An Inconvenient Arrangement

Epilogue

"Jane, that man is a no-good scoundrel! You cannot possibly want to marry him!" Raphael addressed his daughter in a fury. "Tell me again why I can't challenge him to a duel and kill him?"

'Papa, with all due respect, you were also a no-good scoundrel and you turned out well enough, so I will thank you not to kill my betrothed.'

"Betrothed! That's generous seeing as he has not yet asked me permission to marry you!"

'Papa, we were discovered together, after being trapped in the gamekeeper's cottage an entire night, in very little clothing. I have been thoroughly compromised. Marriage is a foregone conclusion.'

"Don't remind me! It just makes my bloodlust stronger! And of course, it isn't a foregone conclusion!" Rafe insisted. "As I said, I am more than happy to make him disappear!"

"I am right here!" Lord Hugh Redford, Baron Carrington, exclaimed in protest. Rafe gave him a black, menacing look though the recipient of the glare was too busy watching Jane with an adoring, beaming smile.

"Only because Jane refuses to let me challenge you to a duel and put you six feet under," Rafe hissed back at the man who was basically Raphael's karmic retribution. A punishment sent down by Thomas Heartwood for debauching his sister before marriage.

Handsome, suave, a charmer by any definition- Lord Carrington certainly found himself receiving much feminine attention. He was known to be a gambler that was looking for an heiress to marry. Probably he would gamble away whatever dowry his wife brought him- precisely why Rafe was about to present the most ironclad betrothal agreement to have ever been conceived. His poor daughter! But she wouldn't have anything to worry about as long as he was living. "As any man ought when a ruffian compromises his daughter!"

"Duels are not legal, Rafe," His wife chided him gently. "Besides, he didn't actually take any liberties with Jane. He kept her safe during the rainstorm, helped her find shelter."

"And that explains why he's still breathing," Rafe mumbled.

Jane did not dare inform her Papa that if anyone had been eager to take liberties, it had been her. She didn't think his poor heart could take it.

'Regardless of Hugh's reputation, I wish for you to treat him with the respect and love due to him as your son-in-law. He may be a scoundrel, but he is my scoundrel, and I will hear no more of your ranting. I am getting married, I am old enough not to need your approval, so please get on board because it is happening one way or the other!'

"Oh Hugh now, is it?" Rafe replied testily. Lord Hugh just exchanged a heated look with Jane that turned his stomach.

"Jane!" Sylvie replied severely, chastening her daughter. Though Jane was now well into womanhood, a mother never stopped being a mother. "Your father is right to have reservations considering the haste with which everything has proceeded. You must give him some time to adjust. Lord Carrington, why don't you return in a week's time so that we may hash out the terms of the betrothal contract?"

"Yes, I can return next week. Thank you, my lady, two of my wards are former students of your institute and they speak very highly of you. I am glad to see that you are just as lovely as they say." He stood up and bowed before them respectfully. "Before I leave, may I have a word in private with his lordship?"

"But of course," Sylvie said graciously, sending her husband a look that said 'Be nice' and ushered her daughter out of the study.

Rafe did not even remotely feel like being nice.

"I just want you to know that despite all my faults, I will endeavor my best to care for your daughter as she deserves. She may not be the woman I had intended to pursue, but I will do my best to be a husband that she can take pride in. And if I were in your shoes, I would want to throttle me too, but I hope that I can prove to you that I am worthy of your respect, sir."