The Risqué Resolution by Jillian Eaton

ear.” 
    “I wouldn’t worry about that either.
Seeing as your cousin will soon have all of your money and you will not be in
possession of a dowry, no man of consequence is likely to look twice at you.”
    Lily dropped her arm to stare
incredulously at her friend. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
    “No, I suppose not.” Sarah took a
thoughtful bite of her scone. “But I am confident we will come up with a
solution. After all, what happened to you is not so different than what
happened to me, and look how well everything turned out with Devlin and I!”
    “I fear James is not the sort of man to
profess his love over a sleigh ride through the park. He did not say a word,
Sarah. Not a word when we parted
ways.” The anxiety of it all settled in her chest like a stone, weighing her
down and leaving her rooted in the chair where she once would have paced
circles around the room. What was she going to do ? For once, Lily did not have an answer.
    “Well, did you say anything when you parted ways this morning?” Sarah asked.
    “I… No,” she said after she thought
about it. “I didn’t.”
    “There you have it, then!” Sarah said
excitedly. A bit too excitedly,
Lily thought with a scowl, given the dower circumstances. “ You did not say anything so he did not say anything. Perhaps he is
sitting in a drawing room somewhere at this very moment, having the same exact
conversation we are!”
    “I highly doubt that.”
    “Oh, posh.” Sarah waved her hand in the
air. “What do you know? Look at what a muck of things you’ve made so far. I
must say , this is not at all your best scheming. Which
makes it all the more interesting, does it not?”
    “You are talking in riddles,” Lily said
irritably, “and not being at all helpful.”
    “I am being incredibly helpful,” Sarah
corrected with a beaming smile. “And I have come up with a perfect solution.”
    Hope flickered inside Lily’s heart,
hesitant as a newly born flame. Was there
a way to fix everything? Sarah certainly seemed to think so. She bit the inside
of her cheek, telling herself not to get too excited even as the anticipation
nearly drove her up and out of her chair. She wrapped her arms around her chest
to contain the pounding of her heart and leaned forward. “Which is?” 
    “It is quite simple, really. All you
have to do is ask Captain Rigby to marry you.”
     
    James had not moved from his chair for
the past hour. He sat in silence, staring down at his desk and the blank piece
of blank parchment resting on top of it. The words that needed to be written on
the parchment – a simple letter to a solicitor – echoed in his
mind, but try as he might he could not summon the concentration necessary to
commit them to paper. His mind was preoccupied, his thoughts very much
elsewhere. 
    As the second hour began to pass his
muscles grew stiff but still he remained in the chair. Not moving, just
staring, as though the empty page before him would reveal all the answers he
sought if he but studied it long enough.
    “I knocked, but you did not answer.
What are you doing?”
    James jumped at the sound of his
sister’s voice. He’d been so deep in thought he hadn’t
heard her at the door nor, it seemed, noticed when she entered the room.
Dressed in a drab gray dress with a white shawl wrapped around her shoulders
she looked old beyond her years… and far more serious than any sixteen year old girl should ever appear. “I was thinking
about something,” he said honestly. “What are you doing awake and dressed?” He
glanced out the window, thinking perhaps more time had passed than he initially
believed, but the sun was still rising in the sky, indicating the hour to be
quite early.
    Natalie shrugged her shoulders beneath
the shawl. “I could not sleep.” Tucking her legs up, she settled into a chair,
but kept her gaze on him, her blue eyes inquisitive. “You did not come home
last night.”
    “No.” He did not offer an