Bared to the Viscount (The Rites of May Book 1) by Lara Archer Read Free Book Online

the Lawton girls. They’ve put off their Seasons waiting for you—Miss Lawton for three whole years! I know for a fact she’s turned down at least two very eligible suitors, both of whom have now married other girls. How many other chances has she wasted on your account? If you don’t marry her, people may think she’s on the shelf!”
    John heaved a deep breath behind her. Clearly, he knew she was right to chide him.
    “And then for you to go and marry the vicar’s sister?” she said. “A girl with no charms at all, when you had such pretty brides available to you? You know what everyone will assume.”
    “I don’t care what anyone assumes.”
    She turned to face him, and was instantly startled. John, who had been kneeling on the floor last she looked at him, now stood just inches away, towering over her. He must have got up without a sound, and now loomed so close, she could smell the wool of his coat. The spoon dropped from her fingers and clattered to the slate floor.
    His eyes locked on hers, but with determination, not with passion. He was being very stiff-spined now. Dutiful. A soldier. “I only care about doing what’s right.”
    “Well, I care what people assume! They’ll assume I seduced you, for why would a man like you seduce a girl like me? They’ll assume I used some shameless trickery. And they’ll assume we did….far worse than what we did.”
    “What we did was enough.” The memory did not seem to please him. No, he looked utterly miserable, like a trapped animal.
    “ Think , John!” she pleaded. “If people think me a hussy, Thomas won’t be able to hold his head up in the pulpit. He may be asked to leave his position as vicar. He could be ruined.”
    That at least made him avert his eyes for a moment, his expression abashed. But he gathered himself deliberately. “We still must do what’s right. I compromised you, Mary…in—in the sight of God.”
    “God has seen far worse, believe me.”
    “Not from me. Not from you.” He blinked suddenly. “Unless you’ve ever….”
    “No! Certainly not! I’ve never done anything like that before!”
    “Thank goodness.” The relief on his face was palpable.
    Oh, dear. He was a good man. A very decent man. And he didn’t want to be in this position at all.
    And why should he be? He hadn’t chosen it. A stand of vicious blackberry vines and an over-curious spinster had trapped him into it.
    But he wasn’t backing down. His face looked dreadfully pale, but determined. “Your own brother is a man of God. If his household doesn’t do what’s right, whose will?”
    “I’ll tell you what I know from being a clergyman’s daughter, and a clergyman’s sister. All my life, when people in this village have been in trouble, when they’ve transgressed, when they’ve done wrong by their marriage vows, they’ve come here. To this kitchen. Often in the middle of the night. You think I haven’t heard the confessions over the years? My bed chamber is just above this kitchen. What you and I have done is nothing compared to half of what I’ve heard. Nothing , John.”
    He looked almost insulted. “That was nothing to you?”
    A pang went through her heart. She didn’t want to think about what it had meant to her. She couldn’t think of that. All that mattered now was setting him free from the trap she’d inadvertently sprung on him.
    She moved out from between him and the sink and went to the cupboard for her tea-strainer, setting it over the best teacup just as if they had nothing more to discuss than which workmen to hire for the school roof repair.
    “Do you know Lady Ellerby, who’s leased Rosemere Cottage?” she said. “Did you know she had to leave London because she’d been having simultaneous affairs with the Prince Regent and the Duke of York, and the brothers nearly fought a duel over her? I’m not violating the sanctity of the confessional, either. She told me so herself, over tea. She seemed rather proud of