How to Impress a Gentleman by Allie Borne Read Free Book Online Page B

asylum?”
    “Because he promised to persuade my father to send Mama to Bath with his aunts. Instead, my father persuaded him to take his money and run.”
    Whitney nodded, thinking. “Men are sometimes a practical lot. I bet he saw that yer father was not to be dissuaded, and not bein’ able to face yer disappointment, decided to make the best of it.”
    “Sir Charles was always a good friend to ye. He just couldn’t bear to let ye down is all, I’m sure.”
    “I can forgive much, Whitney, but cowardess and disloyalty, I will not. Now let’s speak no more of it. I need to return to my guests.”
    It was now clear to Lindsay that Aiden, dashingly handsome and debonair as he was, was not the man she had believed him to be. After all, he actually found Charlotte appealing! No, more to the point, a man marrying for money was not what she desired. Instead, she would be better served to find a young man willing to marry her for her charm and wit.
    If he admired her person, rather than her money, he was much more likely to remain kind and considerate towards her, after he gained control of her dowry. Yet, she would avoid any man that she was predisposed to feel too strongly about. After all, Charles and Aiden had proven painful lessons in love and affection, had they not? It was much safer to marry a man that she felt would make a reliable and steadfast partner, one who hadn’t the magnetic presence necessary to evoke scandalous gossip, or captivate her soul.
    So, why was it, as she settled down at her desk to write her daily journal, that her thoughts continued to settle on the turncoat Charles, making her breasts tingle and her soft spots pulse?
    ~ ~ ~
    Back at his grandparents’ estate, Charles slept fitfully in the tiny guest bed. Could the conversation he had overheard between Lindsay and her maid be true? Had Aiden really betrayed his trust to court Charlotte right under his nose?
    Well, he should’t be surprised. Scarred and grave, he had hardly been the image of a doting and attentive bride groom. He had avoided more events than he had attended with Charlotte, and, even then, barely offered her meager slivers of attention. No wonder she had turned to the overly zealous affections of his ne’er-do-well friend.
    Pride being what it was, Charles would not marry Charlotte now, even if she would have him. A possibility he highly doubted. So, who was he to marry? He needed a young and wealthy bride. A ready dowry was needed to fix up his decrepit estate and a gently raised lady needed to maintain it. Besides, lack of laborers meant many a field lay fallow. If he couldn’t raise the funds to buy grain soon, the cotters would face starvation come winter.
    Aiden’s words from earlier that afternoon echoed in his head, “Charles, I doubt Lindsay had anything to do with her father’s betrayal. Besides, what other choice have I, really? There are few eligible young ladies in these parts. Charlotte and Lindsay are the only two with sizable enough dowries.”
    If what Lindsay told Whitney was true, then she believed he had been the one to betray her. She was under the assumption that her father had bought him a position in the navy, and for that he had given up her mother’s well being. She knew nothing of his being impressed against his will. The epiphany set his mind free, relieving him of his caustic anger towards her. A flood of affection for his age old companion left him feeling giddy with joy. Lindsay had always been his to look after and protect, and she still was.
    Now that he knew she had never betrayed him, a self-righteous sense of outrage for Sir Richard’s actions surged, goading him to take immediate action. How could Sir Richard have sentenced him to four years of hard labor and his wife to long suffering death within a sanatorium? How could he have lied to Linnie, leaving her to feel abandoned in the worst way? His actions were narcissistic at best and sadistic at worst.
    The best way to save his