Swann knew that Verity had no dowry, and he was going to marry her anyways, and — and this last part was, perhaps, more important to Noble — he had not told anyone. Noble took a sip of gin and mulled this over. He wished he could believe that this was a unilateral good thing. He nearly wished that there was something obviously wrong with Swann. If Swann was a confirmed bachelor, or something, then at least Noble would know why he wanted to get married so quickly.

"Maybe he met her when Papa — when father was still alive," Noble suggested, although it was obvious from his tone that he did not entirely believe it. "If we had more time I'd try to look into it, but —" he shrugged helplessly. It wasn't that they couldn't delay this wedding, it was that if Clem came out before Verity was married, they were fucked. It was that they had gotten lucky with Verity's kidnapping already. It was that Swann had saved her at the Sanditon, and maybe this was good — maybe they were looking a gift horse in the mouth.

He couldn't talk himself into it.

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