To Marry A Matchmaker (Historical Romance)

by Michelle Styles

  ‘Is this about money?’ she whispered.

  ‘It is different for a man.’ Sebastian put a hand on Henri’s shoulder, but she shrugged it off. ‘Come, Henrietta, what am I supposed to do? Turn a blind eye to your misdemeanours? Allow you to become the subject of common gossip?’

  ‘A joke is a joke, Sebastian.’ Henri hated the cold dread that filled her. Sebastian could not be serious about ruining her if she failed to marry Robert Montemorcy. She pushed the panic away and attempted to hang on to rational thought. ‘You are not going to tell anyone, Sebastian. Mr Montemorcy is a gentleman. He will keep quiet as well. You are simply seeking to create a storm in a teacup because your own marriage plans went awry and you need money. Your debts are there because you gamble.’

  ‘Your cousin is not joking.’ Robert gave Sebastian a deadly glance. ‘He intends to use the information to discredit me within the business community.’

  ‘And that would harm your business?’ Henri thought of the hundreds of workers who depended on Robert. And all his plans. He created jobs for people. Sebastian wanted to take all that away.

  Robert gave a shrug. ‘Men do business for all sorts of reasons. But a big enough scandal could hurt.’

  ‘I would never dream of joking about such matters.’ Sebastian held up his hands. ‘It was your choice to be with Robert Montemorcy. You made your bed, Henrietta, now have the good grace to lie in it. Marriage or else banishment from polite society. You like being good, accepted and helping people, Henrietta. You would be desperately unhappy being bad and wicked. It goes against your nature. You told me to find a way to pay my debts and I have. You, or rather Montemorcy, will pay.’

  Henri stared at her cousin in open-mouthed horror. She’d considered him spoilt before, but she had never realised the depths of his depravity. She put her hand to her head and tried to think clearly. Marriage to Robert was not the answer. And she refused to allow Sebastian leave to ruin her life.

  ‘Robert! Mr Montemorcy, explain why it is impossible for us to marry. Sebastian, you are acting exactly like you accused Robert of acting. You did not like it then. Why should I like it now?’

  ‘And quite frankly,’ Sebastian continued as if she had not spoken, ‘I do not care whom you marry as long as you do marry.’

  ‘Cawburn, you go too far!’ Robert said in a furious voice. ‘You will stay within the bounds of propriety. We agreed. Henri is not to be bullied. I will not have Henri forced against her will. I take all the blame for the situation. We’re engaged and if—’

  ‘Are you saying that my guardian dishonoured Lady Thorndike, Lord Cawburn?’ Sophie asked. ‘When?’

  ‘I draw a veil over the particulars, Miss Ravel, as you are unmarried.’ Sebastian inclined his head. ‘Thankfully, Mr Montemorcy showed a particle of common sense. It pains me that my cousin fails to grasp the gravity of the situation.’

  Henri crossed her arms and silently consigned Sebastian to the darkest corner of hell. ‘All the times I smoothed the ruffled feathers and made certain no outraged husbands followed you. You are the most despicable type of hypocrite, Sebastian English! You will not get a halfpenny farthing from me ever.’

  ‘But I thought marriage was supposed to be the making of people.’ Sebastian batted his eyelids. ‘I believe it would have been the argument you used with me if I had chosen to dishonour Miss Ravel in that fashion.’

  Henri reached out and slapped his face.

  ‘Ouch, that hurt!’

  ‘And that is for a good many other things as well.’

  ‘Cawburn, I will speak with Lady Thorndike in private,’ Robert said, stepping between Sebastian and her. ‘Violence is not going to solve anything.’

  His bulk hid her from Sebastian’s triumphant gaze and Henri used the few heartbeats to regain control of her emotions. There had to be some way that she could reason with Robert and make him see. It was marriage in general she was against. She enjoyed Robert’s company too much to marry him. She did not want to risk losing him. And there were so many ways she could lose him—death, boredom and even to someone else as her mother had lost her father. Her heart stopped. But she also risked losing him if they did not marry—so was loss inevitable? But which way would hurt less? Was it the hurt she feared? And what about the love she felt for him? Henri tried to concentrate and to think logically.

  ‘I am not sure I should let you, Montemorcy,’ her cousin said. ‘Your being alone with Henri is what brought us to this impasse, as it were. In good conscience, can I be that derelict in my duty?’

  ‘You will allow me to speak to Henri.’ Robert used a slow voice that allowed for no dissent. ‘You know my intentions are honourable, Cawburn.’

  ‘I’ll wait with Grace,’ Sophie said. ‘There is no need to fear, Robert. I have decided to be the model of decorum from here on out. I have no wish to experience an abduction again. They are beastly uncomfortable and inconvenient. I wonder why popular novels make them seem so exciting. They make you miss your tea.’

  ‘Always the practical one, Sophie. I look forward to the new Sophie,’ Robert said with a laugh. ‘It will make your stepmother’s head rest easily at night. All she wants for you is to be a happy and respectable young woman.’

  Sophie stopped and kissed Henri’s cheek. Her eyes sparkled. ‘I’m pleased we’re to be in each other’s life after all, but I do think you could have told me before about the secret engagement. When did Robert ask you?’

  ‘He hasn’t,’ Henri ground out, ignoring Sophie’s startled exclamation. ‘I have not had the opportunity of refusing the offer.’

  Henri practised counting to ten while she waited for the room to empty. Robert, to her annoyance, appeared to be enjoying her anger. When Sebastian left, he shut the door with a decisive click.

  ‘How could you do this to me?’ Henri asked. ‘How could you declare to all the world that we were getting married? You have not even asked me.’

  ‘You might at least wait for the explanation, Thorndike.’ A muscle twitched in his jaw.

  ‘Why? It won’t change my answer.’ Henri kept her head upright. She would be dignified. He was being forced into this, just as she had once forced Edmund. Just once, she’d liked to be asked first. ‘Forced marriages are always a disaster.’

  ‘We must speak, Henrietta. Sensibly. Without you flying into a rage. Consider for a moment the alternative. Do you truly want that? More to the point, do you think I would have arranged this, any more than you arranged the note? You spoke of trust and trust must run both ways. Do you trust me?’

  ‘Trust you?’ Henri froze. He was right—she had behaved precisely in the same fashion that he had. She had chosen the fear instead of waiting for the truth. She swallowed hard. ‘Marriage wasn’t in my plans. I explained that.’

  ‘Then what is,’ he asked softly, ‘now that we both know it will be impossible to keep our relationship a secret? Plans can change, Henri.’

  Henri thought about the alternative. A life outside the confines of society—one of late mornings, decadent afternoons and sensuous evenings. No longer would she be forced to call on women who were more interested in gossip than people. She could behave exactly how she pleased without trying to be good. She wouldn’t have to be interested in what people did. Or have the satisfaction of seeing how her schemes improved people’s lives. Conventionality was not morality, but it was comforting.

  The anger fled from her, leaving her shoulders bowed down by sadness. The dream that she didn’t dare speak was for ever gone. She wanted Robert to marry her for the right reasons, not to save some reputation that didn’t matter a jot in the grand scheme of things.

  She wanted to beg him to sweep her into his arms and whisper that he had always intended to ask her. Instead he glowered at her and allowed the silence to grow.

  ‘This is a dreadful mess,’ she said when her body screamed for her to do something and stop the dreadful silence from pressing down on her. ‘There must be a way around this coil.’

  ‘Must th
ere? Your cousin is a determined and desperate man. You were right. I have come to regret harassing him about his debts. Your ideas are at least equal to mine. I did overcomplicate matters.’

  ‘Giving in to blackmail is out of the question.’ Henri ran her hands up and down her arms, trying to get some warmth back into her body. She refused to allow Robert even to contemplate such a thing as giving in. ‘He’ll only come back for more. I wish that I’d seen it earlier.’

  ‘He’s been emotionally blackmailing you for years. Telling you that it was your fault about Edmund’s death. It is why you helped him, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes. No. I wanted to stop feeling so alone. Sebastian needed my help.’ She looked at her hands. ‘I suppose you think me foolish.’

  ‘No, I think you have a generous heart, my dearest Thorndike. The most generous heart I have ever encountered.’

  Henri put a hand to the side of her head. His dearest Thorndike. ‘This situation is nothing either of us wanted. You should have done everything in your power to prevent it. There was no need to kiss and tell. Particularly not to Sebastian.’

  Something went out of Robert’s eyes. Henri squirmed slightly. She had not meant the words as harshly as they came out of her mouth.

  ‘Your cousin guessed without me uttering a single word. I declined to answer his questions as any gentleman would.’ Robert’s gaze travelled slowly up and down her and she remembered what it was like to have his skin touching hers. ‘Henri, your eyes are sparkling and a certain lustre hangs about you. He asked a specific question, I answered as best as I could without lying. I refused to lie, Henri, even for you.’

  ‘But he intends to blackmail you.’ Henri clasped her hands together to prevent them from reaching out towards Robert. She was filled with the nearly overwhelming desire to lay her head against his chest and have him hold her.

  ‘Whatever you decide here, Thorndike, my reputation will not suffer in the long term.’

  ‘But…’ Henri turned towards the glowing coals and tried to marshal her thoughts. He had not asked her to marry him this morning. It was only now when Sebastian demanded and, somehow, it hurt far more than it should. She wanted his offer of marriage to come from the heart, not to be forced through circumstances. Marriage with love was difficult enough. She knew that from her experience with Edmund. Without love and forced to because society dictated—she shuddered to think. ‘But it could affect your business in the long term. You said as much to Sebastian.’

  ‘To be known as less than honourable in my private life.’ he gave a shrug ‘.what happens with my business has no bearing on your future. It has already weathered the scandal of my father’s death. It is you he wants to control.’

  ‘But our coming together was supposed to be an interlude.’

  ‘Henri? Are you going to say that our coupling was meaningless?’

  ‘Yes,’ she lied, hating that he had guessed and longing for him to deny it. ‘I had assumed it. It was supposed to be our secret, something that had no bearing on our real lives. I never expected anyone to guess. I thought I had planned everything precisely.’

  ‘Why would you think that?’ He looked genuinely astonished. ‘Why would you think so little of yourself?’

  ‘Isn’t that how all men think? Coupling is a purely physical act with little meaning for the rest of one’s life. One has to apply cool logic.’ She watched the glow of the fire and tried to control the sudden fluttering of her stomach. ‘Certainly it was how my father thought, and my cousin thinks. Edmund even. Logic.’

  ‘Logic has nothing to do with it. You taught me that. All men are not your father or your cousin. And I cannot claim to speak for the rest of humanity.’ He came and stood behind her. His hands lightly skimmed her arms. ‘I can only speak for me. Being with you was the most incredible experience of my existence. You are the most intriguing woman I have ever met. I want you in my life. You showed me that there are some things that can only be seen through the heart. A generosity of spirit can do far more good than cold logic. And I’m not too proud to admit it was a lesson I needed to learn.’

  The warm curl in her stomach grew. Henri concentrated on the fire, rather than giving in to her impulse and turning. If she turned, she’d be in his arms and kissing him. But it was wrong. What they had shared was supposed to be just a passionate interlude. He had never mentioned love and she knew she needed that reassurance if they were going to marry.

  She gave a shaky laugh. ‘I thought passion was a bad basis for marriage. It has no part in a rational well-ordered life.’

  ‘I am quite willing to be proven wrong, Henri.’ There was a rich warm laugh in Robert’s voice. ‘Will you take the risk?’

  ‘Are we opting for a long engagement?’ Henri relaxed slightly. She was an idiot of the highest order. She should have understood what Robert was doing before jumping to conclusions. They would be engaged for a little while and then decide quietly that they did not suit after all. The interval did not have to be long, but it was the perfect solution. ‘Long engagements prevent mistakes happening.’

  ‘I am opting for marriage with you or nothing.’

  ‘Don’t force me to do this. Don’t force yourself into something you will regret. Maybe not today, but tomorrow or the next day. Marriage was not in your plans or mine.’

  Robert listened to Henri’s words as tears shimmered in her eyes. He was about to lose her. Last night he’d agreed that they were merely friends, but today the very real prospect of a future without her stared him in the face. If he was going to lose her, then he would lose no matter what he did or said. He who took so many risks in business was afraid to take this risk in his private life? Henri had taught him that life should hold more. He wanted to give her that commitment because she deserved the security.

  ‘Would you make me into a hypocrite, Henri? First a liar and then a hypocrite. How little you know me.’ Robert traced the line of her jaw. She turned her face away. His heart clenched. Had he already lost her? ‘I already told you that we were going to be together again. I promised white linen sheets and long lazy mornings. I want to be more than your friend, Henri. I want to be your lover. For now. For always. For always is a long time, Henri.’

  ‘And you don’t break your promises.’

  ‘Not promises to beautiful ladies.’ His hands reached out and turned her towards him.

  ‘I am grateful you think me beautiful,’ she said carefully. An insidious tendril of hope curled about her insides. ‘No else does. Everyone in my family has always commented on my faults.’

  ‘Then they are blind.’

  ‘My nose is too large, my mouth too small, my figure is less than fashionable. I do know my faults.’

  ‘Which are?’

  ‘I’m headstrong, bad tempered in the morning particularly, and inclined to want my own way.’ She started counting off her faults on her fingers and he knew he had to take the final risk.

  ‘You have forgotten arrogant, stubborn, high-handed and one last thing.’ He gathered her unresisting to his and tilted her chin towards him until her sapphire-blue eyes looked directly into his.

  ‘What is that?’ she breathed.

  ‘Utterly and completely lovable.’ He bent his head and his mouth caught her bottom lip. He allowed his lips to say the words that he did not dare say, slowly and quietly, showing as well as telling her his feelings.

  A long drawn-out sigh emerged from her throat and she twined her arms about his neck. ‘Lovable? No one has ever called me that before.’

  He smoothed her hair back from her temple. ‘I’m selfish, Henri, I want you in my life for the rest of my life. Not because of Sebastian or anyone, but because I want you there when I wake up and when I go to bed. When I look up from my food, I want you there across from me. I want to hear your voice. I want to touch your skin. I want you.’

  ‘As your wife?’

  ‘I can’t promise an easy life as we are both far too set in our ways,’ he admitted, ‘but it would never be dull.
Life without you would be an empty shell. I will even allow you to have treasure-hunting picbeetnics wherever and whenever you want and if that isn’t love, then I don’t what is. But, yes, I want to marry you. Marry me and stay by my side always.’

  ‘Wherever I want?’ A tiny smile touched her lips.

  ‘I’m a man of deeds, not words, my dear. Pretty poetry doesn’t spring easily to my lips, but then I suspect you would deride it as a pile of mush.’

  ‘Sometimes I like mush, but grand gestures do just as well.’ Henri laid her head against Robert’s chest, listened his steady heartbeat and tried to make sense of his words and the feelings that swamped her. He thought her lovable and beautiful. He wanted to marry her. ‘And if I wanted to be wicked?’

  ‘You will find being wicked inside a marriage is far easier.’ He waggled his eyebrows. ‘We still have a lot to explore for when you are married. The wagers can be much more interesting. With the right person, it is far more fun to be married, and, Henrietta Thorndike, you are the right person for me. I love you deeply and passionately.’

  ‘You do?’ She captured his face between her hands. Her heart was so overflowing that she found it difficult to speak. ‘I don’t want to lose you, Robert. I can’t bear the thought of losing you.’

  ‘Then you’ll marry me.’ There was a note of hesitation in his voice. ‘Say the words, Henri. Say them for me.’

  She took a deep breath. Her insides did a dance all of their own. It was exhilarating and made her feel wonderfully alive. Their marriage would not be perfection, but it would be full of passion. ‘We’ll marry. I adore a challenge.’

  * * *

  The wedding day which seemed to take for ever to arrive, went by in a flash. It did not matter that a steady drizzle came down all that morning, or that St Andrew’s was distinctly cold for a late August morning. All she noticed was how crowded the church was and how many people stood in the church yard as she came in on Doctor Lumley’s arm. Aunt Frances sat in the front pew, wiping her eyes, but Sebastian had long since departed for the Continent, one step ahead of the debt collectors after Robert provided him with money for the passage. To Henri’s great surprise, Sebastian had returned the money once he arrived in Venice with a note about how a gentleman always repaid his debts of honour to other gentlemen.