“Rubbish,” Pat said. “You have no idea what she’s like, because you’ve never bothered to find out. You haven’t even been bowled over by her pretty face; I’d think more of you if you had. She isn’t a featherbrain in the slightest, I think she’d fight tooth and nail if she had to, and even if she were a frippery sort of person she’d still deserve a great deal better than a man who only cares for her father’s wallet.”

“I do care for her.” Jimmy was entirely scarlet now. “She’s a great girl. Good fun. It’s just, this is absolutely the worst possible time for her to be here.”

“But she is here. And if she is fool enough to marry you, she will continue to be here. So you’d better get used to it, and start behaving as if you want her here. Hadn’t you?”

Pat didn’t give him a chance to reply but lengthened her stride and speed, stalking away. She was shaking with anger and, she realised a few moments later, she was also deeply and profoundly miserable.

The fact was, she didn’t want Jimmy to be a decent fiancé. She wanted him to be terrible so that Fen would end the engagement, and it would be nothing to do with her own behaviour when Jimmy lost the industrial wealth on which he was depending to pull Rodington Court and the Earl and Countess and himself out of that hole of theirs.

It was a shameful hope. If Fen broke things off, no matter how justified she might be, it would be her third jilting. The whispers about her would turn to sneers; she’d be branded fast, unreliable, foolish, a joke. Not at all the sort of woman that a good, steady man should pick. Her father’s wealth might mean she was still received but it would attract the kind of predators who liked nothing better than a wealthy woman with limited marriage prospects. Whereas if she married Jimmy, she would one day be Countess of Witton. Women married far worse men than Jimmy could ever be for the sake of a title.

Not to mention Jimmy. Whatever was going on, he’d sounded desperate, and he wasn’t given to histrionics. Pat was a practical woman, and saw nothing wrong with a practical marriage so long as both parties were happy with the arrangement. It didn’t matter if he didn’t love Fen as long as he was kind and she was happy; she suspected that he would fall in love with her after the marriage anyway. Who could not?