Pawn of the Billionaire(13)

I gaped at him. “What?”

“An Earl. The Earl of Amherst.” He thought for a moment. “I know the British peerage can be hard to understand. I can help you with that. But for tonight, you just need to know that titles are passed down the generations from father to son. That’s changing nowadays for some titles — the Crown, for instance, but for some titles, and certainly last century, only sons could inherit.”

He smiled at the waiter as our first course was served, but he stopped speaking. I waited impatiently.

He thanked the waiter, then smiled over at me. “Enjoy your meal, Toni.”

I took a mouthful, thinking hard. It was delicious, a delicate flavor, but I was too busy thinking to concentrate.

“So, are you going to tell me any more?”

He put down his knife and fork and patted his lips with his napkin. “It’ll be a bit disjointed if we continue while we’re eating, but if you want to, we can carry on.”

I nodded impatiently. “So why was Nana Elizabeth living here?”

He looked at his plate and sighed. “The seventh Earl had a son who was killed in a hunting accident. His three daughters couldn’t inherit.” His clipped, brief words held their own drama somehow. “His eldest daughter, the Lady Antonia, had married an American and they moved to the States.” His eyes flickered over me. “Her eldest daughter was Elizabeth, your grandmother. She vanished from the family records when she became pregnant at the age of seventeen.”

He stopped speaking and concentrated on finishing his food. I copied him, my mind whirling. I didn’t question that he’d got the facts right, but surely things wouldn’t have happened that way. There would’ve been money. Even if the family had kept it quiet, there would have been money.

I waited, shifting on my seat for him to carry on. His faint smile showed he knew I was impatient.

“Lady Antonia and her husband weren’t good with money.” It was as if he knew what I was thinking. “There’s nothing now. The title has become extinct, as there was no male line to inherit. There’s no money, and the Estate and lands were broken up.” He looked at me steadily. “So you might be wondering why I’ve looked for you just to tell you that.”

I nodded. “Yes, why?”

He leaned back, and shook his head slightly as the waiters unobtrusively cleared the first course dishes. I watched them. It was a million miles away from the sort of waitressing I did. When we were alone again, James leaned forward. His face, lean and angular in the soft lighting, held an intense expression and his eyes burned into me. Did he know the effect he was having on my body? I thought so, and decided not to drink any more champagne. I reached for my Coke.

“I know the peerage, Toni — Antonia — because my father is also an Earl. The Earl of Sandiford. My mother was a beautiful woman,” he said and he smiled a little sadly. “The wife of an Earl is a Countess. She was the Countess of Sandiford.”

I realized he’d obviously lost her too, and I tried to make a little sympathetic noise. He shrugged.

“She died a long time ago.” He lifted his champagne flute, studied the bubbles intently. “They had a very happy marriage, my father loved her very much.” His glance was sharp. “But it was an arranged marriage, really. His mother looked for a suitable girl and then encouraged their courtship. Of course, they weren’t forced to marry. But both of them knew they were going into it as an arrangement as much as for the usual reasons. The love built on that.” He sighed and stopped talking again as the maitre d’ arrived to pour the red wine to go with our main course. Then the food arrived.

“Let’s enjoy our meal,” James suggested. “We’ll talk more afterwards.”

I wondered how much I would enjoy it. I had a lot to think about. “Okay.” I sipped the wine and looked at my plate.

His father was an Earl. His father had had an arranged marriage with a suitable girl. He’d told me all about my background. Was he trying to convince me I was a suitable girl? His card had said he was an Honorable, so maybe he really was an Earl’s son.

I toyed with my food, thinking hard. And all along I’d been thinking he’d found out about my app. What would he be suggesting?

I felt a lump in my throat and moved the food around my plate a bit. I wouldn’t be able to eat it. He was so sexy, so gorgeous. But if I was getting the idea right, he wanted me to become his wife just because my grandmother was descended from an Earl. It wasn’t because I was attractive or anything like that. It wasn’t even because I was clever and had an idea that would make me rich. It was just because of my genes.