Winthrop Trilogy Box Set
Page 64
“It is hardly to be supposed she’ll want to keep it,” Lucian pointed out. “Not when she is only eighteen herself, barely out of the schoolroom.”
“Amanda is a good-hearted girl. Later she may come to regret giving up even this child. My first grandchild, dammit. I am not old enough for this.”
Mark was a year older than Lucian, thirty-nine, and when sober and well-rested he looked young for his age. Not a typical grandfather, no.
“How far along is the girl?”
“It cannot be much more than two months. She’s not showing yet.” Mark regarded him blearily. “Why do you ask?”
Lucian hesitated. He often acted on momentary inspiration and rarely regretted following his whims, but was he about to commit a great mistake? On the other hand, the situation offered a chance to atone for his inability to save Amaryllis. The names were even similar—Amaryllis, Amanda. Then he had been too young and ignorant to prevent a tragedy. And it was not as though he was about to make any great sacrifice.
“If the case is as desperate as all that, I could marry your daughter.”
Mark’s mouth stood open. “You? But . . . the title . . . it would save us, but have you considered?”
“Never mind about the title.” With luck, the child would be a girl, and the title would die out, as it should. “It concerns me more that I am twenty years your daughter’s senior.”
“As though that mattered at a time like this!”
“It may matter eventually. I had better talk to her myself before we buy a license.”
“You would do that? But what of her child?”
“It will have my name.”
Mark stared at him incredulously. “But if it is a boy, he will inherit the earldom!”
Lucian shrugged, unwilling to explain why he could not care less. “I suggest that you talk to your daughter. If she has no objections, we can marry immediately. As this is her home parish, a simple license from the vicar will do. The less prematurely this child arrives, the less gossip there should be.” Though there would inevitably be some talk. It was unfortunate that he had only arrived in Northumberland a week earlier, so any pretence that the child was truly his would not be credible there. In town, where it mattered, they would simply have to fudge the dates.
“About the dowry, Lucian—”
“Five thousand will be perfectly adequate, and there is no hurry.” Lucian would have told his friend he could keep even that, but the girl would not want to come to her husband quite empty-handed. Mark also had his pride, when not bowed down by disaster. “I shall settle a sufficient sum on her to ensure she’ll never want for anything.” Given the age difference, Amanda might well outlive him by a considerable margin.
“If you truly mean it, you have saved us. I shall never be able to thank you enough.”
“Amanda has yet to agree,” Lucian reminded him, though he had little expectation of a refusal. In her predicament, the poor girl had no viable options. She would be a countess, not a bad match for the daughter of a modest country squire. “Unless I hear from you to the contrary, I shall wait upon her tomorrow at eleven. In the meantime, I had better make sure that greedy captain keeps his mouth shut.”
“Will you? Err, can you?”
Lucian smiled grimly. “Leave him to me.”
Chapter 2
Amanda stood with her face towards the window, waiting for her father’s friend to call. She had seen Lord Rackington from afar a few times, when he visited his nearby estate every now and then, but could not remember ever speaking to the earl. Yet if her father was to be believed, within the week he would be her husband.
What was wrong with a man who remained unwed for decades and then decided to marry an old friend’s hopelessly disgraced and ruined daughter, sight unseen? A girl with her own uncle’s child inexorably swelling in her womb? At that thought, nausea threatened to return, and she took several deep gulps of air until her sick revulsion passed. She did not want any child and, most definitely, no child fathered by Uncle Roderick, whom she had grown to hate with white-hot passion.
What if the babe should turn out to be like him? The kind of man who appeared friendly and avuncular until he came upon you alone and defenceless? Who blandly explained the scratch on his face afterwards as having bumped against a tree? He was so unconcerned, so offhand, that Amanda herself had almost come to doubt her recollection of his brutality.
After that horrible quarter-hour, she made sure never again to be trapped alone with him. But that one time had been enough to take away all her choices. It was why she was even now waiting to receive the addresses of this earl she did not know except by reputation. And what a reputation!
All varieties of debauchery and vice were attributed to Lord Rackington. Lord Rake, some of their neighbours called him, though her father would never listen to anyone disparaging his boyhood friend. Would he expect her to participate in orgies? Perhaps he found it convenient to acquire a bride who must be forever grateful and humble, who would not be in a position to object to anything he might do or ask of her.
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Contents
Lady Susan’s Bargain
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
The End
Lord Fenton’s Revenge
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Epilogue
A Lady’s Ruse
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
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Copyright © 2015 May Burnett. No part of thi
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Disclaimer: This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, events or institutions would be unintentional, and mere coincidence.