“Would you - would you like to marry me, Kitty?' Lord Radcliffe - James - asked, voice like gravel.
She gave a helpless little laugh at the absurdity of the question - as if he did not know.
'I would,' she said. 'But first, I feel I must inform you that I come with four sisters, a badly leaking roof, and a veritable ocean of debt.'
He had started to smile now, and once begun it did not seem to stop, overtaking his whole face.
“I thank you for your honesty,’ he said cordially, and she laughed. ‘May I reassure you that I am desperate to meet your other sisters, the roof sounds charmingly rustic, and the debt does not faze me.’ He paused. ‘Of course, I understand that you will need to see my accounts before committing yourself,’ he went on, and she laughed again, loud and bright.
‘I’m sure that won’t be necessary,’ she said. ‘As long as you can promise you’re absurdly rich and you’ll pay off all my family’s debts.’
‘I am absurdly rich,’ he repeated. ‘And I will pay off all your family’s debts.’
‘Why then by all means,’ she said, grinning up at him, ‘I would indeed like to marry you.”
―
Sophie Irwin,
A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting
