Chapter Text
“Dear Reader,
Today I serve nothing but news of a most shocking and delightful kind. The impenitent bachelor Lord Babington, who walked the streets of London for a whopping thirteen years without even entertaining the idea of sharing his immense wealth and lavish list of estates with a woman is finally considering matrimony!
Last night This Author heard that Duchess Babington is organizing a ball, and plans to invite the crème de la crème of London’s catalogue of debutantes and heiresses. Every ambitious mama is now out to flatter the Babingtons to procure an invite, so their daughters have a chance at becoming Lord Babington’s personal Cinderella, lifted from a dull life into a life of unimaginable luxury!
Your faithful reporter,
Lady Whistledown”
James Babington sat in a stuffy dark red library together with his mother and his sisters Agatha, Beatrice, Cecily and Delilah, and one very tired old lawyer who was one of his father’s college friends.
The old man sighed, taking off his glasses and massaging his nose.
‘The thing is, you see, the estate is entailed. Your father and I drew up his testament without looking at the entailment papers because we thought the entailment did not go against the testament as he designed it.’
‘Alright but… I am the only legitimate son of my father, so why is it unfortunate? I can perfectly inherit it.’
‘Yes, you are but… you can’t inherit it. Yet.’
‘I beg your pardon? I’m of age. What is keeping me?’
‘Well…’
The old man sighed, putting his glasses back on and shooting him another sorry look. Now, Babington knew why he’d been looking apologetic. There were issues with the inheritance.
‘Your lack of a wife.’
‘What?’
‘The entailment specifies that the estate goes to the nearest married male relative.’
Am I still drunk and lying in a gutter having a fever dream right now? Babington wondered.
‘So I’m not… I’m… I’m disinherited? Is that what you are saying?’
‘No. At least, not yet.’
‘Not yet?’
‘We can keep it secret for a while.’
‘Isn’t that illegal?’
‘It would be, if your father were dead. The will goes into action the moment your father dies. After that we could maybe delay the inevitable for a couple of days, but then we’d have to make the clauses known. Or we could all be prosecuted.’
‘But that could be in a couple of days’, Lady Babington stammered.
‘Or weeks’, Delilah said, offering a hopeful outlook.
‘Or months, he could recover’, Agatha said.
‘No, the doctor said those chances were very slim. He might stay like this for a couple of months, but he’ll never recover’, Delilah said.
All Babingtons were quiet, processing the news.
‘So…’
‘We need to find you a wife’, Cecily said. ‘And fast.’