Promise Me Forever by Lorraine Heath Read Free Book Online Page B

admitted.
    “He thought the drier climate might help his wife’s health improve,” Ravenleigh said. “I suppose it has.”
    “All I really know are the rumors floatingaround. Montgomery is getting quite a reputation as a lawman. I hear they’re writing another book about him.”
    Ravenleigh chuckled. “It seems an odd twist of fate for a man who was sent to Texas because of the scandals he created here at home. My brother and his friends have done remarkably well for themselves.”
    “I can’t argue with that.”
    Ravenleigh studied him for a minute. “Kit and his friends kept me apprised of your various accomplishments. You’ve done extremely well for yourself by all accounts.”
    Tom nodded, gazed back at his glass. “Considering the odd journey my life has taken. I’m comfortable in Texas. I can’t say the same for this stretch of the world.”
    “You’ll adapt and grow accustomed to it. I have no doubt about that.”
    “You gave me a leg up when I needed it. I owe you for that.”
    “Yes, well, I owe you for my present family. If not for your misconduct, I might have never met my Elizabeth.”
    Tom peered up at him. “She’s changed considerably since I knew her.”
    Ravenleigh appeared somber. “They all have, Tom. Adjusting to my way of life was much harder on them than I anticipated it would be. I fully expected Lauren to be more sympathetic with yourpresent plight, but it appears she has her own plans to see to. Samantha might be willing to assist you in learning your way around a ballroom.”
    Only Tom didn’t want Samantha helping him. He wanted Lauren, wanted an opportunity to get to know her again, to know the woman she’d become, wanted her to get to know him, the man he’d become. Wanted to see if he could change her mind about remaining in England—at least for a time.
    “I haven’t totally given up on Lauren helping me.”
    Ravenleigh nodded sagely as though he understood the undercurrent of emotion in Tom’s voice. “It appears I may have not understood fully what it cost Lauren to move here.”
    “What it cost us both,” Tom said quietly.
     
    “Do you know what they’re saying about Tom?” Samantha asked.
    “That he’s devilishly handsome, frightfully uncivilized, and incredibly wealthy,” Lauren said, looking her gowns over, wondering why she cared so much what she wore to dinner, why she felt an almost uncontrollable need to make a favorable impression on Tom. Tom. The Earl of Sachse. She could hardly wrap her mind around that fact. “Lady Blythe and friends dropped by this afternoon to see what I could reveal about the new lord.”
    “Were they here when he arrived?”
    “Yes.”
    “And?”
    She glanced over her shoulder to look at Samantha, who was sitting on her bed with an expectant gleam in her eyes. “And what?”
    “What happened?”
    “What do you think happened? He was wearing trousers, which was enough to make Lady Blythe begin acting silly.”
    “Did Lady Cassandra demonstrate one of her infamous swoons?”
    “No, thankfully.”
    “Is Lady Blythe going to set her sights on Tom, do you think?”
    “I don’t know. I didn’t realize he was Sachse until after they left. Had she known that, I have little doubt that she would have made far more obvious advances than she did.”
    “How do you feel about that?”
    “About what?”
    “Oh, Lauren, don’t be so difficult, echoing my every question. You can’t deny that you’ve always held out a smidgen of hope that he’d come for you. You’ve turned away every lord who has asked for your hand. You either did that because you were waiting for Tom or because you had no wish to marry a lord.”
    A little bit of both, perhaps, Lauren thought as she moved away from the wardrobe and stretched outon the fainting couch near the foot of her bed. Her headache was returning with a vengeance. Perhaps she’d stay upstairs for the evening. She certainly had no desire to suffer through her sister’s inquisition,