Engaged in Passion (A Bridal Favors Novella) by Jade Lee Read Free Book Online

husband. That if I spent my time with them, I would marry a man like they did."
    "Someone not an aristocrat."
    She nodded.
    Anthony understood. Or at least he guessed. After all, Mr. Richards's tirades were legendary among his employees. The man was anxious to the point of paranoia, undeterred by logic or reason when it came to whatever goal he set. According to Anthony's father, Mr. Richards had started with nothing, but thanks to his shrewd eye and his dogged attention to every detail, his business had grown to be the largest, most successful millinery in London. Everyone bought hats from him. And baubles. And trim. Everyone in London.
    What would it be like to be that man's only daughter? After all, the only way Mr. Richards would find a place among the aristocracy would be if she married up. And clearly, that was his plan for her. No doubt, Mr. Richards had been obsessive about every aspect of her life. She was obviously another asset to him, as precious as the famous artisan hatmakers he employed, except he couldn't fire her if she didn't measure up. He would simply become more restrictive, more obsessive about every moment of her day.
    "When did he declare that you would marry into the peerage?" What had she said at the party? From the time she was six? "Has he been directing your friends and your life to that one goal for the last twenty years?"
    She nodded, and he could tell she understood the direction of his thoughts. "A girl should be a benefit to her parents and her husband," she said, much as a child would recite multiplication tables.
    "And has he told you that you are? Does he understand that he has set you an impossible task?"
    "It's not impossible!" she said, though the moment the words left her, she appeared to deflate. "At least it wouldn't be impossible if I were prettier. Pretty girls marry up all the time."
    "But you are pretty. You are beautiful! The fault is not in you, but in all the rest."
    She looked up, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. But he saw hope there, too. Hope that he had an answer for her. Hope that she was not as lost as she seemed to think.
    "Why would you tell me this?" she asked, and he heard an echo of her father's suspicion.
    He bit his lip. He didn't have an answer for her. In truth, he'd been asking himself the same question, though in a different form. Why could he not leave her alone? Why did he insist on torturing himself when she could never be his?
    "Because it is the truth," he finally said. "Because my father probably tortured you as well."
    She looked away. "He just reported my actions to my father."
    "And then you were punished, weren't you?"
    "I deserved it."
    "You deserved someone better than my father to teach you sums. You deserved a real father. That's why you tortured my father, isn't it? Because your father spent more time with him than he did with you."
    She frowned, obviously thinking back, reviewing in her mind her thoughts and actions. "I..." She bit her lip. "They would work together for hours and hours. I could hear them laughing sometimes. And then when it was done, when Papa came out from his study, he would..."
    Anthony felt his gut tighten at the stricken look on her face. How could a father be so cruel? "What, Francine?" He reached out and touched the backs of her hands. They were clenched so tight, he had to try and soothe them somehow.
    "Nothing," she whispered. "He would do nothing. He walked on by as if I didn't exist. Day after day after month after year. Even when I tried to speak to him, to show him, to do anything, he just walked by me—unless he remembered something, and then he would speak to your father."
    Anthony sighed. It made perfect sense to him. He had no idea whether or not Mr. Richards loved his daughter. He did not know the man well enough. But he did know that the man was not one for tender emotions. And he certainly would not have had time for a little girl with no value to him except in her ability to marry up years later.
    He was