Free The Thoroughly Compromised Bride by Catherine Reynolds

do we know of this Adrian Kirby? A marriage over the anvil would be disastrous enough, but if he should merely be bent on seduction, Melanie will most certainly be ruined. No decent man would be willing to offer her marriage after such an event.”
    Gazing into his wineglass, Charles failed to see how Elizabeth’s face paled. This was much too close to her own situation, and though his assessment of the outcome agreed with her own, she could not prevent herself from asking, “But if the man loved her...?”
    “My dear,” he said quietly, “no man wishes to take another man’s leavings.”
    She drew a sharp breath and colour rushed back into her cheeks. She had always accepted the truth of what he’d said, but even so, such a typically male opinion struck her as being blatantly unfair, and she cried, “That is ridiculous! It is my understanding that men do so nearly every time they take a mistress!”
    “That is a different matter entirely. I was speaking of marriage,” he replied rather sternly. Then his face relaxed into a smile as he continued, “But there is no need for us to discompose ourselves over such an unlikely occurrence. As I said before, I strongly suspect that Melanie is even now with her mother.”
    Fearing that her own past experience had prompted her to respond overemphatically, Elizabeth made a deliberate attempt to calm herself and turn her thoughts to their previous conversation. Several moments passed before she was successful, but then her eyes opened wide with dawning comprehension.
    “Charles! If you really thought my aunt and your sister capable of such deviousness, you are as bad as you would have me believe them to be. Worse! For, believing it, you still went along with it! Oh!—and you even brought a change of clothes! How could you?”
    “No, no! Don’t be so quick to rip up at me! I only suspected it to be an underhanded plot. That being so, it was incumbent upon me to proceed with it, in case Melanie should actually be eloping. As for the change of clothes, who can say what may happen along the road? We might have lost a wheel, or one of the horses might have gone lame. Oh, any number of things might have gone awry. And I did mention, did I not, that I like to be prepared.”
    She cast a suspicious look at him, but offered no further arguments, and they continued sipping their wine and gazing into the fire. She had lost track of time when Charles looked at his watch.
    “I think, my dear, that we should repair to our bedchambers to refresh ourselves. I thought, too, that perhaps it would be wise to have an early dinner and retire early to bed. It has been a long and exhausting day.”
    She agreed and started towards the door, but just as she reached it he touched her arm to detain her.
    “One moment, please. You will remember, I hope, that I have told the landlord that you are my sister?”
    “That was clever of you. Yes, I’ll remember.”
    They climbed the stairs together, going to their separate bedchambers, and after splashing cold water on her face, Elizabeth felt a great deal refreshed. That done, she opened her reticule to find her comb and froze, staring bemusedly, for there in full view was her tooth powder. Only Aunt Emily could have put it there, and the knowledge came instantly that Charles’s theory had, indeed, been correct.
    Those damnably wretched women! How could they have played such a despicable trick? It was certain that they had hoped to force her and Charles into marriage, and for a moment Elizabeth considered what it might be like to spend a lifetime with him. She was a little shocked to realize that the notion was far from unpleasant and even more shocked to realize the reason for that. How long had she been in love with him?
     

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Feeling suddenly as though her legs would no longer hold her up, Elizabeth sat down abruptly on the edge of the bed.
    For several moments, her mind was blank, her brain seemingly paralyzed by the stunning