Married By Midnight by Julianne MacLean Read Free Book Online Page A

will be watching at the windows.”
    Anne took hold of his arm. “Then let us put on a good show for him.”
    Together they began at a slow pace while the others stood around the center of the square, chatting casually. Then all at once, they left in a group to return to the lake house.
    It grew quiet all of a sudden, except for the sound of their blades scraping over the smooth surface of the ice.
    “ I suppose you are missing your boat,” Anne said. “I imagine it probably skates across the water just like this when you are at full sail in a strong wind.”
    He looked down. “That is a very accurate description, but no, I am not missing it.” He said no more about it, and instead changed the subject. “But since you told me about your past and why you decided to accept my brothers’ offer, I thought you might be wondering why I have chosen this path, instead of doing what most men do at my age—which is to take a wife in an honest fashion.”
    Anne glanced up at him. “You said you were doing it for the money.”
    “ But you never asked why.”
    She let go of his arm, skated ahead, then turned to reverse her direction and skate backwards, facing him. “It sounds like you want to tell me, but if you do, I insist you acknowledge that I did not wrestle it out of you, or even ask.”
    He regarded her curiously. “Why would you insist on such a thing?”
    “ Because you made it clear that you do not want a bride who wants to lure you into a real marriage. I do not wish to be that sort of woman either, so I shall keep my distance. I will not press you to share too many personal details. That will make it easier for us both to sever all ties afterward.”
    “ You have this very well thought out, Anne.”
    She skated into the center of the ice and stopped there, out of breath. “Not really.”
    He followed and skated around her in a full circle.
    “ I believe my brothers chose the perfect woman for me,” he said. “Not only are you beautiful, but you are sensible as well, and I admire that.”
    She watched him warily. “Don’t be too quick to admire me, sir, for I am far from perfect. I am marrying a man for money after all—a man I hardly know. But anything would have been better than the dismal future I faced at my uncle’s hands.”
    Garrett skated to a halt before her. “I am glad you will no longer be at his mercy.”
    She sniffed in the cold and looked across the lake at the snowy forest on the other side, then met his eyes again. “And still, you have not told me why you want the money. I presumed you simply wished to continue living a life of leisure on the Mediterranean...but now I am not so sure, because you wouldn’t have brought it up if that were the case. I think there is something else to it.”
    He skated around her again, keeping his eyes lowered, as if thinking about something.
    Good God, but he was handsome in the sunlight. Her heart raced with excitement as she watched him.
    He stopped abruptly and explained himself. “I lost my boat,” he said. “It sank and I... I lost everything.”
    “ My word,” she replied. “Were you on board when it happened? Were you hurt? Was anyone with you?”
    He began to skate back and forth again. “I was alone,” he explained, “and luckily unharmed, for I was able to stay afloat on a life ring until I was picked up by another vessel a few hours later.”
    She watched him with curiosity and sensed he was not telling her the whole truth. “Well, that is a relief,” she replied nonetheless. “Still, it must have been very frightening.”
    “ It is not something I would care to repeat. I am not even sure I will ever sail again.” He looked down at the ice and skated in a large figure eight, skating backwards on the second loop. “Even now I am imagining the dark, freezing water that is swirling around beneath this ice. I keep wondering what would happen if it cracked under us and we fell through. You would probably sink to the bottom in those