Free No Marriage of Convenience by Elizabeth Boyle

ever caught a man’s attention and held it long enough to get him to propose marriage?”
    His silence answered her question.
    “Well, I have. So many times I’ve lost count. With your cousin’s directions, your nieces will be lucky if they get invited to dance.”
    Finally, he looked as if he might be considering her arguments.
    She continued in a mad rush. “Given your current financial crisis, the girls will have a tremendous disadvantage against the vast number of young ladies with dowries. Substantial dowries, I might add. I can tell you want the very best for your nieces, and that is admirable, but a dowry is essential in making an advantageous marriage. To secure their futures your nieces will need more than any well-meant advice your Cousin Felicity can give them.”
    “Your suggestions are sensible, Madame; however, I’ve already made other plans to secure my nieces’ futures.”
    While he sounded sure, Riley swore she detected a hintof doubt to his conviction. “Overnight, my lord? I am intrigued,” she said, settling comfortably into her chair. “Do tell.”
    He rose from his seat, his hands going behind his back. Pacing a couple of steps, he finally announced, “I plan to wed.”
    It was Riley’s turn to raise her eyebrows in amazement. Part of her didn’t like the idea of Lord Ashlin married, especially not to some simpering miss, but then she realized this was nothing more than a bluff.
    It had to be.
    “So quickly?” she asked. “Who is the lucky lady?”
    He frowned at her. “I’d prefer not to say until the banns are read.”
    So, you don’t have anyone in mind , she thought.
    Lord Ashlin turned and paced a few more haphazard steps. “Once I am married, I believe we shall all retire to the Ashlin estates in the country.”
    To escape the worst of your creditors , Riley would have loved to add.
    “And from there I will be able to find suitable husbands for my nieces. Men who can appreciate their gentle natures and quiet manners.”
    At this, Riley bit her tongue to keep from asking if what he truly meant were old, doddering fools who hadn’t been to town in so long, their favorite hunting hounds were starting to look comely.
    Listening to his own words, Mason wondered if anyone would have believed them. The bemused look flitting across Madame Fontaine’s features said quite plainly she’d found his future plans as amusing and likely as the latest on-dit .
    Well, they had sounded perfectly rational not fifteen minutes earlier.
    Oh, who was he kidding—he needed cash, not a wife.
    And his nieces were…well, he didn’t want to consider how much money it would take to entice a man to marry even one of them, at least not until they received the polish Cousin Felicity was convinced this woman could offer.
    Damnation, he needed her and her theatre. If what he’d heard last night at his club was true and her productions played to standing-room-only crowds, Frederick’s investment could return more than enough dividends to pay off the worst of his creditors.
    Mason couldn’t help but feel the sting of irony in all of it. Freddie and the two earls before him had squandered the family fortunes on actresses and their ilk, and now it seemed the very path of the Ashlins’ self-destruction may also be their salvation—but it was akin to lying down with the enemy.
    And the last thing he needed to be thinking about was lying down anywhere near Madame Fontaine—the images of a red plush apartment still murmuring in the back of his imagination.
    “My lord, your plans sound so promising,” she began, rising from her seat, “that I hate even to make the new offer my partners asked me to extend on their behalf.”
    Before he could stop himself, he repeated, “A new offer?”
    “Why, yes,” she said, sounding as hopeful as he felt. “My partners authorized me to extend a new proposal in the unlikely event you’d made ‘other plans.’ But you sound like you’re well on your way to solving