One True Love (Cupid, Texas 0.5) by Lori Wilde

Author:Lori Wilde
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9780062219312
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Published: 2013-05-21T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

BETROTHED.

John was engaged to marry another.

But of course. Why was I so shocked? He was twenty-six years old. The head of his family’s empire. He required a wife befitting his station and heirs to pass his fortunes down to.

My stomach churned. Why hadn’t I known that he was engaged? Why hadn’t someone mentioned this woman to me? Mabel loved to gossip sure enough, and yet I hadn’t heard a peep about John’s betrothal. Why hadn’t I ever seen him with this mysterious fiancée? Why was I so dumbly in the dark?

I yanked my gaze from his, stared unseeingly across the dance floor.

“Her name is Elizabeth Nielson,” he went on. “We’ve been betrothed since I returned from the war, but she was too young to get married at the time. Our family advocated the marriage.”

“You don’t love her?”

“I’m fond of her. You have to understand that a man in my position—”

“I get it,” I said. “A man like you could never end up with someone like me.”

“I’m so sorry it came to this. I guess I assumed you’d heard about it somehow. Elizabeth has been away at finishing school and then later her aunt fell ill and she stayed in Baltimore to be with her until she recovered. But she’s coming home next week. We’re getting married on Christmas Eve.”

I wanted to tell him to shut up. I didn’t care about Elizabeth Nielson. All along I had known that my dreams were folly, but some romantic part of me had spun a fairy-tale world where John and I could somehow carve a future in this bold, brave, more tolerant decade. But it had been nothing but the wild imaginings of a foolish country girl come to town for the first time.

Instinct urged me to flee, to get out of here and take the next train back home, but stubborn pride held me pinned to him, shuffling my battered feet in time to the music. I was not going to let him see how hurt I was. I wouldn’t give him that much power over me.

“I didn’t expect that you and I would develop feelings for each other,” he said. “It was never my intention to mislead you.”

I couldn’t allow him to keep talking. My stumbling heart could not take it. I threw back my head and laughed. “Oh, John, I have no earthly idea what you’re talking about. I have no feelings for you other than respect.”

Yet even I could hear the lie inside my brittle laugh.

“Millie . . .” He looked so utterly wretched that I was almost happy for his pain, but at the same time something inside me tore loose. I loved him too much to want him to suffer.

I closed my eyes. Clenched my jaw. Fought back tears. This was what I got for trying to be something that I was not. “Please,” I begged. “Please do not say another word.”

He did not.

I could have run away then. Maybe I should have. But if I stayed,

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