“What moment?” Laura asked warily.
“Are you always so suspicious?”
“No, but I have had conversations with you before.”
“Oh, the devil.” The hint of amusement on his face turned to irritation. “I’m not here to blight your life. I have come to propose an arrangement of mutual benefit.”
Laura stared, her mind reeling. “Pardon? Are you—are you offering to make me your mistress?”
He was the one who stared now. “Good God!” To her amazement, a flush rose in his cheeks. “No, Miss Hinsdale, I am not here to purchase your nubile body, entrancing as I am sure it is.”
Laura crossed her arms over her chest. “Just what are you here for?”
“I have come to ask for your hand in marriage.”
Laura plopped down onto the nearest chair, his words so far from anything she expected to hear from him that she could hardly grasp it. Finally, weakly, she asked, “Are you joking?”
“I rarely jest about marriage, I assure you.”
She blinked. “I . . . uh . . . why?”
“I would think the advantages are clear. I hope it is not vain of me to point out that you would have a much more agreeable future than the one you are currently facing, which offers penury and the less-than-alluring prospect of throwing yourself on your relatives’ generosity. I can give you a gracious home, a generous allowance, and a respectable, dare I say honored, name.”
He sounded as if he were offering her employment. “No. I mean why would you want to? What possible reason could you have for proposing to me?” Long-buried resentment bubbled in her. Laura popped back up. “If I was not good enough to be Graeme’s wife, as you so kindly told me, how could I possibly be acceptable as yours?”
It was some balm to her feelings that James looked taken aback. “I never said you were unworthy. The only issue was saving the Montclair estate. I can assure you I did not question your character. In fact, it was precisely your good character I counted on. Once you understood how ruinous it would be for Graeme to wed you, you would break it off. I knew I could use your sense of honor against you.”
“What a cold and calculating man you are.” His words were mollifying, at least in regard to his opinion of her, but it amazed her that he would admit it. “It’s hard to believe you’re related to Graeme.”
“It’s a wonder, is it not? But I have never tried to appear anything except what I am.”
“I don’t know that that makes it any better.” She studied him. “I must say, however, that I fail to see any cold calculation in proposing to me.”
He gave her a wry look. “I would guess that most women would regard marriage to me a cold thing indeed.”
“No doubt. But that’s not an explanation. It isn’t as if you like me. You barely know me. And I am relatively certain I am not the sort of woman whom you would choose.”
“You’re right,” he shot back, annoyed. “You are not at all the sort of woman I planned to marry. However, at the moment my choices are rather limited.”
“I can understand why if this is your manner of wooing.”
“I have not tried to ‘woo’ anyone else.”
Laura stared. “I am your first attempt at a proposal?”
“Yes.”
“But why? Why would you choose me?”
“I am beginning to wonder that myself.” When Laura said nothing, merely crossed her arms and waited, James continued, “I chose you because I thought you were in such exigent circumstances you would agree.”
“Well, at least you are candid.”
“I usually am.”
“Then let me be equally straightforward. I may be in exigent circumstances, but I would rather remain in my penniless state, here in my ungracious home, with my unrespectable name, than share your bed.”
He let out a dry laugh, surprising her. “Trust me, Miss Hinsdale, the way I feel now, lust is the furthest thing from my mind.”
“What about in the future?”
He looked at her flatly. “There won’t be any future.”
Nonplussed, Laura simply stared at him. James released a long sigh and sank onto one of the chairs at the table, gesturing wearily at the other. “Please, sit down. Let me begin again.”
“Very well.” She sat down on the edge of the seat, as if any action might break the fragile truce.
James looked straight into her eyes. “I am dying.”
Laura sucked in her breath. “You are sure? That’s why you came to see Papa?”
“Yes, on both counts. I have spent the past several weeks going from one doctor to another. I have been diagnosed with everything from a bad heart to brain fever to tumors. But all are agreed on one thing: I am not long for this world.” He delivered his news with a flat calm, almost as if he were discussing someone else.