Web of Love by Mary Balogh Read Free Book Online Page A

whose card he had signed for the next set. Susan. The same Susan he had loved and almost married three years before. She had married Lieutenant Jennings soon after and had been with him and the army ever since. But three years of rough living had done nothing to destroy her look of fragile innocence and youth. He had seen her occasionally during those years.
    â€œIt is exceeding kind of you to dance with me, my lord,” she said as he led her onto the floor for the beginning of the set. She looked up at him with large hazel eyes. “I did not think you would sign my card when there are so many grand ladies present.”
    â€œAh, but how could I resist dancing a set with you, Susan?” he said. “You are easily as lovely as the grandest lady here.”
    â€œOh,” she said, blushing and lowering her eyelashes, “you are just saying that to tease me, my lord.”
    â€œNot at all,” he said. “And how is life treating you, Susan? I have not talked with you in an age.”
    â€œWe spent the winter with Lord Renfrew,” she said. “My husband’s brother, you know. He is still unmarried. And Dennis—he was the middle brother—died two summers ago of the typhoid. He was in Italy. My husband is now Lord Renfrew’s heir.”
    â€œIs he indeed?” Lord Eden said with a smile. “So one of these days I may be able to address you as ‘my lady,’ Susan.”
    â€œOh,” she said, looking up at him with wide and stricken eyes, “you must not think such a thing, my lord. I do not let it enter my mind, I am sure. I am excessively fond of his lordship.”
    â€œQuite so,” he said. “It was a bad joke, Susan. Forgive me?”
    â€œThere is nothing to forgive,” she said.
    He might have married her, Lord Eden thought. He had almost done so, except that he had finally made the choice between her and buying his commission. And the very evening on which he had renounced her and watched her run away in tears after declaring her love for him, she had announced her betrothal to Lieutenant Jennings. And had entered the very life into which he had thought it impossible to bring her. She seemed not to have suffered.
    â€œHave you heard from your family recently?” he asked.
    â€œColin has married Hetty Morton,” she said. “Did you know that? Howard is still unmarried. Mama and Papa are well.”
    The Courtneys were prosperous tenants of Amberley. Lord Eden had known Susan all her life, from the time when she was a tiny, worshipful little girl who seemed always to be crying over a kitten in trouble.
    â€œI am glad to hear it,” he said.
    â€œWe were at home last summer for a while,” she said, “for Colin’s wedding. The rector’s wife had another daughter, you know. And did you know that Lady Grace Lampman has a son? I was never more surprised in my life. She is so very old. Mama said she almost died three years ago when their daughter was born. And Mama said that Sir Perry was almost beside himself when he knew she was in a delicate way again.”
    Lord Eden listened in some amusement as she prattled on. Obviously as a married lady she felt it quite unexceptionable to assail his ears with such talk. The Susan he had known would have swooned quite away if someone had so much as whispered the word “pregnancy” a hundred yards from her.
    â€œYes, I did know about that,” he said. “Edmund told me. Perry is a particular friend of his, you know. And he declares that Lady Lampman is so very proud and happy that she looks a full ten years younger.”
    â€œShe should be happy,” Susan said. “Sir Perry is a handsome and amiable gentleman.”
    Would he have continued to love her if he had married her? Lord Eden wondered. She was a quite delightful mixture of artifice and innocence, of girlish timidity and matronly assurance. He had a sudden image of being alone with her