Page 18 of A Rake’s Gamble

Theo nodded. He didn’t want to put a woman in that sort of position. A partnership based on a lie. He could never give her children or love her like he was supposed to.

“What does that even mean to you toffs anyway? How many marriages are for love in your realm?”

Theo had never considered those questions. He’d known for years that he couldn’t get married for his own reasons, and so he’d given the institute little thought. “Why would someone agree to this?”

“Women marry for security, and they hope for safety. Love is incidental when the law treats you like property.”

Theo knew this, on some level, because his sister Carlynne refused to marry and become her husband’s property, although technically she was his property now that he was the Earl.

“An heiress already has security.”

“Not necessarily. Men control her fortune; her father or maybe her brothers, sometimes an uncle, and then she passes to a husband who takes over.”

Theo slumped in his chair. “This is why I don’t want to marry an heiress.”

“Why?”

“I would be doing the same. I’d take her money and use it to restore the estate. I’d be no better than any other and I couldn’t offer her love or children.”

“You are a good option. You wouldn’t beat her.”

Theo gasped. “Of course not.”

“You probably wouldn’t push her down the stairs when she asked too many inconvenient questions.”

He hardly needed the reminder that it was Rose’s death that had caused all of this.

“And you might be a distant husband but isn’t that better than an overbearing one?”

“I must say, you have many thoughts on the subject of marriage among the peerage for someone who isn’t married and not a peer.” Theo finally pinpointed why this thread of Adam’s was irritating.

Adam tilted his head and smiled, not the smug one like before, the gentle smile which seemed to be just for Theo, the one that wrapped itself around Theo’s heart and lodged itself there.

“An excellent observation. Let me explain something.”

“Oh please do.” Theo tried to remind himself that this was Adam’s strength—talking—with the note of sarcasm but the truth was he wanted to know what this had to do with the two of them.

“When I couldn’t save Rose, I became determined to make sure it didn’t happen to anyone else. You know about my plan to bankrupt your father, but there is another thing that we did too.”

“What did you do?” Theo wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

“My friends and I began an unofficial business. Earnest calls it Rent a Rake because he’s hilarious.”

“Rent a Rake?” Theo had not imagined this, and he couldn’t help feeling curious.

“If a woman needed to avoid a marriage, we would ruin her. Not in reality unless she wanted that, but in public. If a woman needed to escape a dangerous marriage, we would arrange it. Remember when Lady Sottsneile died?”

“Yes.”

“She’s living in the Americas now as the widowed Mrs Browne. We got her out of her house one evening while Lord Sottsneile was at White’s, before he came home drunk to beat her again, and we smuggled her onto a boat with her new name.”

Theo couldn’t believe it. “That’s rather admirable.”

“It’s not enough. The law needs changing too, but we are four orphan boys without connections, so this was our only way to help.”

Theo needed some fresh air. This was too much information all at once and he suddenly worried that he was going to make a foolish decision. He was inclined to admire Adam for this and ignore what he’d done to the estate. Was he really such a fool for a handsome face and the promise of more kisses?

Chapter 13