Something In Red (Fancytales Regency Romance Series) by Dobbs Leighann

Author:Dobbs, Leighann [Dobbs, Leighann]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2013-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“Damn it, Liv, I won't have Rhiad married to that scapegrace simply because Mother decided to take her proclivity for matchmaking around the bend!” William Hoode blustered about, his feet wearing a widening path into the thick, Aubusson carpet beneath him as he paced irately before the Earl of Ashwood's desk.

“Oh, do calm down, William. I am sure the bounder will cry off, so there is no need to worry yourself over the matter,” her grandfather, Oliver Hoode, assured his son.

Outside her father's study, Rhiad felt her face burn with hot indignation. Damien had only been trying to save her – yet both her grandfather and her father were wont to condemn him as a rogue.

She walked away, fighting the urge to stomp her feet and wail until someone finally noticed her and listened to what she had been trying to tell them all along. In her eyes, Damien was a hero. Thrice he had stepped up to rescue her and for all his unselfish chivalry, what was his grand reward?

A forced marriage.

Well, she simply would not have it. Damien deserved to choose his own wife, not have one thrust upon him at the whim of an aging Countess whose only consideration when meddling in the lives of others was for herself.

Gathering her cloak, Rhiad folded the garment over one arm and quietly let herself out of the Hoode Mansion.

“Going somewhere, Red?”

Rhiad's hand flew up to her throat and she gasped in startlement. “Oh, dear heavens, Damien! You near scared the life out of me. What are you doing here and why were you skulking outside the door?”

In the light of day, Rhiad realized, he seemed much larger than she remembered. Her gaze skimmed across the wide breadth of his shoulders, down past the expanse of his chest to where his waist tapered in, and unbidden, the memory of being pressed against him in the dark less than a week past made her face flush hot with remembered pleasure.

Her fingers tingled, and for a moment, she wondered at what his reaction would have been had she greeted him with a kiss and a warm smile rather than...

“I have come to see my betrothed, of course. Where are you off to, Red? To set up another of your grandmother's wonderful matchmaking schemes against some other poor, unsuspecting dupe?”

Rhiad scoffed at his pretense of scorn. “I told you before, I had no part other than that of innocent victim in this unfortunate turn of events, and yet... Grams has certainly taken this much too far. But I refuse to let her ruin your life. I fully intend to cry off, Damien. In fact, that is why I am here, now. I was coming to see you, to tell you--”

“You will not leave this house without a proper chaperon, Red. The countess has already proved there is nothing beneath her when it comes to getting what she wants. I would dearly regret finding myself forced to shoot some fool fellow she had duped into 'rescuing' you as a backup plan, should this one fail to follow through.

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