Read Online A Prudent Match by Laura Matthews - Free Book Online

must have been. I suppose I look quite crass in comparison.” He took a quick gulp of the rich amber liquid and returned the glass to the table.
    For some time he stood staring into the fire, a slight frown lowering his brows. Then he absently kicked a log further onto the fire, shrugged, and headed for his room.
    * * * *
    Despite his promise, Prudence was nervous. She lay stiffly in her new bed, her most modest nightdress enveloping every inch of flesh from her chin to her ankles. When she had released the pins from her hair, it had sprung in all directions and she had ruthlessly brushed it into something like submission. But with her head on the pillow she could tell that her hair had fanned out around her head like a misbegotten halo. Ledbetter would think she looked like a witch.
    She had left a candle burning, as on the previous night. Its flame wavered in the slight breeze that wafted through the room, casting long shadows on the walls and ceiling. Prudence had left the velvet hangings open on one side, where Ledbetter could climb into the bed. She herself had rolled as far as possible to the other side and waited there with her lip caught between her teeth.
    There was a soft knock on her door, and she forced herself to say, “Come in.” Ledbetter entered, in a royal blue dressing gown that sat easily on his broad shoulders. He set his candle down beside hers, and in the double light regarded her for a long moment. “You'll fall out of bed if you get any farther over,” he said dryly before snuffing both candles.
    In the darkness Prudence saw him start to remove the dressing gown and she turned her gaze away, remembering what he had said about sleeping without clothes. She had taken pains to warm his side of the bed with a warming pan and hoped it had not cooled off before he arrived. Now she felt the mattress shift as he positioned himself on his side of the bed.
    Hoping to sound perfectly normal, she said a cheerful goodnight. His rumble of quiet laughter slightly shook the bed. “My dear girl, we're not ready to go to sleep yet,” he said.
    “We aren't?”
    “No, we're going to talk for a few minutes. Give me you hand.”
    “My hand?”
    “Yes, dear. I'm going to hold your hand while we talk.”
    “Why?”  She could tell when he reached a hand across toward her and she timidly placed hers in it.
    “Because we need to have some physical contact.” He twined his fingers with hers and then began to rub his thumb against her skin. “Tell me why your sister Lizzie would have put whitewash in my shaving soap.”
    The question startled a laugh out of her. “Did she? Naughty Lizzie. Did you catch her doing it?”
    “Oh, no. But there is no one else who could possibly have been responsible, and I saw her studying my face very carefully when I appeared for the marriage service.”
    “She must have been disappointed that you weren't white as a sheep.” Prudence smiled in the dark at the picture which formed in her mind. Then a thought distracted her. “Did you tell anyone?”
    “No, of course not. I had no wish to get her in trouble. But I was a little concerned that it might mean she had taken me in dislike.”
    “I don't think so.” Prudence remembered Lizzie's fears about the marriage, but they hadn't really centered on Ledbetter. “She just can't resist playing pranks now and then. And I don't think she was happy that I was leaving home.”
    “No, I don't think she was.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it before returning it to the no-man's-land between them. “I told her she might visit us sometime.”
    Prudence was very aware that her arm had brushed along his bare chest when he lifted her hand to kiss it. This reminder that his body was naked made her stiffen slightly. “That was kind of you.”
    “Not particularly. She was offended that I didn't set a specific date.”
    “Poor Lizzie. She doesn't feel she has anything in common with my other two sisters, and indeed I cannot