Читать книгу Lady Traveller's Guide To Happily Ever After - Victoria Alexander, Victoria Alexander - Страница 14

VIOLET JOTTED DOWN another idea regarding refurbishment of the house in the notebook beside her plate, ignoring James’s entry into the breakfast room. She’d retired to her room the moment their guests had left last night, once again politely declining James’s invitation to join him in the library.

“Good morning,” he said in a pleasant enough manner, bypassing the table for the breakfast offerings on the sideboard.

“Good morning,” she murmured, her gaze still on the page before her.

“I trust you slept well.”

“Quite well, thank you.” In truth she’d barely slept a wink. Dinner with Mrs. Higginbotham and her friends had driven home just how difficult and challenging the next three years would be. Beyond that, she couldn’t get James’s suggestion that they be friends again out of her head. Their friendship had once been the first step toward heartbreak. She would not make that mistake again. Polite cordiality while maintaining an aloof distance was the right path to take if Violet was to survive the next three years with her heart intact.

She really hadn’t considered the game they’d be playing. They would be together continually, pretending to be a happy couple. More than once through the long hours of the night she had revisited her decision to adhere to the conditions of Uncle Richard’s will. And more than once she had aimed disgruntled comments toward Uncle Richard in the hereafter.

Most annoying of all was that his uncle had put James’s future squarely in Violet’s hands. Which did seem only right, all things considered, but was still a nasty burden to bear. Unless Violet was mistaken, James had no idea she had financial resources of her own.

Before their wedding, Uncle Richard had set up a private trust for Violet that, according to the terms of their marriage agreement and the myriad papers she and James had both signed, was to be hers and hers alone. A few years ago, Violet had asked Richard if he had provided her with her own financial security because he didn’t trust his nephew. Richard had simply said James was a good man who would one day also be reliable, dependable and responsible. Until then, Violet’s private finances were a reserve against disaster. A reserve Richard was confident she would never need. Indeed Violet had never touched any of the money and the trust had grown to a tidy fortune thanks to clever investing and sage advice.