Let Me Be The One by Jo Goodman Read Free Book Online Page B

corners. "Something to do with your fiancée?" he asked innocently.
    The marquess could not rouse more indignation than a brief sour look. He sighed and pressed the cool crystal tumbler he was holding against his forehead. The gesture, in anticipation of the headache that was sure to present itself directly, lent him the appearance of being deeply put upon. It was rather too much for the others. They laughed openly.
    "It is all very well that you find my predicament amusing," Eastlyn said. "I assure you, it is not. I am not engaged. I have never been engaged. I have no intention of becoming engaged." He said this as if by rote, in the youthful tones he had once used for declining Latin verbs at Hambrick. "I should like to know how this rumor began."
    Northam and Southerton said in unison, "Marchman."
    "Hah! I don't believe it." He lowered his tumbler. "West might enjoy seeing me in a tangle, but he would not be so cruel as to involve another. This predicament most definitely involves an innocent." He glanced at his friends and saw they were duly sobered by this reminder. "It seems likely that Lady Sophia will hear of our engagement before I can assure her of its falseness. I fear she will be in expectation of a proposal when she sees me. Worse, she may have already found a priest to perform the nuptials. I might be walking into a trap, and while I find her company unexceptional in the extreme, she does not deserve to be treated shabbily."
    Southerton nodded. "You're right, of course."
    Northam added, "West, in fact, is the one who warned us the story was circulating. He was concerned you would hear of it from someone other than one of us. Apparently you did."
    "Lady Caroline took me aside, ostensibly to inquire of the particulars regarding my engagement. I say ostensibly because the Lady Caro seemed more intent on divining the direction of my bedchamber."
    "Did you decline or accept the invitation?" Southerton asked.
    "Declined." Eastlyn shrugged. "Had to. Didn't know how to get there myself. Seems I'm in the east wing on the north side of the house. Or it may be the reverse. Can't understand how it's possible either way. I simply try to keep the courtyard on my left and hope that I'll spy something familiar." He took another swallow of his drink. "In any event, I am resigned to being celibate until it is perfectly clear to the wags that there is no engagement. Lady Sophia deserves that much at least."
    "And how will Mrs. Sawyer feel about that?" Northam asked, referring to Eastlyn's mistress. "She is likely to object, is she not?"
    The marquess pressed the tumbler back to his brow. There was most definitely the beginnings of a headache starting behind his eyes, no matter what his friends believed. "Mrs. Sawyer is no longer under my protection, nor has she been these last twenty days." His long fingers tightened briefly on the tumbler before he removed it to knock back the remainder of his drink. "I had not considered it until now, but Mrs. Sawyer may be the source of the rumor."
    The same thought had occurred to the others. They withheld comment, trusting Eastlyn to know they would lend themselves in any way that was required. Mrs. Sawyer had never been a favorite.
    Eastlyn acknowledged the silence and what it meant with a slight nod. He rose from his comfortable position on the window seat and went to the foot of the bed. He poured himself another drink, then lifted the decanter in question, first at Northam, then Southerton. The viscount accepted the offer while Northam refused.
    "You know," Eastlyn said as he handed over a drink, "North's neatly managed to avoid the subject of Lady Elizabeth."
    "Practices roundaboutation better than anyone I know," Southerton said. "His mama agrees with me."
    "My mother said it first," Northam said quellingly.
    Southerton's smile was genial. "Did she? Then I suppose I agree with her."
    Northam sighed as Eastlyn encouraged the viscount's foolery by laughing."Lady Elizabeth is rather more