The Unofficial Suitor by Charlotte Louise Dolan Read Free Book Online Page A

I do toward any of the other numerous progeny of our illustrious parent.”
    “Other?” Cassie looked at him in bewilderment, which changed to shock as he went on.
    “Surely you do not think your father limited his activities to my mother, do you? I assure you, he did his best to scatter his seed far and wide. Were I to feel responsible for all my brothers and sisters, I would be supporting half the countryside.” At her shocked reaction, he relented a little. “I exaggerate, my dear. Actually, I doubt if there are more than a dozen or so bastards in the immediate neighborhood who can properly call the late earl papa.”
    “A dozen?”
    “Or thereabouts. Interesting, is it not, that he only managed to have three legitimate children, and it took him three wives to accomplish even that much?”
    The humor of the situation escaped Cassie since she now realized she could expect no favors from Digory, at least none based on their relationship. And she had nothing else to offer to induce him to come to her aid.
    Unable to think what to do, she remained silent, until finally he said quietly, “It is not such a bad future your brother has lined up for you. You really have no choice, you must realize, but to marry to advantage. You will come to like the married state well enough, I am sure, and it will also put you in a position to help your sister find a husband of her own when the time comes. Have you considered your obligation to provide for her?”
    “Of course I have considered her. I told you what Geoffrey threatened to do if I did not cooperate. Do you think I would even consider going to London if not to save her from Geoffrey?”
    “The best protection you can give her is to marry a husband willing to let your sister and your step-mother live with you. Then in a few years, you will be in a position to sponsor her come-out.”
    “And suppose my husband is someone like Geoffrey?”
    “Then marry him and put poison in his soup. If you do it right, you can end up a rich widow while you are still young enough to buy yourself the husband you want.”
    “But I do not want a husband. Men are all beasts.” She turned and ran out of the stable, leaving a very thoughtful “beast” behind.
    Picking up the currycomb from where he had dropped it in the straw, he began once more to groom the old horse.
    He had not been telling the truth when he had told Cassie he did not care what plans her brother made for her. He cared very much. On the other hand, he had not been lying when he said he felt nothing for his other assorted half-brothers and half-sisters. For the most part they were a common lot, although none of the others quite reached the depths of depravity that Geoffrey had managed to sink to.
    Cassie alone had always been special to him, partly because of her courage and intelligence, but also because of her capacity to care for other people. In that way she had reminded him of her mother, whom he had twice had occasion to meet before she had died, and whom he had never forgotten. She had been a lady in the truest sense of the word, and along with the kind of beauty that could stop a man dead in his tracks, she had also passed on to her daughter a degree of courage and compassion that were a rare combination.
    From a discreet distance he had watched Cassie growing up, in some inexplicable way proud to be related to her, but he had not actually gotten involved in her life until the old earl had died and he had heard rumors to the effect that the new earl had run off to London, abandoning Cassie to her own resources, her step-mother being more of an encumbrance than a help.
    In a moment of sentimentality, he had stepped into her life and had taken upon himself the responsibility of seeing to it that she had sufficient food to eat and that she did not suffer the usual fate of a young girl alone in the world with no male protector.
    His bargain with her to use the stables in return for providing her with meat for her table