“Please, Suzette,” her father said, following. “Don’t do this. Just wait until Richard and Robert return and see what they have to say.”

“So that I can be told again that Daniel doesn’t want me?” she asked bitterly.

“You aren’t thinking clearly,” he insisted, taking her arm and forcing her to a halt. “At least take the time to consider things.”

“Actually, Father, I am thinking clearly for the first time since meeting Daniel,” she admitted quietly. “He—I could not think at all when he was near. I did things I know better than to do before marriage.” She flushed with shame as comprehension and sorrow entered his eyes and felt her throat close up as tears filmed her own. She was forced to whisper when she pointed out, “There might be consequences. This takes care of everything. The markers and those consequences if there are any.”

“Oh Suzette,” he said sadly.

She was frankly sick of hearing those two words together in that tone, and said with feigned unconcern, “I was an idiot. I wasn’t foolish enough to think he loved me, but I thought at least he wanted to marry me for the dower.”

“That’s all Danvers wants,” he pointed out quietly, glancing toward the other man who had paused several feet away to allow them privacy.

Suzette shrugged. “Then he can have it. I no longer care. And there are the consequences to think of. If I am with child . . .” She sighed. “It is best if the child has a name other than bastard.”

“Does he know?” Lord Madison asked, glancing back toward Jeremy again.

“Yes,” she said simply, and then shrugged. “It is essentially a business transaction, Father. Both of us gave our hearts to others and this is a marriage of convenience. It will be fine. He seems kind enough and I think it may work out all right in the end. I will marry him.”

His shoulders slumped in defeat. “Then I shall come with you.”

“You do not have to—”

“I am your father, and you are an unmarried woman; you need a chaperone. I will accompany you and stand beside you as you are married,” he said firmly.

Suzette merely nodded. She was oddly numb now, empty. The decision had been made and her future was set and she felt nothing.

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

I never realized I had raised such a fool.”

Daniel stiffened at his mother’s words. “A fool?”

“Yes, a fool,” Lady Woodrow said firmly, and then shook her head and muttered, “Letting the girl think you wanted her only for her money. What could you have been thinking?”

“It was what she wanted in a husband,” he protested at once.

Lady Woodrow looked down her nose at him and assured him dryly, “No woman wishes the man she loves to want her only for her money.”