Page 81 of A Lady's Guide to Scandal

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I am.’

He turned to face the garden for a moment, as if to gather himself. ‘Right. I own, I confess I thought you might have called things off, since the other night. But I see that was foolish of me.’

His eyes were colder now, as he turned back to face her. ‘May I ask if you are planning to accept his offer of marriage?’

‘My lord,’ she began, voice shaking. ‘Nothing of my situation has changed. I still need to leave London with a rich man as my fiancé, or I will have to sell the only home my sisters have ever known, and find some other way of supporting them, all by myself. I thought … I had thought that this no longer mattered to you.’ She waved a hand towards the ballroom, as if to encompass all that he had confessed within.

‘I did – it doesn’t,’ he said, running a hand over his face. ‘But to find you about to accept another man’s proposal is— I do not like it.’

‘I don’t know what you want from me then,’ she cried, casting out her arms. ‘For I cannot make my situation any different. I must marry. And so far, I have no promises.’

He would not look at her.

‘Ask me then,’ she said, voice raw, ‘ask me if I should like, if I should want to marry Pemberton, were the choice only about me?’

He looked up. ‘Would you?’

‘No,’ she said, voice cracking. ‘Now ask me, whether I should still love you, were the choice only mine to make?’

He took a step forward. ‘Would you?’ he said again.

‘Yes,’ she confessed. ‘I will always choose my sisters. I will choose their need more than my want every day. But I want you just as much as I need money. You see me, in my entirety – the worst and the best of me – as no one else ever has.’

She stared at him, full in the face – without artifice or pretence, her face open and full of emotion. He was closer now. Close enough to reach up and touch her cheek with light, careful fingers.

‘Would you – would you like to marry me, Kitty?’ Lord Radcliffe – James – asked, voice like gravel.

She gave a helpless little laugh at the absurdity of the question – as if he did not know.

‘I would,’ she said. ‘But first, I feel I must inform you that I come with four sisters, a badly leaking roof, and a veritable ocean of debt.’

He had started to smile now, and once begun it did not seem to stop, overtaking his whole face.

‘I thank you for your honesty,’ he said cordially, and she laughed. ‘May I reassure you that I am desperate to meet your other sisters, the roof sounds charmingly rustic, and the debt does not faze me.’ He paused. ‘Of course, I understand that you will need to see my accounts before committing yourself,’ he went on, and she laughed again, loud and bright.

‘I’m sure that won’t be necessary,’ she said. ‘As long as you can promise you’re absurdly rich and you’ll pay off all my family’s debts.’

‘I am absurdly rich,’ he repeated. ‘And I will pay off all your family’s debts.’

‘Why then by all means,’ she said, grinning up at him, ‘I would indeed like to marry you.’

His hand caught her jaw now. There was nothing hesitant about the kiss, nothing uncertain. It was as if they’d both read the script beforehand and had – all along – simply been waiting for the cue. Cue given, they both committed themselves wholeheartedly to the scene, and it was some time before conversation was resumed.

‘James! James!’ They looked up, hurriedly parting, as Archie burst onto the courtyard. ‘There you are! Mama is looking for you – she has quite lost Amelia … I say, is everything all right?’ He eyed them suspiciously.

‘Yes, Archie. More than all right, in fact – Miss Talbot has just agreed to marry me,’ Radcliffe said, taking Kitty’s hand.

‘By Jove!’ Archie looked quite thunderstruck. ‘By Jove, indeed.’

Kitty remembered with a start that this news might not be entirely welcome to him – after all, it was not so long ago that he had thought himself in love with her. By the hesitant look upon James’s face, he was worrying about the same.

‘Archie?’ Kitty said, questioningly. Archie startled out of his reverie and leapt forward to wring his brother’s hand.

‘Splendid news, congratulations,’ he enthused. ‘Was just a trifle bamboozled, but quite all right now. Terribly silly of me – bacon-brained, really – but I had quite thought that you meant to marry me, Kitty. But must say a relief to know that’s absolute stuff – not sure we’re all that suited, really, so it is perhaps for the best. You understand, don’t you?’

This last was said in kindly tones, an expression upon Archie’s face as if he were delivering unwelcome news that she was to take with a stiff upper lip.

Kitty bristled. ‘Archie,’ she said quite irately, ‘are you turning me down?’