The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by KJ Charles

Author:KJ Charles [Charles, KJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Gay, romance, Regency, M/M
Publisher: KJC Books
Published: 2021-02-23T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

The next afternoon, Robin was lying on the settle full length with his hands over his face when Marianne came in.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Robin considered telling all, assessed how much sympathy he was likely to receive, and decided not to bother. Marianne had been frying bigger fish for both their benefit, while he was miserable because a man who knew he was untrustworthy treated him as such. He deserved Hart’s suspicion, and if he’d made a mull of it all, he had only himself to blame.

He swung himself upright and round. “How did it go? How was the dragon?”

Marianne had finally had her long-awaited luncheon with the Dowager Marchioness of Tachbrook. It was not a friendly gesture, but very much a test. Robin had spent two hours dressing her that morning.

“Dragonish,” Marianne said. “Stiff-rumped, condescending, consequential. She gave me two fingers and a nod, and spent half an hour enumerating the Tachbrook lineage before deigning to ask me about my people.”

“And?”

“As we agreed. I told her my family was of no note whatsoever, that you were my only living relative, that she need not worry about hangers-on and claimants coming out of the woodwork. I freely confessed that I had neither portion nor birth, and sat with my head modestly lowered while she impressed my worthlessness and Tachbrook’s glory on me.”

“Sounds wonderful. So...?”

“I don’t know. It may be nobody is sufficiently conscious of their unworthiness for her son, but she told me twice I was pretty enough.”

“Pretty enough for that inflated lump of dough she calls a marquess?”

“Quite.”

“I’m not going to ask again if you’re sure, because it is very trying to be continually asked if one is sure,” Robin said. “But, just to note, if you would rather accept another invitation there, fill your pockets with everything valuable that isn’t nailed down, and disappear, I will very gladly keep you company.”

“Things not going well with Hartlebury?” Marianne asked. “Told you so.”

“He thinks I’m going to blackmail him for sodomy.”

“He shouldn’t have sodomised you, then.”

“That’s what I said.”

“Some people won’t be told.” She flopped down beside him on the settle. Robin put an arm round her waist and she rested her head on his shoulder. “Lord, Robin.”

“These bloody people.”

“If I were rich—when I am rich—I shall enjoy myself. I shan’t spend all my time making other people miserable because they aren’t as rich as me.”

“You won’t have to, because you have other qualities to recommend you than wealth.”

“True. Why do the worst people have it? Or why have we all decided that the most important and to-be-respected quality is the one possessed by the worst people? Ugh. Tell me something good, Rob.”

She’d used to say that a lot, when they were huddled together against fear or misery. Marianne had strength of character and an ability to think ahead that Robin could only envy, but her disposition was choleric and melancholic. She turned to Robin, sanguine and phlegmatic as he was, when she was lost in the dark and needed to see brightness.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.