Free The American Earl by Joan Wolf Page B

the room and, as always, I automatically went to check that my appearance was neat.
    This time I stood and really looked at myself.  For dinner I usually wore my long black hair knotted at the back of my head, an easy style for me to do by myself.  My light gray eyes looked out from beneath my black brows and lashes, and the shabby blue dress, which had belonged to Maria when she was my size, was rather sad looking. 
    I knew I didn’t live the life expected of an earl’s daughter, but I lived the life I loved. And I was prepared to fight to keep it. 
    * * * *
    Cousin Flora dominated the dinner conversation, asking Evan about Lady Barbara and her plans.  I didn’t pay much attention; I was too busy trying to figure out how I could maneuver Evan into doing what I wanted him to do.  Unfortunately, he did not appear to be a man easily manipulated. 
    I would come up with something, I thought. I had to.
    After the pudding had been served, Evan asked if Flora would mind if I remained in the dining room with him so we could speak in private. 
    “Of course not,” Flora said, much too effusively. “Come along, Maria. You can play the piano for me while your sister speaks to Evan.”
    Maria threw me an alarmed look. I kept my face blank and gestured for her to leave.
    After the door had closed behind them, Evan picked up his glass of wine and came to sit across from me. 
    “You and I have to talk, Julia,” he said. He proceeded to tell me about his visit to Aunt Barbara and her agreement to take me to London and present me along with Lizzie. I grew colder with every word he spoke.
    “I don’t want to go to London for a Season,” I said. “I want to stay here.”
    He regarded me thoughtfully.  “I’ve been thinking about your idea to take charge for me here at Stoverton, and I believe it has some merit,” he said.
    I lit up inside. “You do? That’s wonderful, Evan! That’s just…wonderful! I’ll do a good job for you. I’ll do the best job anyone could do.”
    “I know you would,” he said.  “But after meeting Aunt Barbara, and speaking to Flora, my original feeling has been confirmed.  You can’t be left here by yourself.  Your family, the society you live in, won’t allow it.  And Maria needs you.  You’re all she has, and living alone here at Stoverton is not good for her.”
    He was speaking quietly and reasonably. And what he said about Maria was true. I bit my lip. “What do you think I should do?”
    “You need to find a husband,” he said.
    “No! You want me to go and live in a strange place with some strange man? I can’t do that, Evan!” I leaned toward him, desperate. “I can’t!”
    He didn’t say what I expected to hear, that other girls did it all the time, why couldn’t I?  Instead he said, “We might be able to keep you at Stoverton, Julia.”
    I just stared.
    “Think,” he said. “You must marry. There’s no getting around that. But you don’t have to marry a man who has his own property. What if you picked a younger son, someone who would be happy to have a great estate he could live on?”
    My mouth fell open.
    “When we get to London, look around,” he said.  “You might find a man who likes all the things you like – horses and hunting, that sort of thing.  You could continue to live at Stoverton and maybe you could even come to love him.”
    I doubted that, but the rest of his idea was worth thinking about. 
    “What about money? When a woman marries, her money becomes her husband’s.”
    “The only money you will have, Julia, is my money, and your husband will have no right to that.”
    “But when I get Stoverton profitable again?  We can’t have the same thing happen that happened with Papa.”
    “Julia, your husband won’t own Stoverton because it doesn’t belong to you.  He won’t handle any of Stoverton’s money.  You will because I will designate you to be my agent.”
    He was right. It was a brilliant plan.
    I said slowly, “So