Free Catch a Falling Heiress: An American Heiress in London by Laura Lee Guhrke Page A

doesn’t mean you should be choosing my husband for me,” she cried, stunned by how little regard either of her parents seemed to have for her feelings. “Just because Davis MacKay is acceptable to you does not mean he’s acceptable to me. He isn’t. He’s in love with one of my best friends, who also happens to be in love with him, and I wouldn’t dream of tearing them apart. You can put aside any notion of Davis as a son-in-law right now, Daddy. I won’t marry him.”
    “Don’t take that defiant tone with me, young lady. I am thinking of your future.”
    With those words, Linnet was reminded of the brutal fact that as of right now, both her future and her reputation hung by a thread. This was not a good time to be ruled by anger. She needed her father’s help, and she wouldn’t get it by outright defiance. A lifetime of experience had taught her that.
    Linnet took a deep breath and tamped down the chaotic mix of anger and hurt swirling inside her. “Why is Davis MacKay the best choice for my future?” she asked, working to keep her voice calm and reasonable. “Why him and not some other man in our set? Why . . .” She paused, stepping onto the thin ice. “Why Davis rather than Frederick?”
    “Frederick’s an investment banker, and his father’s in shipping. Neither of those do anything to help Holland Oil. The MacKays, though, are fully invested in coal, now that Franklin MacKay bought out Kentucky Jubilee Coal. An alliance between our families would enable Franklin and I to control over half the fuel supplies from the Atlantic seaboard to the Midwest.”
    “I see,” she murmured, her voice faint even to her own ears, her mind stunned by her father’s mercenary logic. “To you, my marriage is just another business deal.”
    “We’d corner the market,” Ephraim went on, so enthused by his own plans that he either hadn’t heard or he’d chosen to ignore her comment. “Everyone, Albert Van Hausen included, would have to dance to our tune. The money to be made is enormous. Think of it, Linnet. Your children will inherit an empire.”
    Linnet didn’t care about empires, and she doubted Davis did either. After all, he was intelligent enough to have grasped the advantages marriage to someone like her would bring him, and it hadn’t seemed to dim his love for the poor, but wholly respectable Cicely one bit. Once he heard what had happened to Linnet this evening, Davis would seize on Lord Featherstone’s supposed claim on her affections as the perfect excuse to evade the alliance their fathers had concocted. And she guessed his father wouldn’t retain much enthusiasm for the match either, once the scandal hit the papers.
    No, though Ephraim didn’t know it, his candidate for her hand would soon be out of the picture. But Linnet knew she didn’t have the luxury of waiting for the problem to play itself out on the front page of Town Topics. She had to become engaged to Frederick now, tonight, before news of the episode with Featherstone could spread. If that happened, she’d either have to marry the blackguard or face ruin. No, everyone had to be made to see as soon as possible that she had been innocent, Frederick had been honorable, and Lord Featherstone had been the one to behave inappropriately.
    “Daddy, something’s happened tonight that you don’t know about, something I’m afraid throws a wrench into your plans.”
    With those words, Ephraim’s entrepreneurial enthusiasm dimmed somewhat. He frowned. “What do you mean?”
    She didn’t answer. Instead, she stared at him, swamped by a sudden feeling of helplessness. How could a girl look into her father’s face and tell him she was facing shame and ruin?
    “Lin?” He took her by the shoulders, his frown deepening, his blue eyes so like hers scanning her face. “What haven’t you told me?”
    Linnet swallowed hard, mustered her courage, and started at the beginning. By the time she’d reached the part about being alone with