Page 8 of Last Night with the Duke
“One full payment the day you start,” he said. “And one at the end of the Season. And, I’ll give you until the end of the week to arrive.”
She took another step back, her legs hitting the desk. It did her no good to put distance between them again because it only made him move forward. He bent his head still closer to hers. She could go no farther.
Placing her hand on the edge of the desk to steady herself, she said, “That would be a lot of money.”
Oh, she was tempted.
Sorely tempted.
She needed that money. With that amount she could pay off all her debts, and have a little left over for next winter’s coal payment too.
She wanted to say yes.
But how could she?
“Perhaps it is only a fair amount anyway,” he continued. “I do have two sisters after all. Their welfare is important to me. Surely you know that some things are worth the price you have to pay.”
“Very well, I do know that, Your Grace. And probably more than most. I want to help you. I have capable women available and urge you to at least take an interview. But I can’t do it.”
His breath glided across her heated cheeks when he said, “There will be a handsome bonus.”
“A bonus?” The spinning wheel of her heart made her legs go weak. Her breathing became so choppy she could hardly speak. Her eyes searched his to see if she could fathom the reason for his insistence other than he simply didn’t want her to best him in this situation, but she found no answer. “You are not playing fair, Your Grace.”
“There is no need to, because I am not playing, Miss Swift. I’m fighting for something I want and will use all that is available to me in order to get it. I aim to win this battle. Aside from the fact I don’t like to lose whether it’s an argument, a wager, or a card game, this is business to me. I’m serious. If one of my sisters becomes engaged by the end of the Season, you’ll have a bonus. I’ll double it if both are.”
“That sounds unbelievably generous, Your Grace, considering it would be easy money to earn.” She paused to weigh his offer again. “Surely, I don’t have to tell you that the hand of a duke’s sister is always highly sought. If either of your sisters want to marry, there will be an enormous amount of gentlemen eager to offer for her hand.”
“You’ve not met my sisters, Miss Swift. The task will not be as easy as you might think.”
There was only one way she could settle this with the duke. She had to make him be the one to back away. “All right,” she said before she could talk herself out of the plan that suddenly came to her. “You have made the offer very appealing. Regrettably, it’s not only my responsibilities here at the agency that hold me back. I have obligations at home that I cannot neglect.”
A frown creased his brow and he grunted suspiciously under his breath. “What are they?”
“Well, there’s Josephine.”
“Josephine?” he questioned.
“My sister. She’s my responsibility and I can’t leave her alone all day and at night too. I will come to your house and chaperone your sisters if I can bring my sister with me.”
The duke’s eyes narrowed as he searched her face so intently she thought she might take back the demand.
“That would be unconventional to say the least.”
“I know, but that is the way it will have to be,” she said, hoping that now he would agree to letting her provide someone to help him rather than going elsewhere to secure a chaperone.
“Do you have no one to help you with your sister?”
Her cousin who was now Viscount Mayeforth could help them, but since his father had disowned her mother several years ago, Esmeralda had never considered asking him for help with Josephine after Josephine’s father died. Esmeralda remembered quite vividly the loud and hurtful row between her mother and her mother’s brother, who was the viscount at the time. He’d told her mother if she went against his wishes and married the Irish poet, she would never be welcomed in the family again.
As far as Esmeralda knew, her mother never had contact with her family after she left. And neither had Esmeralda. She had no reason to believe the current viscount felt differently from his father. If they didn’t want her mother in the family, surely they wouldn’t want her daughter by an Irishman. In any case, Esmeralda had no plans to find out. She would take care of her sister.
“No one,” Esmeralda said firmly with a shake of her head, feeling no guilt about not acknowledging her relationship to Viscount Mayeforth or any of her mother’s family.
“How old is your sister?”
“Twelve. So you see I couldn’t possibly leave her here for weeks to go and take care of Lady Vera and Lady Sara for you.”
His gaze searched her face. Assuming he would reject her requirement, Esmeralda started breathing a little easier and said, “Now may I select a chaperone for you?”
