Read Online A Most Scandalous Proposal by Ashlyn Macnamara - Free Book Online Page B

a man who equaled Highgate for sheer arrogance,and that was saying quite a lot. He caught at her arm, and she whirled, her eyes on a level with his. Perhaps he was like Napoleon—what he lacked in size, he compensated for in pride.
    “What don’t I understand,
my lord
? Please explain in terms I will understand.”
    He inclined his head. “My apologies. We are essentially strangers. In time, we shall learn to get along.”
    She raised her chin and bit back a smile of satisfaction when he pushed himself up on his toes to remain on her level. “We most certainly shall not. If I was not inclined to refuse you before, you’ve just tipped the scales against yourself.”
    “I see you do not give a fig for your reputation. Have you stopped to consider mine?”
    Sudden gratitude toward William washed through her. Unwittingly, he’d given her a weapon to use against Highgate. “Your reputation precedes you, my lord.”
    He studied her for a long moment, his gaze piercing, assessing. Her blush provided little protection against the feeling of transparency, as if her every last hope and desire were laid bare before him. It stripped her naked. A shiver coursed through her, and she gathered her pelisse more closely about her shoulders.
    “So you’ve heard of my first marriage,” he said at last.
    Certain victory was near, she allowed herself a smile. “Yes.”
    He waved a hand. “Rumors, of course. What have you heard?”
    Sophia bit her lip. She couldn’t come out with an accusation of murder. He was going about in society. Her parents must have admitted him to the house. What William had hinted at yesterday morning could not have been in circulation.
    Come to think of it, Lady Wexford would never have let him show his face at the Posselthwaites’ if he’d had ahand in his wife’s demise. Little comfort, somehow, that thought.
    “Rumors, as you’ve said,” she replied.
    “If it will lay your concerns to rest, I can tell you what happened. Quite simply, I made what I thought was an advantageous match. But what society deems an advantage and what is, in fact, an advantage in the actual living are two different things. In short, we did not suit, but we did not realize our mistake until it was too late.”
    A stiff breeze blew into the garden, tossing dried leaves about in a swirl and whipping the points of Highgate’s collar against his chin. Sophia hunched her shoulders.
    “I see.” But she didn’t. Not completely. His explanation only covered half the story. But perhaps he’d never heard the darker insinuations. Didn’t that fact alone put the lie to them?
    “I’m not sure you do. Since that time, I’ve preferred to avoid another such entanglement, and I’ve stayed away from society. Gossip, as my sister is ever eager to remind me, has made of my marriage what it will.”
    “I do not understand. Why offer for me, if you do not wish another marriage?”
    He rubbed his hands together. The raw wind had stained his cheeks red. “I must marry. It is my responsibility to leave an heir to whom I can pass my title.”
    “You do not need me, specifically, for that. Any young miss would do. Even a widow.”
    His breath released on a heavy sigh. “I have no choice but to offer for you now. Surely you see that. If I do not, any good family will discount my suit, and given my disastrous first marriage, I do not need any further black marks to my name.”
    Anger seethed inside her, its heat little comfort against the day’s chill. “So that’s it then. Because of a few moments, my entire life will be dictated to me. I cannot even call it an indiscretion. My goodness, I did not getso much as a kiss out of the evening, and yet I’m forced into marriage with you. A marriage, I might add, that neither one of us wants.”
    He reached for her shoulders, his hands sliding along her woolen pelisse, up her neck, until they framed her face. Leather-clad thumbs traced her cheekbones.
    She pulled in a lungful of cold air. A