Free Why Earls Fall in Love by Manda Collins Page A

courting me, I thought he was the most wonderful man in the world. My father did warn me, but I thought I knew better. I know now that Papa must have heard some rumors among the camp followers or the other men. But when it seemed as if Papa would raise objections, Robert made sure to compromise me so that there would be no question of our not marrying.”
    “Not that you are not beautiful, but why was he so determined to have you?” Con asked, puzzled. “Wouldn’t he have chosen someone who was without family?”
    “I received a quite sizable inheritance from my maternal grandmother,” Georgie said bitterly. “He needed funds to pay his gaming debts. And I was foolish enough to believe that he wanted me because he loved me.”
    “But you are employed as my aunt’s companion,” Con returned. “I presume that he spent the inheritance?”
    “Every cent,” Georgina said with a twisted smile. “Before the first year of our marriage had ended. Then of course he was angry with me for not being a bigger heiress so that he could have had more money to gamble with.”
    Con was silent for a few moments while he thought how pleasant it would be to pummel the late Colonel Robert Mowbray in the face. Repeatedly.
    “How did he die?” he finally asked, standing and brushing the soil from his hands.
    “Gloriously in battle,” Georgie said with a shake of her head. “It is inconceivable to me how a man who was so miserable a husband could be so wonderful a soldier. He was one of the first to fall at Waterloo and he died honorably. When I first returned to England I began to keep count of just how many people expressed their condolences to me in the same breath as they told me how proud I must be.
    “I lost count at one hundred twenty-seven,” she said wryly. “I said nothing, of course. It would be cruel to disabuse all these well-meaning souls of their notions of just what manner of man may be called hero.”
    “You are far stronger than many would be in that situation,” Con said with feeling. He’d never really considered how difficult it must be to be a woman. Forced to obey whatever male figure fate or her own blind choosing bestowed upon her as a guardian. Unable to fight back should he choose to strike her, or worse. He remembered what it had been like to be a child, but he’d had benevolent family to look after him. Georgina had no one to look after her.
    “I did what I had to do,” she responded with a shrug. “Just once, though, I’d like for every man to spend a day as a woman. So that he could see what it’s like.”
    “I do not think you would like to see me as a woman,” Con said with a speaking look. “Can you imagine?”
    Though she’d meant her words in all seriousness, Georgie began to laugh. “You are correct. I should not like to see you as a woman,” she said, grinning. “You are quite a handsome man, but as a woman? I fear you would have some difficulty procuring suitors.”
    Glad to see the tense expression she’d worn while recounting her story erased, Con raised a sardonic brow. “Do you mean that ladies over six feet tall with enormous feet and the need to shave twice a day aren’t in demand? Mrs. Mowbray, you shock me!”
    “It’s true, I’m afraid. Even I am not in demand and I have nothing like your impediments to beauty,” she said with a smile.
    “If by that you mean to say that you are lovely despite your hideous gowns and insistence upon wearing your hair in those tight coils,” he said, without thinking, “then you are correct.”
    At his words, Georgina’s eyes widened and a blush crept into her cheeks. Realizing his mistake, Con mentally smacked himself on the back of the head. “I apologize, Mrs. Mowbray. I didn’t mean to be so ungallant. Of course your gowns are not—”
    “I hope you will not say that my gowns aren’t hideous and my hair is not unflattering, my lord,” she said with a rueful smile, “because we both know that you would be