A Bride for His Convenience by Edith Layton

Author:Edith Layton [Layton, Edith]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2008-03-05T06:00:00+00:00

But he was in a foul mood at dinner.

Hannah took her seat at a smaller table in the smaller dining parlor, and looked at Ian. He had risen automatically when she came in the door, and then sat again, still reading a much-read letter, and scowling at it.

“Something else I did?” she asked.

He raised his head. “What?”

“Your lively mood,” she said.

“Oh, no,” he said. “Not you. Forgive me, I brought my troubles to dinner, when the thing to do with them is to lock them out.”

“Do you…” she hesitated. “Can you share them? That often helps me when I’m troubled.”

“But you’re a totally socialized creature,” he murmured, “and I’ve been on my own for a long time.” He folded the letter, and looked up. His expression cleared. “You look lovely tonight. What an oaf I am not to have noticed.”

She preened. It was a cool spring evening, and since she felt as though she were beginning a new life with her new husband, she’d felt the need to liven it up. She wore a light green gown with yellow stripes and long sleeves, and a single gold locket on a black ribbon shone at her breast.

He was dressed neatly, and well, but not in formal garb. He wore buff breeches, a white shirt, and beneath his exquisitely fitted brown jacket, she caught a glimpse of a gold waistcoat. The smaller room, his casual attire, and his smile made her feel more comfortable.

“I have a letter from my stepmother,” he explained. “And yes, you may envision all the wicked ones from your fairy stories at will. She’s not so beautiful as those witch queens, merely passable for a woman her age, but she is decidedly evil. In my eyes, at least, and those of my brother. She had little to do with us after she married my father, thank God, so we didn’t suffer from her machinations. Not directly. But she was fifteen years my father’s junior, and money hungry. She bled the estate dry. He, poor fellow, was trying to please her, and always had a weak grip on economics. And he was growing older than he cared to admit, in mind and body. He had already frittered away a great deal of money, and begun to beggar the estate. She didn’t attempt to put things right. All she wanted was to have things lavish and amusing.

“They traveled where they could with a war on, they gambled everywhere, she wore the latest fashions, and they gave extravagant parties, I hear. When he died, there was little left to the estate, and that which she could she sold or took away with her.

“Now,” he said with a black look at the letter again, “she seeks money from me. She congratulates me on my marriage, and makes special mention of how lucrative a union she heard it was for me. She congratulates me on my wisdom. And she tells me that as her coffers are empty, she knows it would be my father’s dearest wish that I help her financially.

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