Newport Summer by Nikki Poppen Read Free Book Online Page B

said after a while. “That day
on the beach, you were honest, while I was not. You
have confided a bit in me, and now I find that I must
confide a bit in you. You were right a moment ago when
you said I wasn’t entirely truthful with you. I am here
heiresshunting. I mean to find a rich wife so that I can
save Camberly and my family.”
    It was just as she’d thought. But hearing the words
didn’t make Audrey feel triumphant. There was no glory
in being right. She hadn’t wanted him to be an heiresshunter any more than he apparently wanted to be one.
Instead of wanting to recoil in disgust, Audrey felt the
sorrow that was so evident in his voice.

    Instinctively, she reached for his hand where it lay on his thigh. She squeezed it gently. “I am sorry to hear
that. You must love Camberly very much.”
    “With all my being,” he said simply.
    She nodded. She knew what that felt like. She
loved the piano the same way, as if the instrument itself was her heart, but that was not a secret she could
tell yet.
    “You don’t want to marry an heiress?” she ventured.
    Gannon shook his head. “Will you keep my secret if
I tell you? I want to marry someone who recommends
herself to me beyond her bank account. Money is only
money, as necessary as it is.”
    Audrey crossed her arms and sat back against the
bench, irrationally liking the earl more and more as their
conversation progressed. “It seems we are not such dissimilar creatures, Gannon Maddox. Neither of us is in a
hurry to marry, but both of us are being forced to it by
circumstances not of our making.”
    Gannon leaned back to join her, turning his head to
the side so she could see the mischief playing in his
mossy eyes. “What do you propose we do about that?”
    Audrey smiled back, feeling better than she had all
night. “I’ll let you know. I am working on a plan that
will see you rich and unshackled at summer’s end”
    “And what about you?” Gannon asked. “What do you
get for all your machinations?”
    “The only thing I’ve ever really wanted.” Audrey
stood up and shook out her skirts, carefully looping the long train about her wrist. “Now, come inside and dance
with me, so everyone knows all is well.”

    Once inside, Gannon led her to the dance floor and
fitted his strong hand against her back, moving them into
the waltz with ease. “Tell me, Audrey,” he asked, turning
them at the top of the ballroom, “what is the only thing
you’ve ever really wanted?”
    She laughed up at him. “Why, my freedom, of course”

Gannon watched the ocean rolling, blue and endless,
from the wide bank of windows of the well-appointed
sitting room the Carringtons had given him to use as an
office of sorts during his stay. A half smile played at his
lips as he reread the simple note that had arrived for him
that morning-all two sentences of it-written in her
forthright manner.
    Audrey St. Clair had a plan. She would discuss it with
him at the polo match later that afternoon.
    Her letter was the best piece of correspondence he’d
received. A plan that salvaged Camberly without requiring his matrimonial sacrifice would be ideal. But patently
unlikely. It was fantastical to think that a twenty-year-old
woman would have the answers he’d spent years looking
for. Furthermore, he had no business trusting someone he hardly knew with such an important situation. He preferred the word important to dire, which was, unfortunately, just as accurate.

    The other letter he’d received was from Garrett,
posted during the latter week Gannon was at sea. Creditors had been highly concerned about the earl’s absence
from the country. Garrett assured him he’d scotched
those concerns before they could become dangerous rumors. Yet such news was a sharp reminder of his purpose in Newport. The lure of Miss Audrey St. Clair was
not a distraction he could afford.
    Still, even knowing better, he could not banish the
images of the prior