Free Fortune's Bride by Roberta Gellis

pacify and please their allies, but nothing near the
amount Robert felt to be necessary could be obtained.
    Of course, there was the money that Sir Arthur had left with
him to pay for the transport animals and their keep. The two hundred escudos Robert had given old Pedro had, in fact, come from this purse, but Robert had intended
from the beginning to make up the sum from his private resources. However
sympathetic Sir Arthur might be to the need to rescue Miss Talbot, Robert knew
the government would take a dim view of such an expenditure. And even if the
payment were condoned owing to the emergency, further expenditures for clothing
and accommodations were not likely to be acceptable, particularly if that meant
there would be fewer mules and oxen to carry supplies.
    Remembering that he had set no limit on Esmeralda’s orders to
the dressmaker, Robert hurried back to the hotel, wondering how he was going to
explain these unpalatable facts to her. Thus, he was considerably relieved
when, as soon as he entered the sitting room the hotel had provided, she said
calmly, “I see that something has gone wrong, Captain Moreton. Please sit down
and explain to me what has happened.”
    “I am afraid,” Robert began, “that I was too sanguine when I
spoke of arranging your passage to England. It seems that no ships are going
there, at least not from Oporto.”
    To his surprise, instead of crying out, What am I to do ?
Esmeralda smiled faintly.
    “I know you will think I am quite mad,” she said, “but I
must admit your news is the greatest relief to me.”
    “Relief?” Robert echoed. “What the devil— Oh, I beg your
pardon. What do you mean?”
    “You need not bother to beg my pardon for a most natural
expression of irritation,” Esmeralda remarked. “Papa used the most unsuitable
language before me. I am quite unshockable. But I am sure you are more
interested in why I do not wish to go to England.” She paused and sighed. “I
know I am a most unwelcome burden, Captain Moreton, and I had resolved not to
add my troubles to the ones you already have, but…but really I am in the most
dreadful situation.”
    Robert’s lips tightened. He remembered Henry Talbot’s seedy
appearance, and he thought he knew what was coming. Probably Talbot had been
carrying with him whatever small fortune he had realized when he had sold his
house and whatever other holdings he had in India and that had gone down with
the ship. His daughter was thus penniless. Well, Robert told himself angrily,
it was no business of his. He would not, of course, expect her to return the
money he had paid old Pedro or the dressmaker’s fees, but he was damned if he
would get in any deeper.
    “I assure you,” he said, “that there is no need to repay—”
    “Oh, no!” Esmeralda interrupted. “My problem is not any lack
of money.” She blushed painfully and then continued with obvious discomfort.
“We were not…not so badly off as Papa liked to pretend. That was just…just his
way. I can well afford… That is, I will have a…a comfortable competence if…if…
My problem, Captain Moreton, will be in proving who I am.”
    “What?”
    “You see,” she went on hurriedly, “Papa quarreled with his
family and with Mama’s also. He was not of a forgiving disposition, and he
forbade all communications.” She hesitated again and blinked back tears. “He
even forbade Mama to speak of his family or hers and…and she was afraid to
disobey him. I do not know exactly where my relatives live, other than that
Papa and Mama originally came from Ireland and that Papa was very distantly
related to the Earl of Shrewsbury. He spoke of that because it was useful to
him, but obviously I cannot presume on such a relationship, and I have no idea
whether any of my grandparents or aunts or uncles, if I have any, are alive.
Nor do they know that I am alive. What is worse, all Papa’s papers went down
with the ship, and no one in England has ever seen