The Wyndham Legacy by Catherine Coulter Read Free Book Online Page B

themselves?”
    â€œYes, but there are arguments about that. Needless to say, all who deem Napoleon the greatest military leader of all time blame the vicious Russian winter. I have heard it said that the Russians learned from Napoleon’s victories and copied him, thus defeating him at his own game.”
    â€œAnd don’t forget that his supply lines broke down. Imagine the distances from the West all the way to Moscow! It quite boggles the mind to imagine how much food wouldbe necessary, and clothing and equipment.”
    â€œYes,” Marcus said, “imagine.” He couldn’t help himself, he was staring at her and continued to stare at her. Did she have a protector who was in the army or navy? Is this how she knew so much? He said abruptly, “How long will it take you to be ready to leave?”
    â€œLeave? I beg your pardon?”
    â€œYou are coming back with me to Chase Park, naturally.”
    â€œThere is nothing natural about it that I can see,” she said, and to his surprise, he saw her hand clench into a fist. The Duchess making a bloody fist? No, surely he was seeing things, not something so violent as a fist, not the bloody Duchess. Whatever had he said to ruffle her serene feathers? He couldn’t imagine that bloodless, elegant hand fisting.
    â€œYou should have been living at Chase Park for the past six months. I have apologized for what happened. There is nothing more I can say. I’ve spent the past months trying to find you. Now that I have, I’m here to offer you a home, proper chaperonage, and if you wish to go to London for a Season, you will certainly go. I will also see that you have a sufficient dowry. With your looks and your show of interest in military matters, I daresay that you will have many offers of marriage, at least from lonely officers home on leave.”
    She merely looked at him, still again, her hands smoothed out on the white tablecloth. He noticed ink stains on her fingers, and said, “If marriage is what you want. But what else is there for a lady?”
    â€œNo,” she said calmly. “No, I don’t want marriage. This is my home now. It is kind of you to search me out, but a long time has passed and I find that I am become self-sufficient. I have no need of a Season or a dowry. Or a husband. There are things for a lady, Marcus, other than marriage.”
    â€œHow have you become self-sufficient? Is there a soldier you met after your mother’s death? Is it he who has toldyou—” Marcus shrugged then, his mouth shutting, but his meaning was quite clear, appallingly clear.
    She smiled at him, but it was a cold smile, one that held infinite secrets and a serious level of anger. But as usual, there was no sound of anger in her cool voice. “That, sir, is none of your business. Your line of reasoning is interesting, however. My knowledge of military matters or my interest in such occurrences as Napoleon’s failure to survive in Russia obviously can’t spring from my own brain, but it has to come, rather, from another—specifically, from a military man who is doubtless keeping me in this charming cottage, just as your uncle kept my mother in Rosebud Cottage.”
    He hunched forward and smacked his fist onto the table. “Damnation, Duchess, I didn’t mean that. Are you forgetting that I am your cousin? That I am the damned head of the Wyndham family and am thus responsible for you now?”
    â€œYou are my cousin, true, but I am nothing but a bastard. You owe me nothing at all, Marcus. Certainly you aren’t responsible for me. My father was, but like most men he must have believed himself immortal. Thus, he made no provision for me. However, I find now that I quite enjoy being on my own.”
    â€œYou are eighteen years old. You are a gentlewoman. You cannot be on your own.”
    â€œI am nearly nineteen, and the fact remains that I am on my own and I am a bastard. Don’t