me my dowry, I’ll be happy to find my own townhouse,” she replied in a sharp voice.
She didn’t think of the words or her tone before she gave the reply. They just came out. For a moment, she wondered if she should take them back. The vicar, after all, was still in the room, and it wasn’t wise to snap at someone when a man of God was nearby. It almost seemed like a sin. But the slight scowl on Aaron’s face convinced her to stick with her words.
“You think I’m going to let the money I won in the wager go to waste on lovers and wine?” Aaron asked.
She gasped. What did he just say to her? Did he really think she was that kind of lady?
“You have to go with him,” her brother told her. “The money is his. For all intents and purposes, you’re a pauper.”
“She could live with me,” Lilly said.
“Or me,” Emilia added.
“No, she’s my wife,” Aaron began, “and that means she’ll stay with me. I need to make sure she doesn’t end up with someone else’s brat.”
Kitty’s face grew hot as the meaning of his words sunk in. How dare he say that? And in front of her friends!
“Do you really think speaking that way is reasonable?” Roger asked.
“She’s my wife,” Aaron replied, glaring at him. “Though I was tricked into this arrangement, there’s no getting out of it. She is now my investment, and I’ll do what is necessary to protect my interest.”
“I can’t believe you’re talking about my friend that way,” Lilly snapped.
“I can’t believe it, either,” Emilia agreed.
The vicar, Kitty noticed, hurried out of the room as if his backside was on fire. She didn’t blame him. She’d do the same if she could.
“Add me to the people who can’t believe what they’re hearing,” Roger said as he walked up to Aaron. “You need to stop this comparison at once. Kitty is not your mother.”
Kitty wondered what Roger meant by that, but Aaron shooed the others away with his hands. “The rest of you can handle your marriages however you want. I don’t tell you what to do with your wives, so you have no right to tell me what to do with mine.”
Before anyone could respond, he took Kitty by the elbow and escorted her out of the room. Kitty was too shocked to do anything to stop him.
When they reached Aaron’s carriage, his footman already had the door open for them. Her steps slowed when she realized someone was already in it.
Aaron let go of her elbow and waved for her to get in. “I don’t want to stay at this wretched townhouse any longer than I have to.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him they were no longer in the townhouse, but since she wasn’t all that thrilled with the way her brother was watching them from the entrance with a large grin on his face, she got into the carriage.
“Sit next to Miss Britcher,” Aaron told her as she got ready to sit across from the middle-aged lady with a frame so thin that it looked like she rarely ever had something to eat.
Deciding not to ask him why, she sat next to her. She glanced the lady’s way, and the lady scanned her up and down as if she was trying to figure out what to think of her. The lady’s posture was stiff. Her hands were clasped in her lap. Her bun was pulled tight under her hat, and she wore black clothing.
Kitty looked away from her in apprehension. The lady struck her as a female version of the Grim Reaper. Aaron wasn’t planning to take her to the cemetery and bury her in an open grave, was he? Maybe Kitty shouldn’t have been so quick to enter this carriage.
Aaron sat across from them and gestured for the footman to hurry up and shut the door. Once the door was shut, he didn’t hide his relief. “I never thought that travesty would be over.”
His hard gaze fell on Kitty, and she had the urge to scowl back. The only thing holding her back was her upbringing…and the fact that Miss Britcher was there. She had the distinct feeling that she was surrounded by people who didn’t like her. If she said or did anything, they would both argue with her. She might have had the strength to go against one, but she didn’t want to deal with two irritable people. The