ARROGANT BRIT (A BRITISH BAD BOY ROMANCE) (23 page)

Nobody said a word.

“The worst part of it,” he continued, “is
that Mother’s always wanted more than what you’ve given her… you’ve alienated
her from her family. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. Your
obsession
with English high society has blinded you, Father… and in
your blindness, you’ve separated your wife from her only legacy. What do you
have to say for yourself?”

Raleigh’s cold exterior iced over.

“Fuck you, William.”

He turned to Riana. “We’re leaving.”

“No, I don’t believe so.”

Dalton and William’s jaws practically dropped.
Apparently, Riana Carlyle had never publicly defied her husband.

“Excuse me?” He asked, rounding on her.

“Raleigh, this has gone on long enough,” she
wearily muttered. “Out of blindness, I allowed you to block our son from the
inheritance… but our grandson? You want to default our wealth to the
Crown
? No, that just won’t do.”

Her husband turned purple with fury, but he
didn’t move a muscle. She rose up from her chair, walking past him to confront
my beloved. I moved to step away, but he kept my fingers locked into his, and
so we both faced her together.

“Dalton, there is something that you were
never told about the Carlyle Fortune… something that
neither
of you were told,” she began, turning to William as well.
“You see… Raleigh was never the inheritor of our family’s money.”

“I don’t understand,” William replied.

Riana smiled. “I was.”

“But… how?” Dalton asked. “Raleigh Carlyle
carries the family name… how did you…?”

“Simple, really,” she continued. “I was born
Riana Carlyle, and I married one Raleigh Fisher. The original Carlyle will
dictates that the family name must always survive, and so Raleigh adopted my
surname, instead of the other way around. Therefore… Raleigh never truly
controlled the inheritance at all.”

William and Dalton seemed to take this
particularly hard. “But… that means…”

“That’s right,” Riana sighed. “I should have
intervened before, but I was wrapped up in Raleigh’s misguided thoughts on how
the money should be handled… William, I am so very sorry. You earned your right
to the money back, and I stood by and allowed this transgression against you to
continue.”

“I forgive you, Mother,” he smiled faintly.
“I prefer this life without it. I’ve supported myself ever since then, married
a wonderful woman, and raised a strong and capable son… I couldn’t ask for much
more.”

“And so you have,” Riana agreed. “And on the
topic of this
strong and capable son
of
yours…”

She paused, casting Raleigh a quick glance.
He didn’t budge or open his mouth, and so she glanced over at Dalton once more.

“You tell us that you love this young woman…
a young woman who is
not only
significantly
beneath yourself in age, but your
stepsister
…
I am bound by the laws of Reginald Carlyle’s will, as evidenced by the Crown.
Your love for her is a disgrace to the family, as Raleigh so elegantly put it
earlier… are you willing to forsake your inheritance for her?”

“I am,” Dalton answered, without skipping a
beat. “Forgive my disgrace, Grandmother, but I cannot help the woman I love…
and I’m willing to give it all away for her.”

“I see,” Riana observed coolly. “Well, that
is certainly your decision to make, and I commend you for sticking to your
convictions, no matter the cost. I daresay noone in this room can argue with
you any longer.”

She gave a meaningful glance to my mother,
who quietly simmered in response.

“…But I suppose I am at some liberty to say
that there are some… extenuating circumstances, in the event of something like
this.”

Dalton lit up. “Such as…?”

“The original patriarch of the Carlyle
Fortune, your ancestor Reginald, had a second will drafted… one that was able
to counteract the first,” she answered. “One that was
also
signed by the Crown, with a later date to prove successive
displacement of the original terms. There’s a slight amendment to the way the
inheritance works.”

The entire room hung on every word.

“As it were, Reginald Carlyle sympathized
with his older brother Abner more than history recalled. It turns out that, not
only did the disgraced Windsor-Carlyle truly love the Crown Princess, but
Reginald foresaw this possibility happening in the bloodline again. It turns
out that the man believed very firmly in destiny. ”

Dalton and I shared a meaningful look.

“Once five hundred years had passed, the
terms of the
second
will were to be
followed… they stipulated that, in the event of the money defaulting to the
Crown over a matter of
love
, no
matter how disgraceful, all money and resources would default to the otherwise
rightful inheritor, and the terms and conditions of the Carlyle Fortune would
henceforth be disbanded.”

Raleigh’s lips quivered. “You don’t mean…”

“That’s correct,” Riana Carlyle smiled. “As
it turns out, the 500
^th
anniversary was approximately two decades
ago. The moment you disavowed Dalton Carlyle his inheritance, and he proved in
front of us all that he would gladly turn down the money and power to be with
this young woman… our grandson won.”

Everyone was silent.

“Dalton, I must appeal to you now,” Riana
spoke, stepping forward and taking his free hand in both of hers. “The Carlyle
Fortune is no more, and the money is yours. The family attorneys will see to
the succession with you. I ask, my darling grandson, that you allow us a
stipend to continue living on, and that you give us time to move out of your
rightful manor.”

“Grandchildren typically spend some time in
their grandparents’ homes,” Dalton answered. “A weekend here, a week there, to
get to know those before them. There’s a certain familial bond to the practice.
However… I’ve never slept in Carlyle Manor. That mansion is just another
oversized, overblown dot on the English countryside to me. I have no personal
attachment to it, or ambitions for it.

“Feel free to keep the manor. I’ll let you
have whatever money you need, so long as it defaults back to me in the end.”

Riana bowed her head graciously. “Thank you,
Dalton. I deeply appreciate that.”

Her husband looked positively defeated. He
sank back down into his chair, staring off into space miserably.

It was William who spoke next. Loud enough
for everyone to hear, he turned to my mother and mentioned offhandedly: “You
know, Sarah, he wouldn’t be a bad son-in-law to have…”

“And why is that?” Mom snapped.

“Well, besides convincing all of us that he
loves your daughter with every fiber of his being, and that he’ll protect her
until his dying breath… Dalton just became a multi-millionaire.”

Epilogue

I glance over my shoulder at Clara as she’s
ordering us some lunch on my card. With a small, affectionate smirk, I turn
back in front, kicking back at the café table. The crisp air hits me while my
eyes gaze around at our surroundings, and I feel refreshed by its touch.

Long-since indoctrinated military instincts
kick in as I continue to lazily survey the immediate surroundings, scanning for
threats while out of the States.
All
clear
, I think to myself.

My thoughts mellow out, and I appreciate the
architecture of the surrounding buildings from this street-level vantage point.
My Marine friends were right – Paris is
beautiful
this time of year.

Six months has passed since that fateful
meeting with our entire family. In the intervening time, we’ve finished up our
semester at college before pulling out for the following term in advance. We
still intend on finishing our degrees, but we thought we’d take a quick detour
first.

You see, Clara and I decided to travel the
world together after all.

I love how well Clara has adapted to this
life. Once she let go of her comfort zone and hopped into this adventure with
me, if you’d believe it, she became even more beautiful to me.

The best part is that I don’t have to do this
alone. In my deepest dreams, I’d never thought I’d have someone by my side
through this journey, someone reliable whom I loved with all my heart. I’m
willing to put an expiration date on this voyage to come back to the States and
see her through the rest of her education… and I guess the rest of mine, too.

I haven’t quite decided what I’m focusing on,
but that’s sort of not an issue for me.

Despite his wishes to the contrary, I
separated out and dispersed a large portion of the Carlyle Fortune for Father
and Sarah. After all, it should have been his from the start. It took a while
for them both to come around – Father was comfortable without it, and Sarah was
still acclimating to my relationship with her daughter. However, we had put
things behind us, and we definitely were on the road to a healthy in-law
relationship.

Naturally, I left my grandparents a large
chunk of the money to continue living on, and they are free to keep Carlyle
Manor as well. I have no intentions of maintaining that dusty old mansion when
they die, but I’ve been giving some thought to converting it into an
international home for shell-shocked war veterans. I haven’t quite worked out
the logistics, although the lawyers I’ve consulted have told me that it’s
probably rather doable.

With all of that said, you’ll have to forgive
me. There’s something
far
more
important than money on my mind right now.

The great Bill Murray once told a
twenty-something at his bachelor party that the best way to prove you found the
right woman is to walk the world with her for months, roughing it and relying
on each other at your darkest or most miserable. When you arrive back at the
final airport, if you still love her, marry her on the spot.

With only a couple of months under our belts,
I had all the convincing I needed. That’s why my fingers are sliding around
this ring box in my pocket right now – because tonight, we’re going to be
watching fireworks from atop a German castle.

I’m proposing to her, right there and then.

Natalie had even commended me via text
message on my choice of ring… and was eagerly waiting to hear the news. As much
as she’d done to be in my corner of the ring when it came to Clara… I just
couldn’t exclude her from that part.

The future that we have ahead is bright and
full of wonder. I’m already wondering where we’ll go when our schooling is
over.

No matter what happens, or what lies ahead
for us… we know that we have the support of our family, the warmth of each
other’s love, and the strength to circumvent any obstacle.

Clara and I will face that future down.

Together.

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