carte blanche to decide whatever she wishes for flowers, dress, guests, etcetera. That will be all, Ravenscroft.”
The earl was no longer glaring at him.
Decker knew a moment of triumph. He was reasonably certain he had thought of everything.
“Why would I give my sister to a degenerate voluptuary whose reputation is as black as pitch?” Ravenscroft queried next.
That rather cut to the heart of things, did it not?
“Julian,” Jo chastised, interjecting her voice for the first time since their official discussion had begun. “He is none of those things. For all that you think him wicked, Mr. Decker has never truly compromised me.”
Blast her innocent tongue and urge to champion him.
“Yes, my darling, I am afraid I have,” he told her tenderly, lest Ravenscroft realize he had been lying about the possibility of Jo carrying his child. “The only reasonable course for us to take now is marriage. In time, I will rectify the dishonor I have paid you.”
That particular detail was one which could tip the scales in his favor, and he would not discount it. However, he certainly hoped reason would do the work without his having to resort to subterfuge.
“Although Lady Josephine has reached her majority, I am still her brother. I am in control of her dowry. If I do not approve of the match she makes, she will go to her husband with nothing,” Ravenscroft told him coolly.
But Decker had accounted for that. He inclined his head. “In the event Lady Josephine has no dowry, there is a provision in the betrothal contract for her to receive thirty thousand pounds per annum.”
It was an impressive sum by anyone’s account.
Even an earl’s.
Especially an earl who had been at penury’s gates and had required his marriage to an American heiress to dig him out of the depths of his wastrel sire’s financial grave.
“I do not want a dowry,” Jo said quietly then. “Nor do I need it if I am to marry Mr. Decker. Julian, please, I beg you to see reason. Mr. Decker is a good man.”
The earl’s nostrils flared. “If he were a good man, he would not have been squiring an unwed lady about London in the midst of the night, to say nothing of what else occurred. Indeed, I do believe the scene I witnessed yesterday precludes him from being considered a good man. However, I am willing to review the betrothal contract before I make my decision.”
“You have three hours from the time the contract arrives until it becomes void,” Decker told him, delivering his trump card. “If you do not make your decision in that time, the contract will be revised and amended. The terms will not benefit Lady Josephine nearly as much as the initial contract. Delay will only have a negative impact upon your sister, which I am sure you do not want.”
“What I do not want, Mr. Decker, is for my impressionable sister to make a match with a man who is clearly her inferior in every way,” the earl bit out. “That is what I do not want. You do not deserve Lady Josephine as your wife. I will not mince words. Your reputation speaks for itself. I wanted a love match for my sister with a man who cares for her and who can also do her credit.”
“We are in perfect accord then, my lord,” Decker said with ease. “I agree that I am Lady Jo’s inferior. I also agree I do not deserve her. My reputation is dark; I shall not insult your intelligence and suggest otherwise. Nor will this be a love match. But what I can promise you is that, unlike some milksop lord you would select to be her husband, I will appreciate her always. I will also make all the provisions necessary to prove to both yourself and to Lady Jo that her independence and her financial security will remain hers, just as they should be. I may be a sinner, Lord Ravenscroft, but I am also a man of intellect and foresight. I do not seek to dim Lady Jo’s shine. Rather, I hope to encourage it.”
“You are not my inferior,” Jo argued softly, her stare upon him. “You are a good man, Elijah Decker. I have seen the proof for myself on far too many occasions for you to deny it.”
The worship in her eyes was misplaced. He was a bastard. A sinner. A jaded, heartless sybarite. She would do well to remember that. But he would not remind her