A Most Unladylike Proposition - Chapter 2

'That’s her.’

At this whispered comment from his mother, James stood from his bored lean against a large Grecian pillar and focused on the young lady in question.

His intended wore a hunter’s green dress with short sleeves and a square low-cut neckline that might have been risqué had she not been so finely built. Though her black silk mask, decorated with black swan feathers, covered her upper face, James thought that anyone who had met her before would know her instantly. It was impossible not to. For so small a person, her presence took up a disproportionate amount of space. Even as he watched, several gentlemen in the vicinity appeared struck by her. They gawked, and when she gave them her pretty smile, they fell over themselves to issue awkward bows and mumbled greetings.

‘Not even a mask can hide that she is beautiful,’ he said off-handedly, and for some reason, he didn’t feel emboldened by the fact. Marriage to a woman as beautiful as Lady Diana Hughes hardly felt like settling. Surely, a woman like her would come with a torrent of love-worn suitors? Or perhaps her beauty had instilled in her a feminine frailty that had become so popular in recent years, but which only grated his nerves? At twenty-eight, James had decided that it was time to fulfil his familial duty—and escape the never-ending line of marriageable young ladies who beleaguered him at every turn.

‘You asked me to find you a wife,’ his mother replied. ‘And Lady Diana Hughes is the epitome of good breeding. While it is generally known that she is quite shy, there has not been a single whisper of impropriety surrounding her. She is from a good family whose finances are enviable. And on the two occasions I conversed with her, I found her exceptionally charming.’

‘You don’t need to convince me, Mother. As you very well know, I’ve already secured her hand.’ The ease in which he had done so had been almost disappointing to James, who had inherited the earldom at the young age of seventeen and then worked like a dog for over a decade to save the family from bankruptcy and build an empire on the title. He was a man who rose to the challenge, a man who solved problems. And while many might have called him overly serious, it was only because he was most likely too busy pondering an advantageous approach to some business venture or investment to make small talk.

James had learned to approach his life with tenacious determination, ruthless efficiency, and a practicality bordering on coldness, and at least in his mind, a marriage should be no different. He never let his emotions reign. He made decisions based on factual information and what he thought would prove advantageous to his family. Because if his father’s death had taught him anything, it was that nobody was coming to save him. He alone was responsible for his family and for everyone who depended on his title.

His future countess, Lady Diana, was no exception.

She would make an ideal bride. She was young, healthy, and as his mother assured him, had a sterling reputation. Most of all, James did not need to love his wife in order to be a good husband. In his mind, he would approach his marriage as he did his life: with honesty, commitment, and the single-minded need to keep his family from the creeping ruin that had started stealing the gentry one by one.

But that did not mean he was not curious about his fiancée’s true nature.

While James was not so arrogant as to take credit for the fortuitous timing of the Radcliff’s Masquerade Ball, he was just arrogant enough to take advantage of the anonymity it provided. And tonight, he would become acquainted with Lady Diana Hughes without their future nuptials looming over them. It wasn’t a test of her character, per se. It was simply an attempt to corroborate information he had already obtained—specifically, that his fiancée was unreproachable.