He hoped to God he’d never be like that.
That his children, if he ever had them, wouldn’t be like that. He looked at the Duke of Blackwood and wondered, given the duke’s own coldness sometimes and the darkness which shattered his soul, would Blackwood be so cold to his sons?
Would he send them off to school at four years old and never see them but once or twice a year?
And when the children were at home would he only see them at tea time for a few minutes?
Tom could not imagine such a thing.
If he had children, he would spend every day with them, every hour if possible. He could not imagine letting them go.
The poor? They had so little choice. They were separated from their children and placed in workhouses and prisons. Forced to go to work for long hours, leaving their children in dangerous conditions, they could not choose to give their children care.
The wealthy separated themselves from their children on purpose, sending them to other families, other schools, giving them away to governesses and tutors.
And that was where the cruelness lay, for the children did not know comfort. They knew only the rod, the governess, the nanny, the tutor. He would never allow such a thing to befall his children.
And that was why he did not wish to be an earl.
“You shouldn’t have done it.” he said to the Duke of Blackwood suddenly.
“Why not?” He asked, surprised.
“Because I don’t want it,” Tom said softly, unwilling to hurt his friend.
“It is too late,” Blackwood said with a shrug. “I didn’t do it for you anyway. I did it for Lady Elizabeth.”
“You don’t know Lady Elizabeth.”
Blackwood’s mouth tightened. “You’re correct. But I couldn’t stop thinking of the injustice you shared with me. The casual cruelty of it….”
“You would not rescue her yourself,” Tom put in. “That’s why you did it.”
Blackwood’s mouth tightened even harder. “Perhaps. Perhaps I also knew that you wanted to save her but did not have the means, and I have now supplied them to you. Unless, of course, you wish to spend your life on the run traveling with her, escaping her father’s wrath.”
“What makes you think that her father won’t be wrathful with her married to me.”
Blackwood laughed. “Because you will be Clyde’s neighbor and are already his friend and my friend. My support will be behind you. All my connections will be yours and I’ll make that clear. And as an earl, how can he possibly object, especially since you’ve got more money than half the men in this room.”
Tom flinched. It was true. He was wealthy and if Blackwood had bought him a title, there wouldn’t be much to counter. It wasn’t an easy thing to do to come by a title like that. Blackwood and Clyde had pulled significant strings behind closed doors.
And of course, there had been the incident with Prinny… it could be argued he’d saved the monarchy that night in Covent Garden. But he had blocked most of it from his mind. He’d sworn never to speak of it. And he didn’t wish to now.
Apparently, the Royal Family wanted to ensure it stayed that way.
He was still stunned that the Royals had agreed to elevate him for most lords would do everything they could to keep a man like him out of power. Even though their great, great, great, great grandfathers had been more like Tom than the rest of the ton combined.
Yes, he knew about ambition and battle and power and blood. Many of the men in this room? They knew nothing of it except to battle it out in the ballroom. To battle it out in the sheep that they owned and the cows that they counted and the peasants that they still virtually enslaved on their lands.
Well, if he was going to be an earl, he’d be a damn good one.
He knew that he couldn’t shove it back in Blackwood’s face. Well, hecould, but if he did, it would be damned foolish.
Because this? It would give him even more power to enact the good he sought and make the path to freedom for Lady Elizabeth available.
If… he asked her to marry him. If… she agreed.
She’d wished ruin, not marriage. But if she was his wife? He could protect her forever from men like her father and the other lords of the ton… but only if she wished it.