Wallflower (Old Maids' Club, Book 1) (4 page)

Just what Noah needed—more of the
Shelton clan interrupting him. He ought to be finding a pretty
young heiress and doing his best to cause her to swoon in delight
over his charm and dashing good looks. He’d never have the chance
if he couldn’t escape these gents, no matter how enjoyable he might
find their company, or how much he’d prefer remaining with them
than working on the task ahead of him.

“
Who is pinching whom?”
asked Claremont, giving Shelton a familiar slap on the back. “I
want to be involved. Unless we’re pinching one of you lot, of
course.”

Leith laughed, which tugged his
crooked nose ever so slightly to the left. “And what, pray tell,
might your lovely wife have to say about you pinching anyone save
herself?”

Claremont shrugged. “What Helen
doesn’t know won’t hurt me.”

“
And how do you intend to
keep her from finding out?” Raynesford asked dryly. “Wives know
everything. What they don’t already know, they learn through one of
their secret channels.” He sipped from the tumbler in his hand and
creased his brow pensively. “They might bribe the servants.
Somehow, servants always seem to know everything.”

“
All the more reason to
avoid marriage in the first place,” Shelton interrupted. His
response seemed altogether too chipper. “And while I hope ever so
much to remedy the situation later this evening, no one present is
currently being pinched. One could hardly tell as much, though,
from looking at Devonport here.”

“
He looks perfectly
content to me,” Raynesford interjected in his dour tone with hardly
a glance. “At least he isn’t being dragged by his wife to a
musicale tomorrow afternoon in Lady Kirkaldy’s salon.” A severe
shudder seemed to course from his head straight down to the ends of
his toes.

Dash it all. Noah couldn’t imagine
anything Raynesford would enjoy less—nor anything Noah’s sister and
Raynesford’s wive, Elaine, would enjoy more, apart from spending an
entire day in a room full of toddlers. If he didn’t believe
wholeheartedly that Raynesford and Elaine were desperately in love,
he’d question why they’d married in the first place, they were so
terribly opposite in demeanor.

Before he could offer an apology or
commiseration for Raynesford’s impending afternoon of torture,
Shelton interrupted the silence. “Perhaps that’s the conundrum, or
at least something similar, is it Devonport? Is your mother
dragging you along to some insipid social event? Or maybe a lady
friend?” He looked around. Shelton’s eyes landed on a few young
misses who were watching the group before returning to
Noah.

Claremont raised his head in the
direction of one young lady in particular. “Miss Tollington has
been watching you rather closely since your arrival. Perhaps she
expects you to ask her to dance soon.”

Four heads turned as one to look in
the direction Claremont had indicated. A very pretty blonde wisp of
a thing stood on the edge of the ballroom floor, staring boldly
back at them with a come-hither look in her eyes. She hadn’t even
bothered to try to conceal her wanton expression behind her
fan.

One side of Shelton’s mouth raised in
a leering grin. “I’d say she wants far more than your name on her
dance card. For that matter, I wouldn’t mind giving her a bit of
what she’s looking for, myself.” Shelton’s hands moved about in a
way that made it abundantly clear what he was thinking.

Luckily they were still standing in a
close circle. Noah hoped no one else had seen Shelton’s
gestures.

The others broke out in a raucous
chorus of laughter at Shelton’s antics though, drawing a number of
eyes from around the ballroom. Heat rose in Noah’s face. This
wasn’t appropriate, not in the middle of a genteel ballroom, not in
regards to an innocent young lady.

But then Raynesford raised a hand. “We
ought,” he said, using more force than was his wont and turning in
particular to his brother, “to be more discreet in our topics of
conversation.” Good. Raynesford could deal with his brother’s
insensitive behavior and leave Noah out of it. Shelton scowled, but
said no more.

Noah pushed thoughts of his sister’s
brother-in-law aside for the moment and let them instead return to
the young lady they’d been discussing. “Tollington,” he murmured.
“Isn’t Lord Tollington already halfway to debtor’s prison? That
won’t do.”

He regretted saying it aloud as soon
as the words passed his lips. By gad, he’d intended to keep his
private matters to himself. Now they’d press him for
more.

Sure enough, Leith leaned in closer,
his eyes widening, though whether from excitement or concern, Noah
couldn’t distinguish. “Won’t do? Why not?”

Shelton chortled indelicately. The man
really had no shame.

Claremont shook his head briefly.
“Seems a disgrace not to dance with a pretty thing like that just
because her father is low on funds.”

“
You go dance with her
then,” Noah said.

“
Afraid I can’t. Helen
forbade me to dance with any unmarried ladies tonight. She seems to
think I’m giving them the wrong impression for some reason. Is it
my fault I’m more handsome by half than the lot of you combined?”
Claremont ran his fingers through the side of his rich, auburn
hair. “I think she’s green because of the way they look at
me.”

Raynesford chuckled, which startled
them all. Noah couldn’t remember ever hearing such a sound of mirth
from the man, not in the many years they’d known each other. “They
won’t still be ogling you in a few more months. Your marriage is
new. The novelty will wear off before a year’s out, and then you’ll
be as nondescript to them as I am.”

“
You’re all off the
point,” Shelton interrupted, crossing his arms over his chest in an
almost menacing fashion. “Devonport, why won’t Miss Tollington do?
Why does it matter if her father’s in debt? You’re the bloody
Marquess of Devonport. You’ve got more properties than you know
what to do with.”

Apparently, none of the Shelton men
had any intention of backing down from their line of questioning
until they got the answer they were searching for. For once in his
life, Noah wished he had a foul mouth. Cursing seemed entirely
appropriate here.

He closed his eyes for a moment. “If I
could sell my properties, I would. Lord knows I’ve sold all that
weren’t under entail.”

Shelton started to interrupt with some
random, incoherent spluttering, before Raynesford cut him off with
a single glance.

“
When my father inherited
the marquessate, it was already deeply in debt. The previous
marquess, Father’s uncle, had a penchant for gambling above his
means. Even with selling everything I could and cutting down to
only the essential staff to keep my estates running, I’m barely
holding my creditors at bay.”

“
Then why on earth,” cut
in Raynesford, his voice low and unruffled, “did you offer such a
substantial sum for Elaine’s dowry? And her sisters, as well? Good
Lord, Devonport, you have
five
sisters. That’s a significant fortune you gave
away. Wouldn’t that money have been put to better use in digging
the marquessate out from the rubble?”

“
But they are my sisters,”
Noah responded. What other reason did there need to be?

The other four Shelton men stood
staring at him, some with their jaws hanging agape, others with
their eyes bulging. Leith shifted uncomfortably from one foot to
the other.

Shelton’s eyes narrowed in
consternation. “Surely they could have married with smaller
dowries, though.” His voice made it sound as though they could have
married well with almost nonexistent dowries, or maybe with no
dowries at all. Not likely, with his contemporaries.

Noah couldn’t believe that these
men—all but one of whom had sisters of their own—were being so
thick they couldn’t understand his obligation to his own. “I had to
see to their futures.”

“
What of your future? I
would have had Elaine, dowry or not,” Raynesford said quietly. “I
love her. I believe I am not overstepping my position in saying the
same for the gentlemen who married her sisters.”

Raynesford might very well be right
about that. But still, Noah had done what he thought best for his
family at the time. Family had to come first. “What’s done is done.
The point is that now I’ve got to marry, and soon—and I have to
marry for money, however distasteful I find the idea. I need an
heiress or a lady with a massive dowry settled upon her if I’m
going to somehow avoid debtor’s prison myself. Miss Tollington
won’t do. Any brilliant ideas on where I should start
looking?”

Claremont cocked his head slightly to
the side with an introspective frown. “Well, I believe that Lady
Hannah Bullfinch has a dowry of ten thousand. It would seem her
father recognizes that she looks rather like a bull’s backside and
therefore will be difficult to place, barring the incentive of some
decent coin.”

“
Her personality matches
her face though,” Leith said with his brow puckering. “I wouldn’t
wish her on my worst enemy. Devonport is far from anyone’s
enemy.”

“
What about Miss
Jennings?” asked Raynesford. “She has no siblings, so she’ll
inherit a vast portion.”

Noah’s brow puckered. “Miss Jennings?
I’m not sure I know her.”

Raynesford pointed inconspicuously.
“Over by the punch bowl. The brunette in white.”

She was certainly pretty, but terribly
young. “Has she just come out? What on earth can I talk about with
a girl who is hardly out of the schoolroom?” But he really couldn’t
afford to be overly selective. So far, she seemed like his best
option.

“
Probably,” Claremont
said. “But as young as she is, she’ll be eager to please. You won’t
need to talk to her too much. Just get to business and secure the
line.”

Eager to please? Was that
what he wanted in a wife? For some reason, he had allowed himself
to entertain the idea of having a companion, someone whose company
he would enjoy. Someone with whom he could share his life with, not
someone who would try to do exactly what he wanted. He didn’t even
know for sure
what
he wanted, so it would vex him to no end to have a wife
trying to give that elusive
something
to him. Noah knew, without
a doubt, he wanted a wife he could do more with than simply ‘secure
the line.’ But what option did he have? The longer it took to find
a suitable bride, the more ominous his situation seemed.

“
Right,” Noah said. He
straightened his back and schooled his features into compliance.
What characteristics should he try to assume? Charming. Amicable.
Reputable. Time to make himself look like the perfect gentleman so
that her chaperone would grant him an introduction. “I suppose I’d
better be off to sign her dance card then.”

He hadn’t taken two steps when
Shelton’s voice carried over the din of the crush. “Have you all
taken leave of your senses? What about Tabitha?”

Noah’s feet froze in
place, one of them in mid-stride. Tabitha? Lady Tabitha Shelton?
Raynesford and Shelton’s
sister
?

Surely, Shelton had to be joking. He’d
never offer his sister up to a fortune hunter. No gentleman could
do something like that to his sister, or for that matter to anyone
he loved, and still call himself a gentleman. Good Lord, she was
his twin! Slowly, painstakingly, Noah turned to face the group only
moments before he’d been departing.

Shelton didn’t appear to be joking. In
fact, he looked as serious as an apoplectic fit. “Father’s just
raised her dowry again,” he drawled. “How much do you still owe,
Devonport?”

Noah told them the amount beneath his
breath, hoping they wouldn’t think less of him for it. It wasn’t
his fault he was in this situation, after all. Not entirely, at
least. No matter what, there wasn’t a lady in all of England who
could have a dowry so great as that.

“
Perfect!” Shelton said.
“Tabitha’s dowry will clear you of that, even with the amount
Father will insist on having placed in trust for her. I’d wager
she’ll be a damn sight more interesting to talk to for the rest of
your life than Miss Jennings.”

There was a lot of truth in that
statement. Noah couldn’t pretend otherwise. He’d known Lady Tabitha
for more than five years, since Raynesford had first started
courting Elaine. For that matter, they’d always gotten on rather
well.

But no. He couldn’t. He
couldn’t possibly use her in such a way. She deserved to be married
because the gentleman offering for her loved her, because he wanted
to marry her and spend his life with her, not because she had a
dowry so large Croesus would be blue in the face from envy and the
fact that the so-called
gentleman
needed funds.

Raynesford narrowed his eyes, looking
broodingly between Noah and where Lady Tabitha stood against the
wall just across the way. “You would suit her,” he said in his
typical matter-of-fact tone.

Noah held his hands up before him. “I
couldn’t possibly—”

“
You two already get on
like a couple of magpies in a shade tree,” Claremont interjected.
“She likes you. She talks to you. Tabitha wouldn’t be nearly as
engaging with you if she wasn’t comfortable with you.”