“I have not agreed,” Baldwin snapped. “I love Helena. I asked her to marry me and she said yes.”
“Before we knew,” Helena whispered, turning back to him to continue the argument they’d been having before the others came into the room. “I love you,” she said, not caring in that moment that those words were said before all their friends and family. “Don’t throw away your future for me.”
He caught her shoulders gently. “You are my future,” he insisted. “If I’m destroyed, I’ll still have you. So let him take what he wants.”
“He isn’t going to take anything.”
Helena and Baldwin turned toward the door. Charity stood there, hands on her hips. The others parted, allowing her entrance, though Helena saw how they glared at her. The glares turned more heated when Peter Shephard slid into the room behind her.
“What are you on about, girl?” he asked. “You aren’t going to make an idiot of yourself in front of all these powerful people, are you?”
Simon fisted his hands at his sides and started for the door. “You fucking—”
“No!” Graham barked, catching Simon’s arms.
“Listen to your friend, Your Grace. You don’t want to move on me when I can do so much damage, do you?” her uncle said with another of his satisfied sneers.
Simon relaxed back, eyes still narrowed. Meg slipped up beside him and took his arm. He looked down at her, and for a moment they just held stares. Then he let out his breath and shook his head.
“He doesn’t deserve anyone’s protection,” Crestwood muttered.
“I said we needed a moment,” Helena said, locking eyes with her cousin. “Can you not give us that when you plan to take everything else?”
“You don’t need a moment,” Charity said, and moved toward Helena slowly. “You asked me yesterday why I hated you. I never hated you.”
Helena lifted both brows. “That is hard to believe when you are doing this.”
“I’m not,” Charity insisted. “I will admit I have been jealous of you. Who could not be? You’re so pretty. And everyone likes you right away. It’s always been that way. When you fell, I thought—but I never hated you. I even convinced my father to bring you with us. I thought it might…help.”
Helena watched her cousin’s face closely. She’d known Charity all her life. Helena knew when she was lying. When she was manipulating. Right now it didn’t seem like she was.
“Well, I suppose I’m happy you do not despise me,” she said. “But that changes nothing. Your father is going to force Baldwin into a choice that he’ll regret, no matter what it is.”
Now Charity turned to her father. Uncle Peter had been watching them like a hawk and he glared at his daughter. “What are you looking at?”
“You’re not going to force anyone into anything.” Charity’s voice was very calm, though her hands shook despite the strong front she was putting on. “I will not marry the Duke of Sheffield. I will not take part in your scheme.”
He lunged forward, face purple. Helena had no idea if he meant to simply menace or actually harm. He got to do neither, for Graham stepped forward, caught Peter by the throat and backed him hard against the wall behind him. His face was hard as steel as he said, “Not a finger against that woman or I will rip you to shreds.”
Peter glanced up at him. Up and up, and then he held up his hands. “I wouldn’t touch my daughter.”
“No. You won’t.” Graham backed away and reached for Adelaide. She took his hand, and together they glared at Peter along with the rest.
Charity was very pale, but she lifted her chin. “I will, however, marry the Earl of Grifford.”
Her father tilted his head. “Grifford?”
She nodded. “He asked me two nights ago. I’ve been dangling him on a string ever since. But I will accept his offer. He’s powerful enough for you, I think. And he adores me, so I know that I can make sure you have all the access you’ll ever want. In exchange for my own demands.”
Shephard folded his arms. “You have demands?”
She nodded. “You will forgive his debts.” She pointed at Baldwin. “And you will gift Helena with a ten thousand pound dowry.”
The entire room let out a collective gasp, but none more loud and forceful than Helena. She staggered, gripping Baldwin’s arm as she stared at Charity.
Her cousin smiled at her. “See? I told you I didn’t hate you.”
Helena could find no words, but Charity didn’t seem to need them. She glared at her father. “That is the only way you get anything you want.”
“I’m not going to give that whore ten thousand pounds!” Peter roared.
“Shut your damned mouth!” Baldwin bellowed, and it was loud enough that Peter flinched. “Talk about her that way again and I will be the one to rip you to shreds and no one will stop me.”
The other men in the room were nodding, and Peter shifted. “Talk about her or not, I’m still not giving her a farthing.”
Charity let out a snort. “Please. Ten thousand is a mere drop in the vast bucket of your fortune. If you don’t think I know your worth down to the last hay penny, you are sorely mistaken. You can afford the cost. And you will.”
She smiled, and Helena recognized the expression well. It was the spoiled sneer that Charity always got when she knew she would get what she wanted. For the first time, Helena found herself rooting for her cousin.
“And if I don’t?” Peter asked, but he sounded far less certain than he had a moment before.
Charity shrugged. “I suppose I could marry a handsome chimney sweep. Or run off to join the circus.”
Adelaide let out a laugh. “I could probably help you arrange the second.”
Graham cleared his throat. “Perhaps you should stay out of this, Lydia.”
Helena didn’t understand their joke, but she didn’t care. She was too busy smiling. And when she glanced at Baldwin, she found him smiling, too. In fact everyone in the room was now smiling.
Save for her uncle, who glared at Charity. “You would do this to me. Your own father. When all I’ve tried to do is give you the best. You wouldn’t dare!”
Charity laughed. “Test me. You raised me—do you really think I wouldn’t dare?”
Peter’s nostrils flared as he gaped at his daughter. But it was clear he had no response. “An earl,” he grumbled.
“Yes.” Charity smiled. “A powerful one at that. And just think, when Helena is married to a duke, you’ll be linked to not one but two very powerful men. I’m certain Baldwin will not forget you.”
Baldwin nodded slowly. “Certainly, I will not.”
“It’s your best option, Papa. So I’ll ask you the same thing you asked the Duke of Sheffield a moment ago. What’s your pleasure?”
Helena gaped as Peter’s shoulders sagged. “Fine,” he ground out. “Fine. I’ll make the arrangements for everything.”
He turned heel without another word and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. The moment he was gone, the room let out its collective breath.
“Charity,” Helena whispered as she crossed the room and embraced her cousin as hard as she could. “Thank you so much. You have saved us.”