“Simple business, Miss Ascot. I acquired the deed from the possessor of the deed. It’s what I do, buy and sell, invest, supply what is in demand at opportune times to reap huge profits. Be it a certain style of architecture, a piece of art, or whatever, when I hear that someone is looking for something in particular, I make an effort to supply it, if it’s within my means and inclination to do so.”

“You’re saying you have a buyer for our house already, that that’s why you purchased it out from under us?”

“My dear girl, your father was given the opportunity to pay the remainder of his debt to complete his own purchase. Had he done so, the deed would have been his.”

“But then you would have purchased the house for nothing, would have seen no profit on it.”

“True, but that is a chance I take in what I do. I either reap excessive rewards, or I break even. Occasionally I even take a loss, but not enough for it to have kept me from becoming quite rich in my endeavors.”

“That implies you have made your own fortune,” she concluded.

“Indeed.”

“No grand inheritance, then, when you gained your title?” she asked next.

It was easy to see that she was trying to discomfit him, and perhaps catch him in a lie. She wasn’t very adept at table-turning, though.

He was amused by the effort. He didn’t even mind sharing a few particulars of his life with her. Actually, he supposed he was a prime candidate for extreme sympathy, if all the facts of his life were taken into account. Not that he would ever reveal all those facts, but a few to work on her sympathies certainly wouldn’t hurt.

“My title came with the entailed family estate in Lincolnshire, which I refuse to ever step foot on again, since it holds nothing but bad memories for me. The rest of the family wealth, mediocre as it was, was left to my favored younger brother, now deceased.”

He said it without inflection, yet the frown lines came immediately to her brow. She really was too compassionate for her own good. It was going to be her downfall—where he was concerned.

Uncomfortably she announced, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

“Of course you did. It’s human nature to pry.”

“But polite to refrain,” she insisted, determined to be at fault for the moment.

“Stop chastising yourself, Larissa. Politeness is not required of you here.”

“On the contrary, politeness is mandatory at all times,” she countered.