Free A Most Unsuitable Groom by Kasey Michaels by Kasey Michaels Page A

A fascinating man, but perhaps fascinating in the way a North American rattlesnake could be fascinating. "No, Mariah, girl. I find the fix Spencer's in amusing. You've just tied him fast to Becket Hall, didn't you now? Tied him hard and fast, when we couldn't find a way to make him stay. The Cap'n's over the moon, though he'd never say so. He likes to know where his chicks are."
    Mariah knew her cheeks had gone pale. "Spencer. . .Spencer didn't plan to stay here? Where was he going to go?"
    Jacko shrugged those massive shoulders. "Which way is the wind blowing today, Miss Rutledge?" He lifted a hand to his forehead in a blatantly mocking salute. "But he won't be sailing off now. What with the fine great anchor you tied fast to his ankle."
    "Jacko," Callie said quietly. "That was a mean thing to say. Go away."
    And, to Mariah's amazement, that's just what the man did, turning his back on the pair of them and heading toward the front of the house. Her body inwardly sagged in relief.
    "Did he mean that, Callie? Was Spencer planning to leave?"
    Callie shrugged. "Spencer has always talked about the places he'd like to see. China. America. I think he'd cheerfully sail off to the moon, if it took him away from Becket Hall. That's why he went off to the Army. He wanted to fight Napole'on, see the Continent. But he was sent to Canada instead." She smiled. "But that's how he met you, Mariah, and now you're going to be married. Elly says Spencer has to grow up now, stop chafing at living here. I don't know why he chafes. I think it's lovely here. But Spence was ten years old, I think, when we came to Romney Marsh. He remembers the islands and I don't. I only know Romney Marsh."
    "But Spencer knows other places exist," Mariah said as they began walking once more. "Whole other worlds he hasn't seen. And now, because of William and me, he won't see them."
    "Nonsense. He hasn't even been to London. You can take William and go to London, surely. That's another world, or at least that's what Morgan and Elly say. Come on, we'll go outside, let you smell the fresh air."
    Mariah nodded her agreement, knowing she'd just heard an opinion straight out of the innocence of youth. It would serve no purpose to argue that she, Mariah, had put an end to' all of Spencer's dreams, whatever those might be. A wife and child meant responsibility and, if she knew nothing else about Spencer Becket, she knew he was a man who took his responsibilities very seriously.
    She'd had time, around their nightly campfires, to listen to Clovis tell her about Spencer Becket, the man who had bloodied General Proctor's nose. She'd heard the same story from her father, who'd believed the man had deserved a medal, not two months in the small gaol and being stripped of his rank.
    Was it any wonder that the night she'd crawled beneath the blanket to share her body's warmth with Lieutenant Becket, and he'd reached for her, felt her softness, began to fumble with the buttons of her gown, that she'd welcomed that touch, sought.. .sought something in that touch? Not only allowed what the feverish man was doing, but aided and abetted him?
    Even the pain that had come when he'd entered her had been welcome, proving to her that, yes, she was still alive and she could still feel.
    And now she had tied an anchor to the man's ankle; he felt duty-bound to marry her, care for their son. She'd quite possibly saved his life; he'd quite possibly saved hers without knowing it and his reward was to be a lifetime in this house, on this land—where he didn't want to be.
    "Mariah, what do you think?"
    Mariah blinked, surprised to see that she was now standing on an immense stone terrace overlooking a stretch of sand and shingle beach, the Channel lapping quietly at the shoreline, the blue sky seemingly limitless.
    "It's...it's beautiful," Mariah said honestly andwalked over to the railing, placing her palms on the cool stone. How did Spencer see this view? Did he rec-ognize it for its own beauty or