Read Online A Reckless Promise by Kasey Michaels - Free Book Online Page B

wasn’t exactly total, she could forgive him for his lingering anger.
    â€œI’m not that eager to make you into a monster, my lord. I only hope they find good homes if you can’t keep them in the stables.”
    â€œThere were only four. Arrangements were made. Come along, we were going for a stroll, remember?”
    Sadie looked at the closed door in horror as another thought struck her with the force of a slap to the face. “You followed me upstairs. They all saw you. The duke saw you. We’ve been gone for a long time. What are they thinking? Oh, Lord, Clarice will giggle, and the duchess will probably ask me outrageous questions. Or worse, wink at me.”
    â€œI applaud you on your belated ability to see too late what you should have realized sooner. But I’m afraid it’s worse than that. It was one thing for me to have a private talk with the widow Boxer, my ward’s aunt. Not precisely proper, considering this is your bedchamber, but rules are meant to be bent. Some of them, but not all.”
    Sadie felt a figurative pit opening beneath her feet.
    â€œBut that’s ridiculous. You can’t possibly mean—”
    â€œNo, actually, I don’t. Knowing these particular ladies as I do, I imagine they’d all think it simply deliciously naughty. Lord knows the duchess doesn’t care a snap for convention. Coop’s mother believes conventions were invented by men simply to annoy women, and Clarice, bless her, has no real idea as to what they are.”
    Sadie sagged back into the chair. “Thank God. For a moment I thought—”
    â€œYou thought I’d say convention dictates that we marry. Yes, I know. However, the idea has merit. Speaking practically.”
    Sadie believed her eyes just might pop out of her head.
    â€œI beg your— what? ” To look any more smug he’d have to push out his chest like a pouter pigeon, drat him.
    â€œSpeaking practically,” he repeated, retaking his own seat. “Marley is now mine. You? You’re rather just floating about, aren’t you? Neither here nor there, neither fish nor fowl, as it were. The aunt. The spinster aunt, well past her first blush of youth.”
    â€œI beg your pardon!”
    â€œYou cut your wisdoms years ago, Sadie Grace, even if you are not yet at your last prayers. I can’t hire you as governess and pretend you are no more than a paid employee, not when you’re the aunt. I can’t allow you to wander about my household in the aforementioned neither fish nor fowl category until Marley is grown and gone—or until you molt. If I were to marry, how on earth would I explain you to my bride? Oh, and one thing more—I’ll be damned if I’ll give you a Season. So what does that leave us, Sadie Grace, hmm?”
    â€œYou can’t mean this.”
    â€œI can’t do myriad things. I can’t fly. I can’t swim across an ocean. I can’t pat my head and rub my stomach at one and the same time—but you might want to apply to Rigby on that one, as he believes the feat extraordinary when he does it. I can , however, see the merit in a marriage of convenience between us. Purely a business arrangement. And think how pleased Marley will be, to know for certain that you’re not going to leave her. Consider the child, Sadie Grace.”
    â€œI can’t believe this is happening.”
    â€œOh, come now, am I that terrible? I’m fairly attractive, even with the patch. My teeth are good, I bathe on a regular basis and am complimented on my abilities on the dance floor. Oh, yes, I’m also so very wealthy I could grow old just counting my money. In short, I’m quite the coup.”
    â€œAnd so modest with it all, although I suppose I do appreciate the bathe regularly part of your self-serving description. You did, however, neglect to mention that you can be exceedingly annoying, entirely too enthralled by your own wit,