“It is all right, Melissa,” Anne reassured her, “Lord Stanton and I are betrothed.”
“Betrothed?” Melissa repeated, looking at them dubiously. “Do you wish to be?”
Lord Stanton laughed. “I know it is unbelievable that a respectable woman should agree to marry a disreputable person like myself, but I assure you, it is so.”
“Not so respectable,” Sanders muttered from the corner where she sat with some mending. “It took you long enough,” she added more loudly. “You should have offered for her last January after that first evening. Drinking brandy alone with an unmarried woman with the door closed.” She shook her head disgustedly. “But I suppose it’s better late than never.”
Lord Stanton grinned. “I agree.”
Three months later the Marquess and Marchioness of Talford, in residence at their estate of Longworth for the autumn, inspected a large parcel that had arrived from London.
“It’s a gift from Prinny,” said Lord Stanton, reading the card he had been handed by the messenger. “A wedding gift.”
“I believe it is a painting,” said Anne, watching curiously as the footman endeavoured to undo it.
Suddenly Lord Stanton began to laugh. “What would you wager, my dear, that it is a Fragonard?”
“Wager, my love?” Anne said innocently. “I have no need of wagers now, and I believe, sir, you have been paid in full.”
“And with great interest I might add,” he said with a wicked grin.
They laughed together as they stood back to admire the gilt-framed painting that was revealed when the wrappings fell away. With their arms about each other they surveyed the three robust but attractive nudes in a muted forest setting. It was a Rubens, not a Fragonard.
“What do you think?” asked Lord Stanton, his arm tightening about his wife’s waist. “The Prince remembered the story I told him of our first meeting.”
“I think,” said Anne, turning in her husband’s arms and placing a kiss upon his lips, ignoring the presence of the footman, “that it should hang in a place of honour in the Long Gallery.”
Copyright © 1990 by Lucile Moore
Originally published by Harlequin Regency [0373311184
Electronically published in 2012 by Belgrave House/Regency Reads
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No portion of this book may be reprinted in whole or in part, by printing, faxing, E-mail, copying electronically or by any other means without permission of the publisher. For more information, contact Belgrave House, 190 Belgrave Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94117-4228
http://www.RegencyReads.com
Electronic sales: [email protected]
This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.
Table of Contents
THE IMPRUDENT WAGER
Lucy Muir
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Lucy Muir Page 16