Free Married to the Viscount by Sabrina Jeffries Page B

We suspect Nat has fled to the Continent. That’s where he usually goes to avoid me after one of his…mishaps. Undoubtedly he figures it’s easier to hide from me there.”
    “Is it?”
    “It depends on how good a trail he left behind. But he won’t evade the runners forever. I’m hoping for a few weeks at the most.”
    “You wouldn’t want me to get too used to being Lady Ravenswood,” she bit out.
    “I wouldn’t want you inconvenienced any more than necessary.”
    “How very considerate of you.” She lifted a shaky hand to pluck the lilac from her hair, then held it to her nose as if sniffing it gave her solace. “And what happens if I refuse your proposition?”
    He wished he could just give her the money. But that would prove disastrous for everyone, probably even her. In her typical naiveté, she thought she could simply step into her father’s shoes in America. It wouldn’t be that easy.
    Better to let her think him an officious bastard for forcing her to agree to his terms than a “nice man” she could twist around her finger. “If you refuse, then I hope you have another source of funds, because you won’t have a penny from me.”
    Her eyes began to flash and her shoulders to shake. “You would actually refuse to give me money after your brother—”
    “Yes. And you can’t return to America without it. You certainly can’t start up a business.”
    “But I could tell everybody in England about my awful mistreatment at the hands of the Law brothers.”
    “I wouldn’t advise that,” he said in the coldest voice he could muster. “I am not a wise man to cross, Miss Mercer. Besides, who do you think people here will believe—you or me?”

    She paled. “I thought you were worried about scandal.”
    “I am. But if you don’t do things my way, there will be a scandal regardless. So I have nothing to lose by offering this. While you have much to lose by refusing.”
    An angry flush crawled up her neck. “This is blackmail!”
    “Indeed it is.”
    She gazed at him a long moment, as if trying to assess his intent. Then taking him by surprise, she reached over to clasp his hand. “You wouldn’t force me into this—I don’t believe it. You’re too much of a gentleman, too good—”
    “I am not good.” He shook off her hand as if it were poison. She mustn’t think she could get around him by engaging his sympathies. Quickly, he rose to put some distance between them. “What I am is determined. When it comes to my family, my country, or my king, I will do whatever it takes to protect them.”
    “Even if it means forcing me to continue a farce I’m uncomfortable with?” she whispered in an aching voice.
    He stared down at her, struggling to maintain his cool façade. “Uncomfortable or no, you’ll end up richer and better situated with my scheme than if you cling to your pride and try fending for yourself.”
    Hurt etched deep lines in her golden brow as she gazed up at him.
    Unable to witness her distress any longer, he turned away. “Come now, you know this is best. Even if I gave you every penny my brother stole—and I won’t—you’d have to struggle to reestablish your father’s business without its being legitimately yours. You’d have to return to Philadelphia under an embarrassing cloud of speculation.”
    “I don’t care about that.”
    He whirled to face her. “No? You don’t care if they claim that the viscount tossed you aside because you were common? Or worse yet, if they imply you were never married at all? Hasn’t it occurred to you that your hasty return to America might rouse speculation that you’d been my mistress rather than my wife, and a rejected one at that?”
    Judging from her horrified look, it hadn’t. “You, sir, are an awful man!” she cried, apparently at a loss for how to refute his argument.
    “That I am. But my shortcomings needn’t stop us from playing this scheme out to the end.”
    She rose, her face a rigid mask. “You think