dowry,” did her face fall.
“William, I do think that is overly harsh,” Charlotte said mildly from her armchair.
John, on the other hand, snorted. “Keep a little money from him? ’Tis nothing to what I would like to do to him! God’s teeth, Pru, to think you were–you should not be kissing anyone!”
“I can kiss who I like,” Pru said severely, “whether under the mistletoe or not, and it is not the first time!”
The two brothers glared at Alexander, who clarified immediately, “Not like that–in previous years, it was just a brotherly kiss on the cheek, I can assure you.”
“But it meant something to me, it always has.” Pru squeezed his hand adoringly. “I knew you would understand one day. I love you, Alexander, and I cannot wait to be your bride.”
Alexander swallowed. It was all happening too quickly, without any chance to go away and think, calculate exactly what was happening.
“I have the right to withhold her dowry for a marriage that does not please me until she reaches the age of twenty-five…”
William’s words echoed in his mind, and despite everything before him, he could not stop thinking about them. No dowry.
“I knew it,” said John in a jeering tone. “Did I not say he was a miser, William? Look at him, completely rethinking his declaration of love because Pru no longer comes with a convenient purse. He will walk away without the dowry.”
He laughed, and William joined him in a belittling chuckle that finally pushed Alexander’s temper over the edge.
“How easily you laugh at the unfortunate!” he snapped, dropping Pru’s hand as he stepped forward, propelled by the fury pouring through his veins. “How easily you can laugh about this–you, who have so much money that twenty thousand pounds would make no difference to you!”
They were not laughing now, but glaring at his impudence. But Alexander could not stop, not now he had started.
“I did not have a fortune thrust upon me. I have to work for a living! So forgive me if I have to consider where each and every penny is going because it is sometimes challenging to make ends meet, and I have dependents!”
His words rang out in the drawing room, and the moment they were out of his mouth, he regretted it. He had promised himself he would not tell a soul, and now almost the entire Lennox family knew his secret.
Damn and blast. He should never have come here. He should not have thought of his own desires but of their needs.
“Dependents?” Pru’s voice was quiet, curious, with no judgment.
Alexander’s heart twisted. It was just one of the many things he loved about her: no judgment, just curiosity. But she had the right to ask that question, and now he would have to answer.
He sighed, his head finally dropping. “Although an only child, I have a cousin. Had, I should say. He died two years ago, and his wife not soon after. There was no one else who could care for three children, none who would own them. They would have gone to a workhouse if I had not stepped in and taken guardianship.”
There was silence as they attempted to take in his words.
It was Charlotte who broke the silence. “Three children?”
Alexander nodded. “They live with a respectable family near Wells, who have two children of their own. I provide them with a monthly stipend to ensure the Michaels children are cared for. It is…it is challenging, on a single living worth very little, but I manage it. I would rather go without a meal than Thomas, Lily, and Rebecca. But it leaves me…well. In almost constant need of money.”
He raised his head and found he could not make out the expressions on either brothers’ faces. Was that revulsion, disgust, judgment, curiosity?
“Marrying without a dowry would not just drag me into destitution, but my wife, also,” he said, his voice gaining strength as his convictions grew. “I would not do that to anyone, but I would certainly not do that to Pru. Better to…better to lose her, my better half, than force her into a life of servitude.”
Only then did Pru take a step away, and it tore at his very soul.
He had lost her, then. He had meant every word–the last thing he wanted was for Pru to share in his penury. But losing her, having her forever gone from his side–worse, seeing her one day married to another who could give her a far more comfortable home…
It sickened him. Yet, no matter