Forsaking Hope (Fair Cyprians of London) by Beverley Oakley

Author:Beverley Oakley [Oakley, Beverley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pronoun
Published: 2017-11-22T18:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Felix had drunk more than he usually did, but he had his faculties about him. Millament had spoken sense, soothing him and he was glad to closet himself in a dim corner for a while, going over in his mind everything that had happened that day.

Was he adopting the right course? He’d never considered a mistress, and he’d never in a thousand years dreamt of making the incomparable Miss Hope Merriweather anything other than his wife.

But, he could not marry her. He simply could not.

Unfortunately, inconvenient though it was, he simply could not live without her.

He was about to finish his brandy after reclaiming his winnings when he caught sight of Annabelle’s brother following in Millament’s wake. Felix had little affection for the man he’d known since he was a puling youth. Annabelle’s fragility was to be expected in a female, but there was no excuse for Wilfred. The boy had never played fair, always finding someone else to blame if something didn’t go his way during the occasions they were thrown together as children, for their mothers had been friends from their own schoolroom days. It was one of the reasons Annabelle had been dangled before him since before he’d grown chest hair.

Fortunately, the boys’ education had taken them in different directions, and while Felix had suffered through a spartan education at Eton, Wilfred had been tutored at home, indulged and cosseted as ever.

Felix glanced at the clock. He’d spent all evening weighing up various approaches, and the wisdom of his choice.

Yes, he’d be laying his heart on the line, putting to Hope a prospect she might not find as enticing as one she might have received from a Prussian nobleman or an English marquess—Millament had elaborated on the rigorous training Madame Chambon’s girls were put through—but she had genuine feelings for him. She might not have said it in so many words, but their encounter had revealed enough of her susceptibility towards him that he was confident that when he turned up at Madame Chambon’s ready to negotiate, Hope would come away from that house with only Felix to call her protector.

The reasons as to why Miss Merriweather had fallen so far were not important for now. Rescuing her before she succumbed to another lure certainly was.

Felix was aware that the girl’s wildness had been the despair of her parents. Daring and careless of her neck, she’d ridden the jumps and hedges during the Hunt like the best of the men that fateful day.

Felix had admired her from afar for years before he’d spoken to her.

Why had he waited so long? She was penniless while he was the catch of the neighbourhood. Perhaps it had been due to her manner; the way she’d treated all young men. As if they were nothing to her. And Felix’s pride as an untested youth was too fragile to bear rejection.

“Haven’t seen you gracing a den of vice like this in a while.” Wilfred Hunt’s face was flushed, and he slurred his words slightly.

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