Waking Up With a Rake by Mia Marlowe & Connie Mason

Author:Mia Marlowe & Connie Mason
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Romance, Regency, Historical, Fiction
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

going to have to marry him.

“What if I don’t make her happy?”

The tiger fur seemed to be rushing up to meet him,

but it might have been that he crumpled to the floor.

“At least I’m being sent into exile in style,”

The last thing he heard before he let the gathering

Olivia said to no one in particular as the sumptuously

blackness envelop him was Mr. Symon saying, “See that

padded coach lurched along the frozen road. The

you do, boy. I’m still a damn good shot.”

only one who might have heard her was Rhys, but

he was slumped on the opposite squab, snoring like a

two- man saw.

It was bad enough that her father felt it necessary to

bundle her off before breakfast, without even giving her

a chance to say good- bye to her mother or sisters.

“That would defeat the purpose of an elopement,”

Papa had argued. “The whole idea is to steal away

without anyone’s notice.”

Not that they’d been particularly successful in that

respect either. She was sure most of the guests quartered near her chamber were aware that Rhys Warrington

had been caught there with her in a compromising

situation. No one could have slept through Horatio

Symon’s roaring. By now, the tale had surely lost

nothing in the telling.

And word of their flight certainly swirled through

the servants’ wing of the great house once Mr. Thatcher

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204

Connie Mason with Mia Marlowe

Waking Up with a Rake

and Davy were ordered to hitch up the matched set of

bays to the Symon’s best traveling coach.

“But I’m still a virgin,” she’d told her father, grateful now that Rhys had made sure she remained one.

It didn’t matter. Papa had come to a “gentlemen’s

agreement” with Lord Rhys over copious amounts of

spirits and that was that.

The worst of it all was for the first time her father

refused to listen to her. He wouldn’t be swayed when

she pleaded with him not to send her away with a

drunken lord. Until today, she’d have said she was a

little bit his favorite among all his daughters, but his face was set like stone.

It had softened for just a moment before he closed

the carriage door. “Be careful, daughter, and write your

mother once everything’s settled good and proper,” he

said. “Lord Rhys gave me his word he’ll try to make

you happy, and we already know he is particular about

your protection. If anything happens to you, I…”

Her gruff father found he needed to blow his nose

and did so loudly after the door clanged shut.

Barrowdell was within a hard day’s drive of the

Scottish border, so word of fleeing couples who

were bent on taking advantage of the liberal Scottish

marriage laws came to her mother’s notice with

frequency. Beatrice Symon always made a tsking noise

when they did.

“It smacks of seediness and poor upbringing,”

she’d say. Words like “shockingly fast,” “loose

morals,” and “bun already in the oven” were burned

into Olivia’s memory.

Even though she was ashamed at being hustled away

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Waking Up with a Rake

205

and Davy were ordered to hitch up the matched set of

to be married on the quick, part of her still might have

bays to the Symon’s best traveling coach.

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