Read Online Away Went Love by Mary Burchell - Free Book Online Page B

five hundred pounds is that you marry me.”

 
    CHAPTER FOUR
    “MARRY you!”
    Hope’s chair scraped back harshly on the floor as she sprang to her feet.
    “Um-hm. I said ‘marry’.” He seemed unmoved—even faintly amused—by the violence of her reaction.
    “But—why? It’s a preposterous suggestion. I’m engaged to Richard, and you and I—we don’t even like each other.”
    “Oh, pardon me, I’ve never said I don’t like you.”
    “Not in so many words, perhaps. But it’s obvious in everything you do and say.”
    “Is it really, Hope?” he said slowly. “I don’t mean to give that impression.—At least, not often,” he amended with dry candour. “But sit down while we discuss this.”
    “There’s nothing to discuss,” she retorted, but she sat down.
    “There’s a proposal of marriage to discuss,” he reminded her.
    “But I couldn’t even think of it. You know perfectly well it’s out of the question. And anyway, I’m engaged to Richard.”
    “And still determined to marry him, in spite of the latest revelation of his character?”
    “Certainly.” She flushed, but kept her temper under control.
    “You’re a bad judge of your own interests, my dear,” he told her. “But I should say your Richard is a good judge of his. And that being so—now don’t fly off the handle, but consider this quite honestly—are you quite sure he’ll still want to marry you, now that he knows you have no money?”
    “Of course I’m sure!”
    “No misgivings at all?”
    Those piercingly shrewd dark eyes were full on her in that moment “Of course n—” She stopped. It was ridiculous of her—disloyal—fanciful, but for the life of her she could not complete that emphatic testimony to her faith in Richard. Deep in her heart there lingered still those terrifying doubts which had assailed her when she first knew she was poor. Richard’s teasing, laughing self-congratulation on her supposed wealth had been just a joke when there was no sting of anxious truth connected with it. Now—
    She slowly raised her eyes, to find Errol Tamberly still regarding her with interest, and, for a terribly disturbing moment, she thought she saw something like pity in his glance.
    “Not quite so sure as you thought you were?” he enquired.
    “It’s not that.” She found her voice with difficulty. “Of course, the fact that I’m not rich after all affects the whole question of—of our marriage arrangements. There hasn’t even been a chance to discuss that with Richard yet, so—so, technically speaking, I can’t answer for his views. But I—I know it won’t make any difference to his wanting to marry me.”
    Yet, even as she said that, she remembered Richard saying easily that he would love her just the same if she were poor, only ‘whether they would have any prospect of marrying and being happy would be another thing’.
    “Well, Hope, ‘technically speaking’ ”—he seemed to find the phrase amusing—“I am not qualified to answer for Richard Fander’s views either, but, if I were a betting man, I’d be prepared to lay pretty long odds that he’ll revise his matrimonial plans. How about that?”
    “Why should I be interested in your opinion about it?” she said coldly, though she wished her hands would stop trembling.
    “No reason at all, except that it’s the opinion of a fairly knowledgeable and worldly person. What I meant was—how about it if I’m right and he does want to wriggle out of an unprofitable marriage? Do you still want to help him to dodge prison, to the extent of five hundred?”
    Again Hope nervously moistened her rather dry lips with the tip of her tongue.
    “I couldn’t let Richard go to prison. Especially I couldn’t let him go because of this. You see, it—it was largely for me that he wanted to make a lot of money.”
    “Indeed?” Errol Tamberly’s thick dark eyebrows rose to an extremely sceptical height.
    “Yes. He thought he saw a chance of making a