Free The Proposal by Mary Balogh

family relationships are a little complicated, to say the least.”
    The duke nodded.
    “Lady Muir,” he said, “it will be best for you, I believe, if we excuse you from sitting at the dining room table with us. Although I could provide a stool for your foot, it would not be adequate. The good doctor was quite adamant in his instruction that you keep your foot elevated for the next week. You will, therefore, dine in here. I do hope that will not be too inconvenient for you. We will not desert you entirely, however. Hugo has been appointed to bear you company. I can assure you that he will not assail your ears with tales of his wealth or with suggestions that you marry him in order to secure a part of it for yourself.”
    Her smile was austere.
    “I daresay I will never live down that faux pas,” Lord Darleigh said ruefully.
    The duke offered his arm to Lady Barclay and led her from the room. The others followed. Sir Benedict Harper, Gwen noticed, did not use his canes as crutches even though they looked sturdy enough to bear his weight. Rather, he walked slowly and with painstaking care, using them for balance.
    The silence in the drawing room after the door had closed behind the diners seemed almost unbearably loud.
     
     
     

Chapter 4
     
     
    It had not been his fault, Gwen thought, that joke and the coincidence of her being on the beach today of all days. It just felt as if it were his fault. She resented him anyway. She had just been horribly embarrassed.
    And Lord Trentham looked as if he resented her. Probably because he had just been horribly embarrassed.
    His eyes were on the door as though he could still see his fellow guests through its panels and longed to be on the other side with them. She wished quite fervently that he was there too.
    “Will Sir Benedict ever walk without his canes?” she asked for something to say.
    He pursed his lips, and for a moment she thought he would not answer.
    “The whole world beyond these walls,” he said eventually, still watching the door, “would say a resounding no. The whole world called him fool for refusing to have the legs amputated and then for not accepting reality and resigning himself to living the rest of his life in bed or at least in a chair. There are six of us within this house who would wager a fortune apiece on him. He swears he will dance one day, and the only thing we wonder about is who his partner will be.”
    Oh dear, she thought after another short silence, this was going to be an uphill battle.
    “Do you often see people down on the beach?” she asked.
    He turned to look at her.
    “Never,” he said. “In all the times I have been down there, I have never encountered another soul who was not also from this house. Until today.”
    There was a suggestion of reproach in his voice.
    “Then I suppose,” she said, “it seemed a safe thing to say to your friends, who were teasing you. That you would find a woman to whom to propose marriage down on the beach, I mean.”
    “Yes,” he agreed. “It did.”
    She smiled at him, and then laughed softly. He looked back, no answering amusement in his face.
    “It all really is funny,” she said. “Except that now you will doubtless be teased endlessly. And I am confined here for at least a week with a sprained ankle. And, ” she added when he still did not smile, “you and I will probably be horribly embarrassed in each other’s company until I finally leave here.”
    “If I could throttle young Darleigh,” he said, “without actually committing murder, I would.”
    Gwen laughed again.
    And silence descended once more.
    “Lord Trentham,” she said, “you really do not need to bear me company here, you know. You came to Penderris to enjoy the companionship of the Duke of Stanbrook and your fellow guests. I daresay your suffering together here for so long established a special bond among you, and I have now intruded upon that intimacy. Everyone has been most kind and courteous to me, but I