The Suitable Bride (The Emberton Brothers Series Book 2) by Karen Aminadra Read Free Book Online Page A

He had never been so nervous in his entire life. Anxiety was not an emotion he was used to. He was an assertive man, but the prospect of a ballroom filled with young ladies hoping that he would choose one of them to be his bride filled him with abject horror and dread.
    His mother saw the tension in him. As he escorted her from the drawing room to the ballroom, she whispered words of encouragement in his ear. “Do not fret so, Edward. I will be on hand at all times. So long as you keep one eye firmly upon me, you will not stray too far from our plan and not be pulled in by a pair of fine eyes or a curvaceous figure.”
    Edward did not know which discomfited him more, the prospect of what awaited him within the ballroom or the words his mother just used.
    He swallowed down his nerves and stepped confidently into the ballroom. Edward and Edwina took their places to one side of the door and awaited their guests to file in. Edward’s throat was dry, but he knew there was fun to be had if he only remained positive.
     
    * * * *
     
    Martha was elated. She replayed Edward’s words in her mind. “You know that I do think of you and your father as family…” Was he declaring his intentions to her? She stood in line with the rest of the family and was introduced to people whom she knew she had no hope of ever remembering the names of. Her spirits were higher than they had been in months. She was considered part of the family. How far that sentiment extended, she was not yet aware, but with Edward’s words repeating in her thoughts, Martha knew she was to have a splendid evening. She watched impassively as gentleman after gentleman and lady after lady passed her by. She was introduced to them, she curtsied, and they curtsied or bowed in response, but she was in a daze. She barely even looked at any of them. Her mind was entirely preoccupied on the words of the man at the other end of the line, Edward Emberton.
    Had she been paying attention, she would have noticed when the beautiful Miss Frances Davenport entered the room and was introduced to Edward. She would have noticed how their eyes locked and remained so as he bowed and she curtsied in greeting. She would have noticed how his eyes followed her along the line and how he ignored the next few people, blindly bowing to them, not hearing their names or acknowledging their greeting. She would have noticed how Edward was wholly captivated by Miss Davenport.
     

 
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
     
    Edward’s breath caught in his throat as the raven-haired beauty entered the room and fairly floated towards him. Her eyes, the colour of emeralds, locked with his—and he was mesmerised. He felt his pulse begin to race and his passions rise up within him. It was with some difficulty that Edward dragged his attention back to his guests as they filed past him. He wondered who the woman was. She had, of course, been introduced to him. In that moment, his ears seemed to have malfunctioned, and he was aware of nothing other than those enthralling eyes.
    His brother Richard jabbed him sharply in the ribs with his elbow. “Pick your jaw up off the floor before people notice you ogling that woman!” he snarled.
    “Yes, yes, you’re right,” Edward muttered shamefacedly. He felt humiliated that his brother had caught him staring at the lady in such a fashion that it was deemed to be ogling. He dragged his mind back to the matter at hand and bowed graciously to the couple standing before him, some distant relatives of his mother whom he had never seen before in his life.
    The column of guests snaked its way from the ballroom out through the doors into the hallway, down the length of the house to the front doors. It seemed interminable. Edward’s back began to ache from all the bowing, and his throat grew drier by the moment. Relief came in the form of Stainton, his butler, who crept silently up behind him and whispered that he had a beverage for him. Edward gratefully turned round and