Married By Midnight by Julianne MacLean Read Free Book Online

arm and skated beside them for the first few unsteady moments.
    The landscape was perfectly white and pristine beneath the clear blue sky. It was an exceptional winter day and Garrett found himself reveling in this drastic change from his life on the hot, sun-bathed island of Santorini—a lonely existence most of the time.
    Exceptionally empty in recent months, but he couldn’t bear to think of that now. He pushed it from his mind.
    Lady Anne was next to step onto the ice. Garrett chuckled softly as she bent forward awkwardly and wobbled to and fro. Soon, however, she was skating smoothly around the inside perimeter of the square and laughing with Charlotte, Rebecca, and Chelsea.
    For a long while he watched her and thought about their conversation in the sleigh. He was surprised by how candid she had been in confessing about her tarnished reputation. Not many women would admit such a thing, and despite the fact that this engagement was a fraud, he found her to be more open and honest than most other women he had met during his life.
    She was not trying to entice him into marriage with her charm; she was instead his partner in crime, so to speak, and he felt rather pleased to have a worldly partner for the duration of this charade. On top of all that, she was a stranger at Pembroke, just like he was. Together they would play out this charade. Then they would each be on their own way.
    Lady Anne slipped just then and fell forward onto her knees. Garrett was about to rush outside when his entire family skated to her side. She was back on her feet in no time, laughing at herself while the duke followed her around in circles, anxiously checking to ensure she was unharmed.
    Anne took his arm and encouraged him to skate beside her, and all was well again.
    With a sudden and surprising readiness, Garrett turned away from the window and moved quickly to fetch his skates and join his family on the lake.
     
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    Anne skated with the duke for quite some time. Mostly he talked about his great passion for flowers and garden design. He also explained how he had been forced to dig up his beloved Italian Gardens the previous spring to protect them from the floods, which he believed to be part of the Pembroke Palace curse.
    Blake and Devon had explained everything to her before she signed the contract, but it was something else entirely to hear the duke describe the situation. He sounded quite convincing and did not appear mad at all, for they had in fact suffered through a terrible spring that year. A number of floods had washed bridges away. There were even a few tragic deaths. She couldn’t blame His Grace for feeling frightened, yet it was clear that he was becoming delusional in his old age. Sometimes Anne’s grandmother believed Anne to be her own older sister, who had been dead for nearly twenty years.
    Anne glanced up when Garrett stepped onto the ice and skated toward Devon. If he hadn’t enjoyed winter activities in years, it was impossible to tell, for he moved with incredible ease and speed. The three brothers began to race around the square while the ladies screeched and laughed as they whizzed by.
    Anne let go of the duke’s arm when he waved a scolding finger at them and shouted, “Now, see here! Someone is going to get hurt!”
    Blake immediately stopped and suggested the others slow down as well, then escorted his father off the ice and back up to the lake house for a cup of cider.
    Anne caught Garrett’s gaze from across the distance and he skated toward her. A flash of heat rushed through her body as he drew closer.
    Somehow he was becoming more handsome by the minute. She loved how he moved. He was graceful and strong, so at ease on his skates.
    His blades scraped over the ice and sent up a flurry of snow as he stopped before her.
    “ Are you enjoying yourself?” he asked with a charming sparkle in his eye.
    “ Yes, and you?”
    “ Immensely so. Shall we skate together? No doubt Father