Page 2 of Discovering Her Earl

He’d made immediate changes. Including removing the children from the mines and setting up a school. He’d invested in safety measures, repaired their homes, and raised the workers’ salaries which in turn made the mines more profitable than they’d ever been before. Healthy workers were more productive workers.

And now, they could end up with Lord Osborne who ran his mines in the same fashion Julian’s father had. He couldn’t allow the miners and their families to go back to that life.

“You could pull more income from the other estates to cover your expenses,” Mr. Reeves offered as if he had no issue with taking money from the people who had rightfully earned it.

But thinking of his estates did give him an idea.

“Haverdale and Wellfrey. They aren’t entailed. I could sell them and—”

The solicitor was shaking his head before the sentence was out.

“No. You cannot sell them. You never could.”

“Bloody bastard.” It seemed his father had thought of everything. Of course, the bugger had seen fit to force his will on Julian yet again. Years after Julian had been free of the wretched man.

“It isn’t unheard of for a father to want his son to ensure the line by your age.”

Julian answered that comment with a hard glare, and a Scottish curse that had sturdier men shaking in their boots. Julian turned back to read over the letter again. He pointed at a section near the end.

“What does this mean here?” He tapped the parchment. “Someone must approve my wife? Who?”

“I don’t know. That is only to be disclosed after you choose a lady to wed.”

“Then it’s possible I could go along with this insanity and marry someone I think is proper enough for the blighter, only to have some unnamed person come along and deem her unfit? I could still lose my mines even if I did his bidding?”

“Yes, I suppose that is possible. But I imagine your father prepared this person to approve a wife who would make a suitable countess. Otherwise, I would think he would have stipulated his specific requirements in the document. He was quite thorough on everything else.”

Julian pointed at the stacks of books on every flat surface of the room.

“You dig through every one of these bloody books and confer with my solicitor in Scotland. You find a way to get me out of this. There has to be a law against such things. And if you can’t find something, get a second opinion, and a third, and a six hundred and forty-seventh opinion, until someone figures out how to save my mines.”

“You have the ability—”

“Do not tell me I can save the mines myself. I will not be forced into marriage by a man who imposed his will on me every second of my youth. I was free of him when he died. He will not manage me from where he rots in the ground. Find another way.”

With that, Julian left.

When he’d walked to his solicitor’s office earlier, he’d been wearing a smile on his face despite the gray clouds above. Now, he didn’t think he could remember how to smile as he stormed home in the frigid downpour. It had been unseasonably cold so far this spring, and this day was another unpleasant day for late May.

Maybe he would catch a chill and it would end the whole matter as it had for his mother. Julian’s death would certainly thwart his father’s ridiculous plans. Though Julian wasn’t close to giving up yet.

As he walked, he thought of the ways he could economize his lifestyle if it came to that. He didn’t need to have quite so many books. His yearly donation to the Darlington Expedition would have to go, though he did love seeing the Egyptian artifacts that were exhumed with the aid of his contributions.

Julian rarely entertained, so he could surely get rid of the silver and elaborate place settings in the formal dining room.

He was considering other things he might be able to do away with rather than kneel to his father’s wishes as he entered Melville House.

Spencer, the butler, fretted as Julian dripped through the foyer.

“Should I have a bath drawn, my lord?”

So much for Julian’s plans to catch a deathly chill. No, he wouldn’t let his father win at this. His reign had ended when he’d died. Julian had been free of his oppressive rule for the last five years, he’d find a way. He had to.

Besides, on the off chance he ended up in the same place as his father in the afterlife, Julian was in no hurry to see the bastard anytime soon. A bath, and dry clothes were a brilliant idea.

“Thank you, Spence. I would appreciate it.”

While that was being seen to, Julian went to his study to pour a whisky. It may not be noon yet, but it was well-earned.