The Scoundrel and the Debutante (The Cabot Sisters #3)

Merryton clasped his hands tightly at his back, his jaw set as he moved deeper into the room. He kept his distance from her—he never stood close, as if he needed space between them—and considered Prudence for a long moment. “I shall come to the point. I was very angry with you for running off as you did.”


“I know. I’m sorry, my—”

He held up a hand to indicate she should not speak. “I was angry. But I understood. I’ve always understood it. But now, my wife has come to me and she is very upset. She says you have agreed to marry Stanhope. Is this true?”

Prudence nodded. “He means to call on you to discuss the terms.”

Merryton waved his hand as if that was a trifling matter. “Do you love him?”

“Pardon? No,” she said to that preposterous notion. With Merryton, it was best to answer simply and honestly. He didn’t care for a lot of nattering.

“Do you love the American?” he asked, moving deeper into the room.

Prudence swallowed. Her true feelings were so apparent now that she couldn’t deny them to her herself or anyone else. “With everything.”

His gaze narrowed slightly. “Forgive me, but I must ask—how can you be so certain? Are you sure it’s not girl’s infatuation?”

“I just know it. I feel it,” she said, tapping her chest above her heart. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, as if there is something here, just under the bone. It’s as if I know him in a way I couldn’t possibly know him.”

Merryton said nothing.

“It’s a wretched feeling, to be honest. Utterly wretched. To know love like this exists but that I can’t have it because he lives on the other side of the ocean is excruciating. It feels as if I can’t breathe at all, and yet I’m breathing.” She suddenly realized what she was saying, and blushed. “How foolish you must think me!”

“Quite the contrary,” he said. “I think you have nicely described the feeling of love. I don’t know your particular circumstance with the American, but I do know this—I was prepared to marry a woman I didn’t love before your sister concocted her scheme. And I can say to you now that my life would have been a sad shadow of what it has become if I had done that. Love has brightened my life beyond my wildest imaginations.”

Prudence blinked with surprise. It was highly unusual of Merryton to speak so candidly.

“If you love Matheson, you should marry him, Pru. Not Stanhope.”

“He’s already gone. They’ve sailed! I can’t very well sail alone in search of him and land on a foreign shore without introduction.”

Merryton looked almost amused. “You are worried about impropriety now?”

Prudence blanched. “No. But I...I’ve never been at sea,” she said uncertainly. “How could I go alone?”

“Easton’s new ship is taking its maiden voyage to New York in a fortnight. You could be on that ship, I suspect, closely guarded by the captain.”

Prudence stared at him, her mind rushing around what he suggested. “But it’s too late, my lord! What if he has offered marriage, or gone to Canada, or...anything might have happened.”

“If that’s true, if by some miracle he has managed to marry himself in such a short time, or has gone away, or has been kicked in the head by a goat, George’s ship is returning to England. You will come back on that ship if necessary.”

This conversation was confusing her. Merryton, of all people, demanded strict propriety in all things. How could he possibly suggest this to her? “What about all of you?” Prudence cried, sweeping her hand toward him. “What about my sisters and my nieces and nephews, and for God’s sake, my mother? I can’t leave you all!”

“We would all miss you terribly,” he agreed. “But you must face the truth, Pru. Grace and I have our family and Honor and George have theirs. Mercy will be entering Lisson Grove in a fortnight. As for your poor lady mother, you know as well as I do that she doesn’t know us anymore. She’s been gone for a long time now, hasn’t she? Hannah is devoted to her and she will take good care of her.”

Prudence choked back a strangled sob.

“I never knew your mother, but I have children of my own. And I suspect, if she were with us today, she would want you to know love and true happiness just as she knew it. She wouldn’t want you to agree to a match because you think it is your only hope. I certainly don’t want that for you. I want only happiness for you.”

Prudence didn’t dare believe it was possible. Her blood began to rush with even the suggestion of it. “I can’t.”

Merryton remained silent, waiting for her to explain why.

“Stanhope said...he said that if I didn’t agree to a match, he would see to it that Mercy’s acceptance at Lisson Grove was revoked.”

Merryton’s expression darkened. “Pardon?”

“He said his family endowed the art school and with one word from him, he would bring her hopes to an end. And that if I agreed to marry him, he would leave her be.”

Merryton stared at her for a long moment. He kept one hand behind his back, tapped his fingers with the other. At last he said, “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”