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“She
thought to make me a duchess, planned to marry me to the Marquis of Belmont.”
    “That debauched old reprobate?” he asked in obvious
surprise. “Hell, he must have been nearly fifty when you made your bow.”
    “I could not stomach the idea of tying myself to him,” she
agreed, remembering the way in which he’d leered at her and spoken to her
breasts whenever she was trapped in conversation with him. “In truth, it was
the only time I have ever refused to bow to Mother’s demands. But it won’t be
the last. Even now she plots and schemes to marry me to his son.”
    “You have refused?” he asked, his gaze intent upon her.
    “I have. Repeatedly. And I will go on refusing until Mother
finally accepts that she will not make me a duchess.”
    Jack looked away, seemed to ponder her words for a time,
before turning back to her. “I understand Palmerton was a less than perfect
husband, but surely you realize that not all men are cast in the same mold.”
    “I do know it,” she agreed.
    “And yet you do not wish to marry me. Why?”
    “Why do you wish to marry me?” Olivia countered.
    “Why?” he asked.
    “Yes. You said you would not have bedded me had you not
intended to wed me,” she reminded him. “And yet in less than one day you were
in my bed. Precisely when did you decide to marry me?”
    Jack blinked at her, leaned away from her just a bit.
    “We’ve known one another for years, Olivia. You are a lovely
woman, a wonderful mother. It goes without saying that you are a perfect lady,
one worthy of esteem and respect. A lady any man would be proud to call his
wife.”
    To Olivia’s ears, his words sounded rehearsed and she
imagined this was the speech he had intended to give when he proposed, the
words he might have said to her this evening had she not behaved like a
fishwife.
    “I am not a gentleman by birth,” he continued. “But I like
to think that I am a gentleman in my behavior and my actions. I am now a full
partner in the Sedgefield Mining Company. I have a sizable income, one that
will continue to grow. I can afford to maintain the lifestyle to which you have
been accustomed.”
    Olivia looked away to hide her smile. Good Lord, men were
such fools. There wasn’t one aspect of his litany that tempted her.
    “I would treat your children as if they were my own.”
    All right, she amended, one aspect tempted her.
    “I would give you more children.”
    “More children,” she repeated, her breath stalled in her
lungs.
    “I regret not giving Justine brothers and sisters,” he
admitted softly. “I would like a son to inherit the business my father and I
have worked so hard to build.”
    “I see,” she replied, looking back at him, seeing that
desire for more children, for a son of his own, on his face. She forced her
lips into a smile. “You spent one day in my company and concluded that I am a
perfect lady, one that you would be proud to call your wife?”
    “Of course not,” he replied.
    Olivia waited for him to continue, knowing that no matter
what words he chose, the die had already been cast.
    “As I said, we have known one another for years. It only
took seeing you again to remind me that you would make an ideal wife.”
    Olivia laughed. Really she couldn’t help it. She was so far
removed from the ideal wife he wanted.
    “Jack, I am honored by the regard you have shown me in offering
marriage. Regretfully, I must decline.”
    Jack stood and paced across the room, turned and paced back
to stand before her.
    “Why?” he asked, his face perfectly composed.
    “I find I like my independence,” she replied. And while it
was the truth, it was not all of it. “I have plans for my life that do not
include a husband.”
    “Plans?” he asked as he sat beside her once more. “What sort
of plans?”
    “I’d like to learn to play the violin, buy a smart little
curricle and race across the downs, take a walking tour of the Lake District,
volunteer my time at the Foundling