Mistress - Amanda Quick [94]
There was a short, brittle pause. Marcus eventually stirred in the manner of a large beast of prey seeking a more comfortable position. He leaned his head back against the cushion, narrowed his eyes, and folded his arms across his chest.
“I made it clear to Dorchester that I would not marry Juliana even if he arranged for the two of us to be discovered nude in bed together,” Marcus said deliberately.
“Oh.” Iphiginia did not know what else to say.
“I reminded him of my rule against marriage. Dorchester apparently took me at my word. He ceased throwing Juliana at my head, in any event. But this Season he seems to have concluded that my brother will make a suitable substitute.”
“So tonight you again tried to dissuade him from his goal,” Iphiginia concluded. “But this time you find yourself dealing with an additional problem. Your brother is in love with Juliana.”
“My brother has succumbed to the lure of physical attraction and the overheated prose of the Byron set. He is not in love.”
Iphiginia winced at the disgust in his voice. “How can you be certain that what your brother feels for Juliana is not true love?”
“For God’s sake, he’s barely twenty. He’s in the throes of his first fit of passion, that’s all. In the typical manner of young males, he wishes to dignify his perfectly natural lust by calling it love.”
“Perhaps his feelings for Juliana run deeper than you believe.”
“Not bloody likely,” Marcus muttered.
“What did you hope to accomplish by announcing your own fictitious betrothal this evening?”
“The betrothal is not fictitious. We are going to be married, Iphiginia.”
“Let’s return to that point some other time,” she said. “At the moment we are discussing your brother. You think to forestall Dorchester’s plans by causing him to believe that you have changed your mind about remarriage.”
“I have changed my mind.”
She ignored that. “You may have succeeded in persuading Dorchester that Bennet is no longer a good match for his daughter, but what about Bennet and Juliana?”
“What about them? Juliana’s parents will not allow her to marry my brother if they believe that I will cut him off. Their aim is to get their hands on a portion of the Masters fortune. I control that fortune, not Bennet.”
“Marcus, I do not think it will be as easy as all that. I saw your brother’s face tonight: He believes himself to be in love with Juliana.”
“He’ll soon discover that it will not do him any good. Dorchester will remove Juliana from my brother’s vicinity and fire her off at another target now that I’ve removed the primary one.”
“Rubbish. You and Dorchester are both idiots if you truly believe that you can control the lives of others in such a fashion. Juliana and Bennet are young, but they are adults. There is no knowing what they might do if you and Dorchester try to bend them to your wills.”
Marcus watched her from the shadows. “What are you saying? That they might run off to Gretna Green together?”
“It’s a possibility, is it not?”
“No. I’ll admit that in his present state Bennet might be foolish enough to suggest the notion, but Juliana is a very rational young woman. She is highly unlikely to do anything so impractical as to marry a man whose financial prospects are uncertain.”
“Meaning she will marry for money rather than love?”
“Precisely. Do not forget, I saw her in action last Season.”
“I suspect the people you saw in action were her parents. Poor Juliana was no doubt merely attempting to obey their instructions.”
“There is no difference.”
“Marcus, I hesitate to mention this,” Iphiginia said, “but you are not quite the great judge of human nature you perceive yourself to be. At least not when it comes to affairs of the heart.”
“Affairs of the heart should be handled in the same manner as affairs of business. They should be approached with circumspection and care.”
“You mean with cynicism, do you not? I understand what you are trying to do,” Iphiginia said gently. “You wish to protect your brother from an unhappy marriage. But I do not