Free Amanda Scott by Reivers Bride Page A

Still, I reckon your suitors were numerous.
     Are you so particular?”
    She nibbled her lower lip, hesitant to say the words that sprang to her tongue, but when he waited patiently, she decided
     to risk it. “In truth, sir, I do not want a husband who would marry me solely for my family name and connections. I’d prefer
     one who would value my opinions, but although I have heard that such men exist, I have never met one.” She did not mention
     that, deep in her heart, she harbored a wish to meet one who would give his life, if necessary, for love of her. Such wishes,
     she knew, were merely self indulgent and unworthy of her.
    He was silent again, this time for so long that she wondered if he hoped to end their conversation.
    “I’d prefer to talk about Fiona,” she said quietly.
    “Surely, you must know that if I am officially deceased, all legal documents and contracts to which I am a named party have
     become moot.”
    “Not all of them, surely,” she said. “Your last will and testament, for example, would certainly not be moot.”
    He chuckled again, and she found that the now familiar sound was not only strangely reassuring but warmed her, as well.
    “If I had had the prescience to create such a document, I suppose you would be right.” he said. “Are you never at a loss for
     an argument, my lady?”
    “This matter is of grave importance to me,” she said.
    “Is your cousin so desperately in need of a husband? I trust she has not gotten herself—”
    “Do not say such a thing! Even if it were possible for her to get
herself
with child, as I suppose you were about to say, she has done no such thing.”
    “I beg your pardon, but your insistence that I am the hope of her soul did prompt me to wonder.”
    “It is not just a husband she requires. Indeed, she is to be married soon, as it is, and therein lies the problem. I thought
     you must have heard as much.”
    “No, how would I? Still, I cannot be amazed. If my father thought she would make a suitable bride for me, she must possess
     many excellent qualities.”
    “She is stunningly beautiful and a great heiress,” Anne said.
    “Ah, then she need have only those two excellent qualities. I stand corrected. But if she already has a husband in the offing—”
    “Do stop being so heartless. My aunt intends Fiona to marry your dreadful uncle, and we must not let that happen.”
    “Now you do interest me,” he said with a definite edge to his tone.
    “I thought I might,” she said bitterly.
    “Is he truly dreadful?”
    Surprised, she said, “Don’t you know him?”
    “I have not laid eyes on him in six years, so I cannot claim to know him well, but I do know that I did not like him when
     I was a lad.”
    “Fiona is afraid of him.”
    “You interest me more than ever now. Much as I disliked him personally, I would not have thought him the sort of ogre who
     goes about frightening innocent maidens. How old is your cousin?”
    “Don’t you know that either?”
    “I have a lamentable memory at the best of times,” he said but then added on a note of obvious sincerity, “In truth, I paid
     little heed to those papers my father sent me. If they bore any mention of her age…”
    “She was only fifteen when my aunt agreed to that betrothal,” Anne said. “But although she is seventeen now, she seems younger
     to most people.”
    “Ah, now I see how it is. The lass is simple.”
    “She is not!” But hearing the echo of her own words, she could not blame him for thinking so. Still, she wondered if he might
     be purposely casting flies to see if she would leap to his baiting.
    “Fiona is exceptionally biddable and a little shy,” she said. “My aunt wants her to marry your uncle, and therefore she will
     do so if we cannot prevent it. She simply has not got it in her to defy Aunt Olivia.”
    “No spirit, eh?”
    Clearly, he was baiting her, but much as she would have liked to deny the accusation, honesty forbade it. Instead, she