to pay for my mistakes, Aunt Hester.â
âDo not be getting noble with me, Tony Barsett!â she snapped. âIâd as lief settle your debts myself as see you marry a Cit! I suppose the girl smells of the shopâor have you even see her?â
âLeah Cole will be a credit to you, I promise. There is nothing displeasing in her looks, and as for her manners . . .â He stopped, recalling the way sheâd looked earlier. âWell, all I can say is the chitâs as high in the instep as you are. In fact, she views me with about as much enthusiasm as you view her. And sheâs got a devil of a temper.â
âShe didnât want you?â his aunt asked incredulously. âSurely notânot with your looks and address. Iâll not believe it. Why, you are a veritable Corinthian, Tony! And you are a Barsett, after all.â
âThink on itâIâll not be the last one if I marry,â he cajoled.
âBut this Cole personâeveryone knows that he is but a Cit. Tony, even if this girl is a paragon, which I am not ready to concede, there is Mr. Cole.â
âOn his last legs. Wants to see his girl settled before he pops off.â
âThat kind live forever,â she countered. âI ought to knowâbeen threatening it for years, but I donât mean it.â
âHe had some sort of attack tonight, Aunt Hester. I thought for a moment heâd bought his ticket already.â He leaned closer and put his hands on her chair arms. âShe is his only child, Aunt Hester.â
âEven soââ
âShe stands to inherit a fortune as big as yoursâbigger maybe.â Backing off, he walked over to lean on the mantelpiece. âNot that I want the old fellow to pass on, you understand. Miss Cole is uncommonly fond of her parent, by the looks of it, and Iâd not distress her for the world.â
The duchess opened her mouth and closed it without uttering a sound. After eyeing him suspiciously for a moment, she found her voice. âTony,â she asked finally, âhave you thrown your hat over the windmill for this girl?â
It was his turn to be silent as he considered the answer. âI donât . . . Yes, Aunt Hester, I think I have.â He met her eyes almost sheepishly, nodding. â âTis rich, isnât itâLyndon caught by a Cit, of all things.â
âWell, why did you not say so?â she uttered bracingly. âPuts an entirely different complexion on the matter! When you speak to me like a gazetted fortune-hunter, I know the cheese is rotten! Have too much pride to marry for money! Dash itâyou are a Barsett!â She hobbled to her feet and made her way to face him. âBut if itâs the gel herself you want, and not her fatherâs fortune, then thatâs a different tune.â Her black eyes softened as they scanned his face. âWill I like her, do you think?â she asked him.
He was taken aback by her sudden about-face and knew not what to make of it. Heâd expected to insinuate that heâd had to take Leah Cole out of desperation and to enlist her aid in presenting his betrothed to society. Never in his furthest imagination could he have thought sheâd see through the ploy. But she was a downy one, when one considered the matter. In spite of himself, he grinned. âI donât know,â he answered truthfully. âSheâll put every Incomparable on the Marriage Mart to shame, I can tell you, but sheâs not insipid in the least. And sheâs certainly not in the conventional style. I have never seen eyes like hers.â
âYou sound besotted.â
âOh, I am not blind to her faults, Aunt HesterâI suspect sheâs a bluestocking and a reformerâbut I am willing to wager you will think her an Original.â
âAs long as she ainât peculiar-acting. Well, you have seen enough females to know your mind, I