“Yes, I have,” Valentine agreed. He was done listening to his father. “I have given everything you’ve said considerable thought and I can’t believe how much time I’ve wasted.”
His father grinned. “I thought to leave tomorrow. I can delay a day so you can return with us.”
“I’m not leaving Brighton. I’m not returning to Oxford. I don’t want the life you and mother offer there and I am so tired of telling you both. We will never have this discussion again, sir.”
A muscle in his father’s jaw twitched. “She’s pretty but only passably.”
Valentine clenched his fists. “Have a care, sir, how you speak of the woman I love.”
“Love,” his father snorted, dismissing his claim with a wave of his hand. “What do you know of love, boy?”
“A hell of a lot more than you do. Did you and Mother ever love each other?”
“Do not speak of my wife,” his father hissed, his face mottling red.
“Then do not speak of Julia. She will be my wife, and I will brook no discussion on the subject.”
“A wife with an unsavory character will do you no credit.”
“For god’s sake, whatever past she has is with me. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking I was an innocent party to our scandal.”
“I’m not referring to the race, but your lack of good judgment. To take on a wife with the morals of a fortune hunter is foolish.”
“She’s no fortune hunter.”
“Then why does she have three hundred pounds in her possession? Tell me that.”
Valentine swallowed the lump in his throat. Her dowry was much less than that princely sum. “I’m sure she doesn’t.”
“Then you don’t know her as well as you believe. The girl is like all the others; a bit of coin goes a long way to turning their hearts in a new direction.”
“What others have there been, Father?”
His father shook his head. “You should be grateful for the care we’ve taken over your future. Your mother and I gave it much more consideration than you ever have.”
He stood and towered over his father, leaning over the chair so he could not escape. “What other women have you thrown money at?”
His father fell silent.
“Eve?”
“An eager trollop.”
Valentine straightened, and turned away in disgust when his father laughed.
He’d lost his heart to Eve, or thought he had at the time. “So you gave money to Julia, too. To make her go away.”
“Nary a word of protest,” his father crowed. “Took it and kept it.”
If Julia had taken the money then there had to be a good reason for her decision not to speak of it. He’d never believe her a fortune hunter. Quite the opposite.
He smiled and faced his father again. “I have bad news for you. Your plan hasn’t worked this time. She’s still in Brighton with no plans to leave, and she is mine. I have no doubts about where her loyalties lie.”
“She doesn’t deserve to share our name. It is shameless the way she carries on in public. Shameless, I say, and I will not have her throwing fruit at people!”
Valentine narrowed his gaze on his father. “You knew the good Julia had done for the Faradays, too, and are still determined to think badly of her.”
His father sniffed in distain. “The wildness of that girl knows no bounds. You cannot bring her to Oxford. You cannot marry her.”