“There is one very particular thing,” Horatia confided. “I should not c-care to ask it of you, only that we are m-making a bargain, are we not?”
“Are we?” said his lordship.
“But you know w-we are!” Horatia said. “You w-want to marry into m-my Family, don’t you?”
“I am beginning to think that I do,” remarked his lordship.
Horatia frowned. “I quite understood that that was why you offered for L-Lizzie.”
“It was,” he assured her.
She seemed satisfied. “And you do not w-want a wife to interfere with you. Well, I p-promise I won’t.”
His lordship looked down at her rather enigmatically. “And in return?”
She drew closer. “C-could you do something for Edward?” she begged. “I have d-decided that there is only one thing for him, and that is a P-patron!”
“And—er—am I to be the Patron?” asked his lordship.