Jo Beverley - [Rogue ] by Christmas Angel Read Free Book Online Page B

I was born in Istanbul, raised in many places with English attendants, and educated at Harrow. I did not go up to university here but spent brief spells at Utrecht, Lucerne, and Rome. I served with Lord Silchester, mainly in Russia, before joining the Guards. I fought in the Peninsular, and then at Waterloo. I was wounded three times but only slightly. I have scars but no lingering disability."
    Judith looked at him during this astonishing recital thinking that this surely must be a fevered dream.
    Matching his tone, she said, "My dear sir, I am twenty-nine. I will be thirty in two months. I have two children and have never been more than fifty miles from this spot. I have no remarkable features or accomplishments other than housewifery. What can you possibly want with me?"
    He was undisturbed and even smiled. He gestured to a chair. "Please, Mrs. Rossiter, be seated." When they were settled he said, "As I told you yesterday, I wish to marry you. I cannot explain my reasons in full but I assure you there is nothing in them that will be to your disadvantage. To be blunt, I wish to marry and settle down, and I do not want a bride who will expect more from me than I am able to give."
    Judith's instincts told her he was telling the truth insofar as it went, but she could hardly believe it. She was almost afraid to believe it. She had not admitted to herself how much her situation frightened her until now when a door was just possibly being opened, being opened to a blindingly bright future. "And what is it that you are able to give, my lord?"
    He considered it carefully. "Respect, care, and kindness."
    What more could anyone want? "And what will I be expected to give in return?"
    "I hope for the same, but the bare minimum of good manners will suffice."
    She took in a deep breath. "You ask so little. I must question this."
    He raised his brows."Very well then. You will curtsy to me when meeting, prepare my food with your own hands, and dance naked before the fire for me every night."
    She thought she saw teasing humor in his eyes, but she wasn't entirely sure. It was nervousness that made her laugh at his words. "Can you not make it make better sense of it for me, my lord?"
    He raised a hand in an expressive gesture of helplessness. Really, he spoke with his hands in a way she had never seen before. "It makes me sound a coxcomb," he said. "But... I have always had the talent of putting people at their ease. It was partly inherited, for my father possessed it, but growing up in diplomatic circles honed it. That upbringing also gave me, I am told, a Continental air which Englishmen distrust, and Englishwomen admire. I did not realize until recently, however, that my talent and my air appear to have a somewhat devastating effect on susceptible young Englishwomen."
    "They swoon at the sight of you?" she asked skeptically. He was an attractive man, but hardly stunning.
    "That, thank heavens, happened only once. But they lose their hearts with alarming frequency."
    She stared. "Someone actually swooned at your feet?"
    He smiled in self-derision. "Devilish embarrassing. I was escaping an amorous heiress and thought I'd be safe with a very dull-looking wallflower. I asked her to dance. She stood, took two steps, and passed out."
    "Well at least you are trained to handle the vapors," she remarked, and his lips twitched in acknowledgment of her sally.
    He shook his head. "In this case, I flunked. Her chaperone rushed to attend her and I slipped away. In fact, I slipped away to Hartwell."
    Judith felt sorry for them both. "You do realize she had probably been watching you from afar, weaving private romantic dreams, safe in the knowledge that you would never even notice her existence. The reality was just too much."
    "I suppose that's how it was," he said with a grimace, "but you can see why I fled. Apart from anything else I have no taste for hurting people. In fact I have an aversion to it. In the circles in which I grew up, hurt feelings