Highland Heiress by Margaret Moore Read Free Book Online Page B

at me as if I were a worm or some other loathsome creature. You’re a man—aye and an attorney, too—so you should understand that sometimes men have to make rational decisions, even when it comes to marriage. Especially when it comes to marriage and especially if you have a title. We don’t have the luxury of marrying solely for love.”
    There it was again—the excuse that the upper class lived by different rules. Different needs. Different choices.
    Not better, Gordon noted. Just different. “I can appreciate that you take financial matters into account when you marry, Robbie.” Indeed, he’d written enough marriage settlements to know that he certainly wasn’t alone in that. “But what I don’t understand is why a man aswealthy as you feels the need to get more money by such means.”
    Robbie’s shoulders slumped as he let out his breath in a long sigh and sank wearily onto the sofa.
    â€œThen I’ll explain so that you can,” he said, all pretence of pride or vanity gone. He was much more like the Robbie Gordon remembered as he spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “I’m not rich. My family hasn’t been rich for years and I’m in debt up to my ears.”
    Gordon simply couldn’t believe it. “But your family…this house… How is that possible?”
    â€œI wasted my fair share of the family purse in my youth,” Robbie admitted, “because like you and everybody else, I thought my family had plenty of money. Then my father died and I discovered he’d lost most of our family fortune gambling—cards and investments that were bound to fail. The pater clearly had no head for business and could be talked into almost anything. While my mother was alive, she managed to save him from total ruin, but after her death…” He shrugged. “My father had no one to stop him, so this estate and all our other property is mortgaged to the hilt, and we owe a fortune in other debts, too.”
    This wasn’t the first time Gordon had heard of a family discovering that they’d been left deeply in debt. Widows especially were often shocked and dismayed to learn the extent of their husband’s debts and financial obligations.
    And when he considered how freely Robbie had spentmoney in their youth, it became easier to believe that things could be as grim as he described.
    Gordon got up and walked to the window. Out in the garden, three men were trimming a hedge. Another was weeding one of the beds.
    This huge house, the town houses, the servants, Robbie’s clothes, food and drink… “How are you paying for everything now?” he asked as he turned toward his friend again.
    â€œCredit. Most of my creditors think they’re the only one I’ve borrowed from.” His elbows on his knees, he covered his face with his hands. “It’s a nightmare keeping everything straight in my head because I don’t dare write it down. How much I’ve borrowed from this one, how much from another. And when, and when they’re due.” He raised haunted eyes to look at Gordon. “I can’t sleep, can barely eat. I’m desperate, Gordo—so desperate I’ve even thought of running off to America.”
    â€œInstead you decided to marry Lady Moira?”
    Despite Robbie’s obvious distress, it shouldn’t have fallen to Lady Moira or her father or anyone else to repay the debts of the McStuarts, even if marrying for money wasn’t exactly a new or innovative way for men of any class to recover from a financial loss.
    His head hanging like that of a defeated general who sees his troops marching to slaughter, Robbie clasped his hands. “God, no. Not exactly, or I would have proposed to that horse-faced daughter of Lord Renfield after my father died.”
    He rose and came to stand in front of Gordon. “While I don’t deny I was pleased Moira’s