River of Fire by Mary Jo Putney

Author:Mary Jo Putney
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

T

o

p

N

e

x

t

Rebecca's first thought when she awoke was that she must tell her father what had happened. He would probably be half amused and half irritated. With a groan, she rose, washed, and put on an exceedingly respectable gray morning gown. Then she headed downstairs, praying that she would not run into Kenneth. She had no idea what to say to him.

Luckily, Sir Anthony was alone in the breakfast parlor. At her entrance, he glanced up from his newspaper. "Good morning. You're up early for someone who went to a ball. Did you have a good time?"

"Yes and no." She poured herself a cup of steaming coffee and sat down. "It was quite enjoyable at first.

But then a sort of accident happened."

He laughed. "Someone stepped on the hem of your gown?"

Wrapping her cold hands around the cup, she said baldly, "Kenneth and I were caught kissing."

Before she could continue, her father's smile vanished. "The devil you say! The idea was to reestablish you socially, not make your reputation worse."

"It was… an accident."

He glared at her. "You tripped and happened to land in Kenneth's arms?"

She gave him a look of annoyance. "Of course not. Something upsetting had happened to him. I was sympathizing, and a… a friendly kiss was exchanged." It was a good deal more man friendly, but she suspected that even a father as liberal as hers would not want to hear the lurid details. "We were in an alcove, and a dozen or so people came by on their way to the supper room. Some old trout saw us and became incensed. Lavinia happened to be part of the group. She saved the day by pretending that Kenneth and I are betrothed. Since she's well known as a friend of the family, no one questioned it."

"Thank heaven she was there and showed some sense," Sir Anthony said grimly. "Obviously you and Kenneth had none. I would have expected better of you both."

Clearly irritation was outweighing amusement. "It was an unfortunate incident, but harmless," she said defensively. "Everyone accepted the idea of a betrothal. We'll call it off in a few months, but in the meantime, formal notices will have to be sent to the papers to maintain the pretense."

"What do you mean, pretense?" He folded his newspaper and slapped it onto the table beside his plate.

"I was willing to overlook your elopement with that imbecilic poet, but enough is enough. You'll simply have to marry Kenneth."

She almost choked on her scalding coffee. "Don't be absurd! Getting married because of a minor indiscretion is exactly the sort of foolish social convention that you are always railing about. Of course we won't go through with it."

Sir Anthony scowled at her. "I've been far too lax with you. It's time to rectify that. You're a grown woman and you should be respectably married. Kenneth will make a perfectly adequate husband. At least he recognizes a good painting when he sees it, unlike your poet."

Unable to believe what she was hearing, she

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.