Marrying the Mistress by Juliet Landon Page A

for both Jamie and me. Even with a house to live in, it’s going to take every last penny I can earn to keep it going.’
    â€˜Ahem!’ Mr Brierley coughed, shuffling the papers again. ‘I believe Mr Monkton did add a clause concerning that eventuality, Miss Follet, if I can find it somewhere. Ah…yes, here we are.’ He adjusted hisspectacles. ‘Should Miss Helene Follet decide in the future to take a husband, then my son James Frederick Linas Monkton shall live permanently and exclusively in the home of his guardian at Abbots Mere in the county of York. There. He’s saying that—’
    â€˜Yes, thank you. I believe I know what he’s saying, Mr Brierley. In short, I shall lose Jamie if I marry.’
    â€˜Correct. You will also lose the use of the house too, I’m afraid.’
    â€˜What?’
    He nodded, pursing his lips. ‘Mmm. Well, you can see his point.’
    My head reeled as I sat down with a thump upon the couch. Oh yes, I could see his point quite clearly. No wonder he’d been loath to discuss it with me. Not only had he decided by whom and when I should bear a child for him, but now he was asserting that he could take it away again if I did not conform to his wishes. How dictatorial was that? As for Winterson exercising his guardianship like a father, well, yes, he would. Exactly like a father.
    â€˜That is most unfair, Mr Brierley, and highly unethical. That is interfering with my right to take a husband and to keep my child.’
    â€˜Surely, Miss Follet, it is better for your son to have a guardian he knows and likes than to have a stepfather he doesn’t know? I do believe Mr Monkton had this in mind when he made this wish.’
    Did he? I struggled to think what Linas had in mind when he saw fit to interfere in my life even after he’d gone. Jamie was precious to him too, I understood that, but he could not realistically expect me to see eye to eyewith his brother on any matter relating to Jamie’s upbringing, when Winterson had no experience whatever of children. I felt insulted that he could not have left matters in my hands and made funds available to me for Jamie’s use. Did he think that, although I could manage a business, nurse him day and night, run my own household and care for a three-year-old, I could not be relied on to handle a trust fund? No, probably not. There had been times when I wondered whether Linas spared much thought for me at all. Now I knew the answer.
    â€˜This will have to be contested,’ I muttered. ‘It won’t work.’
    â€˜Miss Follet,’ said Mr Brierley, removing his spectacles and sitting back in his chair, ‘one cannot contest a will simply on the basis that one thinks it might be difficult to put it into practice. There is nothing here that is unworkable. You may have found it disappointing, but the terms are not so very unusual. Mr Monkton’s reasoning was sound at the time, and he does not state that you should not marry, only that his son shall live with his guardian if you do.’
    â€˜And you see nothing sinister in that, sir? Is it remotely likely that I would allow that to happen, do you think?’
    â€˜Ahem! I really cannot comment on that, Miss Follet, except to say that Mr Monkton’s prime concern was for his son’s well-being.’
    â€˜Which I find difficult to understand, sir. One would have thought that his son’s well-being would be all the better for knowing that his mama was happy too. Oh, yes,’ I said as he opened his mouth to speak, ‘I knowthat wealth is not happiness, but how am I supposed to pay the servants’ wages, keep the place warm and in good repair, and maintain the standard of living that Jamie is used to, I wonder, on three hundred and fifty pounds a year? Not to mention my own requirements. I shall be obliged to look for a little cottage to rent. That seems to be the only solution. Thank you for