He would pay for the ridiculous trousseau, though he knew very well she was using him shamelessly on that score, and he would show up to the church when expected and the wedding breakfast following. Lord Tunbridge had seen the wisdom in not inviting him to take a meal with the family, given how Miss Dyer had behaved initially and subsequently and, unless they were both mistaken, would do so eternally.

Harrison didn’t mind. The wedding was not for him, after all, but for her. He would be perfectly content with signing the register and removing to Cornwall without any fuss or attention. He’d prefer that, come to think.

But that was not the way things were done, and he had to proceed in the way things were done. He’d looked into it, and that was the universal response.

He had to.

He’d considered returning to Cornwall to wait out the betrothal, but that too was frowned upon, which told him that he needed to get some better advisors in his life. One might even say that Harrison needed more friends in his life, but he considered that a stretch. What friends did he need in London?

He already had business associates, and he had dined with the Grangers twice, which had been enough, given the sheer amount of adoration the two had for each other. It was stifling for a man so unused to displays of affection or emotion—or feeling emotion. It was deuced uncomfortable to be in that environment, and he wasn’t about to pretend otherwise.

It wasn’t scandalous, by any stretch. They were perfectly polite and respectable people, and no one would have spread gossip about the nature of their marriage. They weren’t exactly leaving anyone in any doubt about the nature of their marriage either, but that was beside the point. They were madly in love, and it did not take excellent vision to see that.

One of these days, the ardor would cool or settle, and they would be more comfortable company for a man for whom emotions were strangers.

Not the enemy, just strangers.

After all, he had a certain fondness for Emblyn, and that already surpassed what he felt for Richard. He actually had a desire to associate with Emblyn and to improve their relationship as brother and sister. He rather wished someone would tell him they found Richard at the bottom of the Thames, if it meant the troubles surrounding him would end.

Was that something he needed to reconcile with a man of the church before making vows with Miss Dyer?