The Love Match by Lily Maxton

Author:Lily Maxton [Maxton, Lily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical romance;category;regency;sisters of scandal
ISBN: 9781633751033
Google: pbCTBAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00NS3NC4M
Barnesnoble: B00NS3NC4M
Goodreads: 23257806
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

“Have you decided on a wife yet?” William asked as Ashworth lined up his shot. The gun blasted and recoiled, and a pheasant plummeted to the ground. The hunting dogs rushed forward to retrieve the fallen bird.

Another pheasant was flushed out from the sound of the blast, and a few feet away, Lord Middleton raised his gun to shoot.

William wondered what Olivia’s relationship with her father was like. Were they close? Did she tell him things she didn’t tell her mother? Was he proud of the woman she’d become?

“I think I’ve narrowed down the field,” Ashworth answered.

William shook his head with a smile. “You’re approaching it as a military campaign, then?”

“In two years, I’ll be thirty,” his friend said. “My mother is pressuring me for an heir, and I don’t care about holding out for a love match.” He glanced pointedly at William at the last part.

William wanted to groan. “If I’d realized how out of control things would become, I never would have said that I wouldn’t get married until I’d made a love match. Do you know how many white-dressed debutantes have thrown themselves at me, or been thrown at me?”

“You enjoy the attention,” Ash scoffed.

“Up to a point,” he admitted. “This went well beyond that point.”

The men, by silent agreement, began to head back to the house. William and Ashworth fell to the back of the group as they talked.

“To whom have you narrowed it down?”

“Lady Sarah—”

“Lovely face,” he commented. “Old family.”

“And Miss Middleton.”

His head shot up. He stared at his friend for several long seconds and tried to ignore the wrenching in his gut. “Miss Middleton? Why?”

“I think she’d be rather biddable. I’m not certain that Lady Sarah would be. And I find her pleasant enough.”

Pleasant enough. That didn’t begin to describe her. For the first time in his life, William wanted to strike his childhood friend. “She won’t be biddable,” he ground out.

“Whatever gave you that impression?” Ash cast him a sidelong glance and cocked his eyebrow.

“Have you actually had a real conversation with her? She’s not biddable. She’s exasperating and unusual and…and she’s smarter than you are. How many books have you read in your whole life? Five?”

“Hmm,” Ashworth uttered, not offended at all. “Will I be invited to the wedding?”

“I beg your pardon?” William’s voice rose.

“Miss Middleton is not one of my choices. I simply wanted to see what you thought of her. And now I know. That love match everyone is so anticipating might be in the making, eh?”

It felt as if he’d been dunked headfirst in icy water. His skin went numb. His lungs had trouble drawing in the required amount of air. And when the numbness ebbed, it was replaced with indescribable, potent anger.

“No. Don’t be a fool,” he managed to bite out, and increased his pace as though his friend were a demon he needed to outrun, lest he be swallowed whole.

What he felt for Olivia wasn’t love. It was fondness, a fleeting attraction, and that was all.

That was all he would ever allow it to be.

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.