“Ah.”
She glanced at him. Tell me I’ll be lucky if he offers for me.
Mr. Kane didn’t. He frowned and said nothing.
As if from nowhere, rage surged inside her. “Mr. Quartley wants an heir, and my uncle thinks I may be able to provide him with one because of my childbearing hips.” I am not a piece of livestock, Uncle, I am a person. There is more to me than the width of my hips! Mattie laughed, an angry sound. “What he seems to have forgotten is that Stricklands don’t breed well. My Aunt Marchbank never fell pregnant and my mother succeeded only once, and that after ten years of marriage.”
Mr. Kane glanced at her, but said nothing.
Mattie’s anger died away. In its place was mortification. “I apologize,” she said again, ashamed. She should never have said such things to a man who she bar
