Absolutely Wonderful by [Cheryl Holt]

Author:[Cheryl Holt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-27T00:00:00+00:00

“Is Lord Sutton finally behaving himself and leaving you alone?”

As Annette posed the question, Margaret was glad she was turned away from her cousin. It meant Annette couldn’t see how her cheeks had heated.

“Yes, he’s leaving me alone.”

“Are you lying?” Annette asked. “He’s not the sort of fellow who would be thwarted very easily.”

“Mrs. Smithwaite is gone so he’ll be mourning her departure. At the moment, he’s probably too bereft to bother with me.”

They snickered quite nastily, then peeked about to ensure none of the other guests had heard them.

They were in an upstairs salon, where a hot fire was burning. The afternoon sun was shining in the windows and warming the temperature even more. A quartet of men, some of Michael’s London chums, was playing cards on the other side of the room. They were loud and boisterous and totally ignoring Margaret and Annette who were seated on a sofa and ignoring them too.

Annette had strolled into the village and she was still chilled from it. She was wrapped in a thick woolen shawl, and she kept wandering over to the hearth and loafing next to the flames, then she’d wander back to where Margaret was reading a book.

It was the same novel she’d been slogging through in Baywick when she’d first met Michael, the one about the earl and pirate, Sebastian Bramwell. It was an exciting tale, but she was too distracted to concentrate on the story.

Annette plopped down and said, “I realize he’s fixated on you, but will he eventually propose to me? What’s your opinion? So far during our visit, he’s acted as if I’m invisible. Except for when I stumbled on him in that deserted parlor, he and I have barely chatted.”

“His deranged mind works in mysterious ways so I can’t predict how he views this debacle. He could strut in this very minute and ask for your hand. I would put nothing past him.”

“If I was his wife, would you be upset about it? I’m not certain you’ve been entirely frank about how attached you are to him.”

Margaret wasn’t about to be candid, for she’d be advising her cousin to spurn an earl. If Annette rejected Michael, Margaret could have no part in it. It was better to lie. “You and I won’t socialize all that often in the future, so if you wed him, it wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Your answer is so obviously false. Are you fond of him? Just admit it.”

“What good would it do? If I’m fond of him, or if I’m not, it can’t have any bearing on what you choose. If you refuse him, I can’t be responsible. Your mother would learn of it sooner or later and she’d murder me.”

“What a tangle,” Annette mused. “If I decide I’m not interested in having an aristocratic husband, would I give Ambrosia a heart seizure?”

“She’s been planning on it since the day you were born. It would be a difficult goal for her to abandon.”

“After my exasperating nuptial forays with Lord Grenville and Lord Sutton, it’s clear I’d be insane to shackle myself to a nobleman.

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