Read Online Carousel of Hearts by Mary Jo Putney - Free Book Online

firmed again. She wished them every joy in the world, but their felicity would underline her own solitary state. 
    She would be a fool to subject herself to that. “It won’t do, Antonia. I’ve loved every minute in your household, but I have always wanted to travel, and with the ridiculously high salary you have been paying me, I can now afford to do so. Perhaps I’ll go to America. I’ve always wanted to see the New World, perhaps even live there permanently.”
    Antonia suppressed her protest, knowing she had no right to do so. “But . . . you will write? America is so far away.”
    “Of course I’ll write. Even if I go, I probably won’t stay there.” Judith gave her a Antonia a hug. “I may be too English to live in another land.”
    Antonia sighed as she returned the hug. In a vague way she had thought of marriage as the life she already had, with the delicious addition of a handsome husband.  But it couldn’t be that simple.
    “I’d best go down and talk about settlements with Adam and Simon,” she said ruefully. “It has just been brought home to me that there is a great deal more to marriage than falling in love.”
    * * * *
    Antonia, her cousin, and her betrothed settled in the library with a large pot of tea and a plate of cakes to fortify them for a lengthy discussion of jointures, inheritance rights of children yet unborn, reversion in the case of death without issue, and all the rest of the questions that must be decided. The business aspects of marriage were complex. 
    Two cups of tea later, as Antonia regarded her future husband’s beautiful, startled face, she realized that emotions were even more complicated than financial issues.
    “Your income is how much?” Simon asked incredulously.
    “In the neighborhood of twenty thousand pounds a year,” Antonia repeated. “More in a good year.”
    “I assumed that your father left you comfortably well-off, but it never occurred to me your fortune is so much greater than my own. Even when the mortgages are paid off, the difference will still be substantial.” Lord Launceston shook his head in bemusement. “Had I know the extent of your inheritance, I would never have had the effrontery to offer for you.”
    “Then I’m very glad you didn’t know.” Antonia smiled mischievously. “Now your friends will think you vastly clever for capturing an heiress.”
    Simon was unamused. “I never fancied myself in the role of fortune hunter,” he said stiffly.
    Antonia looked at him uncertainly, not knowing what to say. A more venal man would have openly delighted in her wealth, but honorable sorts like Simon disliked the appearance of avarice. She wouldn’t have loved him if he were not honorable—but at the moment, his scruples were a problem.
    Adam looked up from the notes he had been taking. Because the newly betrothed couple trusted his honesty and his desire to see them both well-served by the settlement, he was acting as mediator in the negotiations. “No one who’s ever seen you absently bestow a guinea on a potboy will think you overinterested in a fortune,” he said soothingly. “Besides, Tony’s father left her fortune tied up so thoroughly that you couldn’t run mad with it even if you wished to.”
    “That’s true,” Antonia agreed, remembering some of the details of her father’s will. She shot a guilty look at her betrothed. “One of the conditions is that my husband must take the Thornton name. My father didn’t want to see his own line die out when the title went to my cousin.”
    Men of fortune placed great value on continuation of their names.  It was not uncommon for wills to require that an indirect heir or the husband of an heiress take on the name of their benefactor.  Lord Launceston was not an egotistical man, but as the possessor of a proud old name of his own, it was not to be expected that he would receive the news with enthusiasm.
    “Was the earl expecting you to marry a fortune hunter who would be