The Beast Takes a Bride by Julie Anne Long

Author:Julie Anne Long
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2024-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty minutes later they stood in his former housekeeper’s comfortable rooms in a respectable, working-class neighborhood a few minutes’ carriage ride from the park. Mr. Lawler had sent word to Mrs. Scofield ahead of time that Magnus would be paying her a visit.

“This is your wife, Magnus?” Mrs. Scofield squinted up at her when they were introduced. “Me eyes are not the same as they once was but you looks to be a pretty one.” She sounded skeptical.

“Oh, you guessed correctly, Mrs. Scofield. I am pretty.” Alexandra said it mischievously.

The corner of Magnus’s mouth twitched.

Mrs. Scofield’s face was mapped with fine wrinkles and her soft, round body spilled over the seat of her rocking chair. Her pewter-gray hair was scraped up into a tight knot on the top of her capless head. Her brown wool dress and her visible furniture—a settee, a table and chairs, a rocking chair, in which she currently sat—she was unable to stand for very long now, due to rheumatism—were serviceable and clean.

“Hmmph. You nivver thought a pretty girl would even look at ye, isn’t that so, Magnus? D’yer remember what Molly use ter do when she saw ye?”

Alexandra wondered immediately who Molly was.

But Magnus appeared not to be listening. He turned abruptly and paced to the window, apparently inspecting its frame. “Are you comfortable, Mrs. Scofield? Are the flues kept clean? Does the housekeeper visit regularly?”

Perhaps her hearing wasn’t what it was, either, because she didn’t reply to Magnus’s questions. “Must be the money,” Mrs. Scofield decided. “’e’s got money now, and the blokes with the money always get the pretty wives, am I right, Mrs. Brightwall, no matter what them blokes look like?” She cackled.

This was when Alexandra went warily still.

She hadn’t known what to expect—one of those cuddly, heart-of-gold, salt-of-the-earth family retainers? Perhaps Mrs. Scofield and Magnus shared a sort of jesting relationship?

“Indeed, it’s better when a bloke has money than when he doesn’t,” Alexandra agreed somberly, somewhat wickedly.

Magnus’s back was to her, but she could almost feel sardonic amusement raying from him.

“Oh, but ye oughter ’ave seen ’im in those days, Mrs. Brightwall.” Mrs. Scofield shook her head. “Nivver would have guessed such a homely, skinny baby would grow into such a great lout, all hands and feet. We found ’im girning in a potato sack next to a delivery of turnips. ’e was lucky we kept ’im and didna throw ’im to the workhouse or for the rats to nibble on. Ha ha ha! ’e wouldna be standin’ ’ere today.”

Alexandra tensed. Her heart began to race, as though someone had come at her with fists.

“All of England is lucky you brought him in,” Alexandra managed evenly, carefully. “Which means you are lucky you brought him in.”

“Oh, I suppose, certainly.” Mrs. Scofield was airily dismissive. “We didna feel that way at the time, ye see. Such a burden ’e was at first! Ye’d nivver think ’e’d marry anyone. What was the name of the lady’s maid who would cross herself when she saw ye in the ’all, Magnus? You would have thought she was a princess, way ’e looked at her.

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