“I won’t do it,” Lois said, shaking her head.

“Our finances are in ruins. The man has an income and a title. From what I hear, he is not considered unhandsome.”

“You’d marry me to an old man.” It was hard not to sulk; although Lois had known her entire life that she’d wed for the family, there were proprieties that had to be met, lest people talk. She’d have liked to have had a say in her own suitor, and she hadn’t even met him.

“He’s twenty and eight,” her father said. “Hardly in his dotage.”

“Weren’t there rumors?”

“Never proven. His title is solid.”

She knew the man only by reputation. His parents were elderly, and before he’d been born, his mother had miscarried multiple times. If they hadn’t produced an heir, the title would have gone to a hated cousin.

The cousin had been claiming for years that Martha, Lady Kent had miscarried yet again and that they’d replaced the dead child with another.

The fact that no woman in the area was missing a baby after had suggested this was an envious lie.

The cousin had then claimed that a falling star had been seen on the night of Clark of Kent’s birth, proof that he was a demon. He’d lost credibility with that claim, even if there had been unexplained events throughout his teenage years.

“The rumors only help our case,” her father admitted. “We’d never be able to aspire so high if it weren’t for a slightly tainted reputation.”

“So I’m to settle…” Lois said, shaking her head.

She sighed. She’d been dreaming for years of a real man to come save her. She’d spent her teenage years reading the rumors about the Masked Rider; a man who had the mystery of a highwayman, but saved people instead of robbing them.

Her father claimed the rumors were poppycock, as were the penny dreadfuls written about the Rider. In truth, some of the stories she’d read sounded almost supernatural.

In her heart of hearts she knew he was real, and she’d never be able to truly give her heart to an ordinary man.

************

“Isn’t all this hitting a little close to home?” Clark asked, looking over Lois’s shoulder.

“I’ll change the names when I figure out what they are,” Lois said airily. “Besides, the Masked Rider can’t be mistaken for Superman…he’s got a horse.”

“Maybe Superman could have a super horse,” Clark said. “Remember that rat that got Superman’s powers?”

Lois rolled her eyes. “What would Superman do with a Super horse?”

Clark sighed, scanning the pages that followed. He winced. “Do you have to make me a mincing fop?”

“Like I said, it’s not you. He’s playing a role right now and won’t reveal his real self until halfway through the book.”

“You can’t still be mad about the secret thing…” Clark said uneasily.

Lois smirked. “Sometimes revenge is best served cold.”

“So you get revenge by making me look like Liberace and Elton John’s love child?”

“Martha comes off looking like a saint,” Lois said.

Clark stared at her. At least it was better than Wanda Detroit, but it wasn’t high literature by any means.

“I’ve already got a publisher!” Lois said gleefully.

Of course she did.

With Clark’s luck, it’d get optioned as a movie.

He forced himself to smile.

Life as Lois Lane’s boyfriend was never going to be super easy.