Contracted as His Countess by Louise Allen

Author:Louise Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-09-05T18:21:40+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Sleep well! Jack grimaced as he walked carefully back down the steps to the waiting carriage and climbed in. I’ve given myself a sleepless night, but by God, it was worth it.

He sat down opposite Charlie and saw his friend had let the blinds up. As the coach rumbled off, light from the streets flickered in and out of the interior of the carriage, illuminating Charlie’s blandly neutral expression. The other man was doubtless quite well aware of what had just happened—in fact he was probably imagining something rather more than what had actually taken place. There was nothing to be done about that now and Charlie was no gossip. Besides, Jack was marrying the lady.

But she had been no lady when she had come apart in his arms, he thought, somehow managing to control his smile of triumphant discovery. Madelyn had been sheer, abandoned woman and any doubts he might have had about that aspect of the marriage were well and truly laid to rest. In fact—

‘Your face,’ his friend said with a grin.

‘What about it?’ Jack put up one hand and rubbed at his mouth. Madelyn had not been wearing lip stain or powder... ‘Ouch.’

‘You are going to have a fine bruise on your chin tomorrow and probably a fat lip into the bargain. If I’m not mistaken, it is swelling nicely now.’

That’s the kissing, Jack thought. ‘The other fellows will look worse,’ he said, not troubling to sound modest about it.

‘Fellows? I only saw you hit one.’

‘There was some buck who’d had a few too many as well as the man dancing with Madelyn.’

‘You can’t go around hitting every man who dances with your fiancée, Jack. She’d gone to a masquerade, presumably intending to dance, someone asks her—’

‘She knew him before.’

‘I imagine Miss Aylmer knew many gentlemen before she met you and that it was all perfectly respectable.’ Charlie seemed to hesitate, then took the plunge. ‘Forgive me, but I was under the impression that your contract with Miss Aylmer was in the nature of a mutually convenient and beneficial one, not the result of a love match.’

Jack grunted.

‘So why are you exhibiting all the symptoms of rampant jealousy?’

‘Natural possessiveness.’ Jack thought he managed that reasonably well. If he didn’t understand it himself, he was certainly not going to have Charlie speculating. ‘And concern for her reputation. Madelyn should not have been there and she knows it. I was quite reasonably annoyed.’

‘Of course you were,’ Charlie said with the suspicion of a laugh in his voice. Before Jack could suggest that he get out and walk he added, ‘This will do. Set me down here, will you?’

Jack rapped on the coach roof, more than glad to be alone to come to terms with what had just happened. ‘Goodnight.’

The door banged closed on Charlie’s cheerful farewell and the carriage creaked into motion again.

It wasn’t that he had not known that he wanted Madelyn, even if he had not been able to define exactly what it was that he found attractive about her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.