Page 87 of A Match of Misfortune

“I do not doubt you for a moment.” Sarcasm infiltrated her every word, and even in the darkness, her big brown eyes held a sparkle of mischief.

“Good, because it is the truth.” He lifted his arm to her again. “Should we be on our way, then?”

She considered him for a moment. Then, hesitantly, she placed her hand on his arm.

They wandered down the serpentine path, attempting to find an unoccupied bench on which Lady Bridget could rest.

“The path is far less precarious than I’d imagined,” Cecily said, the two of them several paces behind the Rothsburgs now. “After your mother’s warning, I had thought we’d have encountered at least one miscreant attempting to cause us trouble by now.”

Nash smiled at her reasoning. “I do not believe the sort of people my mother made mention of are of the miscreant variety.”

Cecily’s gaze settled on his profile. “What other sort of disreputable company gathers at Vauxhall?”

Nash lifted his shoulders, attempting to suppress his smile. “I could not tell you.”

“You could not or you will not?”

Nash only shook his head.

She gave an annoyed pout.

“It is vexing, isn’t it?” he asked.

“What?”

“Asking a question and not being answered.” They walked a few more steps in silence. “What if we were to reconsider our deal?”

Her gaze slid to him again. “What do you propose?”

“Since it’s clear you have no intention of holding up your end of the agreement to give me my luck back⁠—”

“You mean I have no intention of kissing you as one of the terms?”

Nash gave an aggrieved nod. “Precisely. What if you were to give me something else I wanted?”

She shot him a knowing glance. “The answer to why I will not marry?”

It didn’t surprise Nash that she knew exactly where he was going with his request. “That seems a fair exchange, does it not? Besides, you cannot, in good conscience, feel that I should not be given some sort of consolation for how devotedly I’ve upheld my end of the agreement. Particularly when I’m receiving none of the supposed benefits of being betrothed, as Lady Bridget mentioned.”

Cecily laughed. “You do have a point.”

“Does that mean you will tell me?”

She fixed her gaze on the curving pathway ahead of them. “You have likely already theorized it correctly, at least in part.”

“Is it because of Adelaide?”

“Yes.”

He thought she meant to stop there, to not tell him more, but then she released a slow breath. “Before I was to go out into Society, just before you and I met, actually, Papa wished to get his affairs in order. Originally, he had intended to have my and Adelaide’s dowries equally divided—each of us receiving ten thousand pounds. But both the solicitor and Papa’s man of business worried that if such a large dowry was given to Adelaide, it would only tempt fortune hunters who would deceive and use her ill. So, to make certain that didn’t happen, they convinced Papa the entire sum should go to me. The hope was that a dowry of that size would allow me to make a prosperous match. A match that, when my father dies, will ensure that Adelaide is well taken care of. A sort of investment, I suppose.”

“You said no one was told the sum of your dowry.”

She gave a rueful smile. “That was my doing. After hearing the arrangement he had made, I came up with a plan of my own. I prevailed upon Papa’s sentimentality. Knowing he had a love match with Mama, I said I would like to be afforded the same opportunity. I then explained how difficult it would be to decipher whether a man truly loved me or simply pretended so that he might obtain my dowry. For clearly, such a man could not be trusted to care for Adelaide when it came time. After hearing my reasons, he gave me his word that he would not disclose the amount until I found a man I knew to be genuine in his affections.”

Nash felt a prick of guilt at having disclosed the sum that had been well-kept for so long. “Which you have not?”

Cecily shook her head.