah, yes. My guarantee not to, er, force myself upon you. I think we shall have
to put a time limit on that one. After all, my main goal in all this is to
obtain an heir."
Sophy was instantly uneasy. "A time limit?"
"How much time do you think you will require to grow accustomed to the sight of
me?"
"Six months?" she hazarded.
"Don't be a goose, Miss Dorring. I have no intention of waiting six months to
claim my rights."
"Three months?"
He looked about to deny this counteroffer but appeared to change his mind at the
last minute. "Very well. Three months. You see how indulgent I am?"
"I am overwhelmed by your generosity, my lord."
"And so you should be. I defy you to find another man who would grant you such a
length of time before insisting that you fulfill your wifely duties."
"You are quite right, my lord. I doubt if I could find another man who would be
as agreeable as you seem inclined to be in the matter of marriage. Forgive me,
but my curiosity overcomes me. Why are you being so agreeable?"
"Because, my dear Miss Dorring, in the end I shall have exactly what I want out
of this marriage. Good day, to you. I will see you tomorrow at three."
Angel responded instantly to the sudden pressure of Ravenwood's thighs. The
black swung around in a tight circle and cantered off through the trees.
Sophy sat where she was until Dancer lowered his head to sample a mouthful of
grass. The horse's movement brought her back to her senses.
"Home, Dancer. I am sure my grandparents will be either in hysterics or a state
of complete despair by now. The least I can do is inform them that I have
salvaged the situation."
But an old adage flitted through her mind as she rode back to Chesley
Court—something about those who would sit down to dine with the devil being
advised to bring a long spoon.
TWO
Lady Dorring, who had taken to her bed in a fit of despondency earlier in the
day, revived completely in time for dinner on hearing that her granddaughter had
come to her senses.
"I cannot imagine what got into you, Sophy," Lady Dorring said as she examined
the Scotch broth being presented by Hindley, the butler who doubled as a footman
at meals. "To turn down the Earl was past all understanding. Thank heaven you
have put it right. Allow me to tell you, young woman, we should all be extremely
grateful Ravenwood is willing to be so tolerant of your outlandish behavior."
"It does give one pause, doesn't it?" Sophy murmured.
"I say," Dorring exclaimed from the head of the table. "What do you mean by
that?"
"Only that I have been puzzling over why the Earl should have made an offer for
my hand in the first place."
"Why in heaven's name should he not have offered for you?" Lady Dorring
demanded. "You are a fine-looking young woman from a well-bred, respectable
family."
"I had my season, Grandmother, remember? I've seen how dazzling the town
beauties can be and I cannot be compared to most of them. I could not compete
with them five years ago and there is no reason to believe I can compete with
them now. Nor do I have a sizable fortune to offer as a lure."
"Ravenwood don't need to marry for money," Lord Dorring stated bluntly. "Fact
is, the marriage settlements he's suggesting are extremely generous. Extremely."
"But he could marry for land or money or beauty if he so desired," Sophy said
patiently. "The question I asked myself was why was he not doing so. Why select
me? An interesting puzzle."
"Sophy, please, " Lady Dorring said in pained accents. "Do not ask such silly
questions. You are charming and most presentable."
"Charming and most presentable describe the vast majority of the young women of
the ton, most of whom also have the advantage of being younger than I. I knew I
must have something else in my favor to warrant attracting the Earl of
Ravenwood. I was interested to discover what it was. It was simple enough when I
put my mind to the problem."
Lord Dorring regarded her with a genuine curiosity that was not particularly
flattering. "What is it you think you have going for you, girl? I like you well
enough, of course. Perfectly sound sort of granddaughter and all that, but I
confess I did wonder myself why the Earl took such a fancy to you."
"Theo!"
"Sorry, my dear, sorry," Dorring apologized hastily to his incensed wife. "Just
curious, you know."
"As was I," Sophy said promptly. "But I believe I have hit upon the reasoning
Ravenwood is using. You see, I have three essential qualities that he feels he
needs. First, I am convenient and, as Grandmother has pointed out, reasonably
well-bred. He probably did not want to spend a lot of time on the matter of
choosing a second wife. I have the impression he has more important things to
concern him."
"Such as?" Dorring asked.
"Selecting a new mistress or a new horse or a new parcel of land. Any one of a
thousand items might conceivably come before a wife in order of importance to
the Earl," Sophy said.
"Sophy!"
"I fear it's true, Grandmother. Ravenwood has spent as little time as possible
on making his offer. You must agree I have hardly been treated to anything even
faintly resembling a courtship."
"Here, now," Lord Dorring interrupted briskly. "You can't hold it against the
man that he ain't brought you any posies or love poems. Ravenwood don't strike
me as the romantic type."
"I think you have the right of it, Grandfather. Ravenwood is definitely not the
romantic sort. He has called here at Chesley Court only a handful of times and
we've been invited to the Abbey on merely two occasions.'
"I've told you, he ain't the kind to waste time on frippery matters," Lord
Dorring said, obviously feeling obliged to defend another male. "He's got
estates to see to and I hear he's involved in some building project in London.
The man's busy.'
"Just so, Grandfather." Sophy hid a smile. "But to continue, the second reason
the Earl finds me so suitable is my advanced age. I do believe he feels that any
woman who finds herself unmarried at this point in her life should be
everlastingly grateful to the man who was kind enough to take her off the shelf.
A grateful wife is, of course, a manageable wife."
"Don't think it's that so much," her grandfather said reflectively, "as it is he
thinks a woman of your age is bound to be more sensible and levelheaded than
some young twit with romantic notions. Said something to that effect this
afternoon, I believe."
"Really, Theo." Lady Dorring glowered at her husband.
"You may be right," Sophy said to her grandfather. "Perhaps he was under the
impression I would be more levelheaded than a seventeen-year-old girl who was
just out of the schoolroom. Whatever the case, we may assume my age was a factor
in the Earl's decision. But the last and by far the most important reason he
chose me, I believe, is because I do not in any way resemble his late wife."
Lady Dorring nearly choked on the poached turbot that had just been put in front
of her. "What has that to do with anything?"
"It is no secret the Earl has had his fill of beautiful women who cause him no
end of trouble. We all knew Lady Ravenwood was in the habit of bringing her
lovers to the Abbey. If we knew it, you can be certain his lordship did, too. No
telling what went on in London."
"That's a fact," Dorring muttered. "If she was wild here in the country, she
must have made Ravenwood's life pure hell in town. Heard he risked his young
neck in a couple of duels over her. You can't blame him for wanting a second
wife who won't go around attracting other males. No offense, Sophy, but you
ain't the type to be giving him trouble in that line, and I expect he knows it."
"I wish both of you would cease this most improper conversation, " Lady Dorring
announced. It was clear she had little hope she would be obeyed.
"Ah, but Grandmother, Grandfather is quite right. I am perfect as the next
Countess of Ravenwood. After all, I am country-bred and can be expected to be