Scandalous Wager: A Whitechapel Wagers Novella by Christy Carlyle Read Free Book Online Page A

certainly is thinking of marriage. She’s just told
us she has accepted Mr. Pratt’s offer.” She squeezed Eleanor’s hand. “I believe
congratulations are in order.”
    “Do you really offer congratulations so lightly, Lizzy? After all
the discussions we have had on the subject?”
    Lizzy hated that Mary spoke as if Eleanor wasn’t even at the
table, but Ellie seemed to take it in stride. Always the quietest of the bunch,
she simply sat and beamed. Marriage, or at least the prospect of it, seemed
wholly agreeable to her.
    “Mary, we discuss many issues and perhaps too often consider the
worst possibilities. I know nothing of Mr. Pratt, but I look forward to meeting
him. And I don’t offer my congratulations lightly. I offer it wholeheartedly. I
am happy for you, dear Ellie.”
    Mary hesitated only a moment before taking Ellie’s other hand. “I
wish only for your happiness, Eleanor. I’m simply not certain you will find it
in the shackles of marriage.”
    Eleanor responded to Mary’s first sentence and ignored her last.
“And I yours, both of you.” Her soft voice rang with sincerity and her joy was
infectious.
    Lizzy and Mary released Ellie’s hands and the three women reached
for their teacups in an impromptu toast to the future Mr. and Mrs. Pratt. With
harmony restored in their little circle, Lizzy expected the conversation to
return to a discussion of the meeting they had just attended. But Eleanor
steered the conversation back to her betrothed and the topic of marriage.
    “I assure you Mr. Pratt is an exception to whatever fears we have
expressed about matrimony and its effects on women.”
    “You’re not married to him yet.” Mary’s dubious tone drew a
patient smile from Eleanor.
    “Very true, Mary, but we have discussed our future many times—our
hopes and expectations. He respects my work. In fact, we plan to work
side-by-side running the inn his father has left him. I would no more ask him
to forego his work than he would ask me to quit mine.”
    Lizzy knew that Ellie’s bookkeeping skills, gained from years of
experience in her father’s shop, would serve her well as an innkeeper’s wife.
    “And does he support suffrage for women?” It seemed Mary was
determined to find fault with poor Mr. Pratt.
    “He is indeed.” Eleanor took a dainty sip of tea and Lizzy hoped
that Mary would take the cue to move onto a different subject. But Ellie wasn’t
finished.
    “Do I have your blessing then, Mary? Will you finally acknowledge
that a woman might find a husband who wishes for a life’s companion, a partner
in every endeavor, not simply a housemaid to keep under his thumb?”
    Mary merely smiled and murmured a sound of assent.
    “And you, Lizzy, do you concede the point as well?”
    Ian Reed’s beautifully carved face came instantly to Lizzy’s mind.
She felt heat warm her cheeks at the memory of his touch, his kiss, his body,
so firm and warm beneath her hands. And she heard his words, the desire to
marry her, ringing in her ears.
    “How can I deny it? Your Mr. Pratt is proof enough. And surely
he’s not the only exception.” Lizzy smiled and hoped her blush was not too
obvious.
    Could Ian Reed be the sort of man to accept her fully, with all
her faults, her political opinions, and her inability to sew a neat stitch to
save her life? More importantly, would he allow her to continue her work at Tredgard School?
    No. She already knew the answer. He had expressed agreement with
her father, who wished her to quit her position immediately.
    Ian Reed might offer her passion, but she could never be his wife.

Chapter
Seven
     
    Three
unanswered letters to Lizzy left Ian no choice. He made his way to the
Ainsworth residence on a foggy Thursday evening in October. He knew it was the
chief inspector’s habit to dine at his club on Thursdays, and he hoped, with
Ainsworth gone, he might somehow make it past the housekeeper who had turned
him away on the two other occasions he had attempted to