Too Many Matchmakers by Allison Lane

Author:Allison Lane [Lane, Allison]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1998-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

By the time Diana descended for breakfast, she had stopped shaking. Allowing his kiss had been the height of stupidity. And allow was exactly right. He hadn’t forced her. There had been a moment when she had known he would kiss her if she didn’t turn away. She hadn’t. A tiny voice inside her head had wondered if it would be the same.

Fool! It was not the same. She could have controlled her reaction to his old kisses. But this was beyond her wildest dreams – so far beyond that she doubted she could have controlled herself even if she had known what to expect.

Worse was the admission that he made her feel alive in a way she had not been for ten years. Even arguing with him left her glowing for hours. But his goals had not changed. He had no use for her beyond sex. He could still seduce her, she admitted in despair. Somehow she must prevent that from happening, for accepting his attentions would betray Harry.

“How I wish you were here, Harry!” she whispered.

But he wasn’t. And she was too weak. So she must avoid Nicholas – and if that meant avoiding London, she would do it. Let him think what he would. It no longer mattered. She could not handle another broken heart.

It had been Harry who had repaired her last one. She doubted her father had even known.

All the old guilt returned. She had been so wrapped up in Nicholas that she had paid little attention to her father beyond gratitude that she was able to slip away so often. Her mother had died four years earlier, and her governess had left in May. Only the two of them had remained at home, but he spent most of his time dealing with estate matters, seeing her only at dinner. Not until a week after Nicholas left did she learn the full truth.

Sir Walter Winslow had made a series of bad investments that had put him on the verge of ruin. He had hoped to convince a distant cousin to bear the expense of presenting her to society, but that was not to be. So there would be no London Season.

In her grief over Nicholas, she had actually been glad. Seeing him in London would have destroyed her. But his next statement had driven even thoughts of Nicholas away.

He was dying.

She had really looked at him then, shocked to see how thin he had grown, appalled at the waxy pallor that underlay remnants of tan. She had hardly taken in that reality before he announced that Lord Bounty had offered for her. When he pressed her to accept, she could only agree. Shock and grief had made thinking impossible.

But she knew she could not go to Bounty without admitting that her heart was engaged. And so she had bared every detail of that summer to the near-stranger who asked for her hand. She could still feel his comforting arms close around her as he gently dried her tears.

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