Read Online His Impassioned Proposal (The Bridgethorpe Brides) by Aileen Fish - Free Book Online

glanced at him, his smile was warm, his eyes glowing with the kind of excitement she remembered from their younger days.
    “Your visit was quite unexpected,” she said.
    “I wish I could claim to have devised it to spend time with you while observing my mourning period, but it was David’s doing. I ran into him in Town after I met with my solicitor.” He explained the purchase of the vehicles and horses.
    “I don’t mean this harshly, but I’m surprised at your acquisition of a carriage. Was your father’s damaged in the fire?”
    “No, the carriage house was safe, as were the horses. I bought this with an eye toward the future.”
    The only purpose Jane could imagine for such a sporty conveyance was the desire to appear fashionable, which was so far removed from what she thought she knew as Stephen’s character. “I don’t understand.”
    “With the right team of horses, I could do quite well racing the curricle.”
    “And that is how you see your future? Racing curricles?”
    He turned his gaze on her, squinting into the sunlight. “The Lumleys have made a name for themselves in the Jockey Club. As has your father. There’s no shame in racing on wheels instead of on horseback.”
    She looked away, seeing the Abbey off in the distance. “It’s not shameful, but I thought you intended to farm like your father.”
    He shrugged. “My father sold most of his land. I must find something to do with my days.”
    “But race winnings and betting on your team surely won’t earn you the living you mentioned you desired.”
    “It doesn’t have to,” he said casually and didn’t elaborate.
    Jane reminded herself it wasn’t her place to ascertain how large a living Stephen received. One drunken proposal didn’t signify he intended to offer for her properly. Her shoulders drooped slightly. One minute she wanted to go back before their discussion in Bridgethorpe’s library to start afresh, the next she was determined to forget him.
    Life had seemed so much easier when she didn’t have to consider the other young men, none of whom stirred any excitement inside her. They weren’t her Stephen.
    But then, neither was Stephen.
    He was still one of her oldest friends and one with much upheaval in his life. If racing a curricle gave him joy, he deserved as much. He also deserved to be surrounded by good friends. She decided to act like one, even if it frustrated and confused her to do so. “Did you find Larkspur Cottage badly damaged?”
    “Just the one wing. Simmons has probably finished with the initial repairs by now.”
    “You aren’t rebuilding the wing?”
    His expressive brown eye, the undamaged one, locked onto hers. “I thought that might be an area in which my wife would wish to voice an opinion.”
    Oh. When she’d last spoken with him, he’d sounded as if a wife was the last item on his lengthy list of chores to finish, one he really didn’t care whether he scratched off. She fought the whisper of hope that swelled in her that he did plan to marry. “Yes. Many young ladies enjoy bestowing a bit of their own tastes on their new homes.”
    “And you, Jane? Do you look forward to decorating a house?”
    “I’ve honestly not given it much thought.” When she and Hannah visited, they talked of many things, but never about the houses they hoped to live in, and rarely about the men they wished to marry, until recently. For Jane, the latter had been understood, and the former didn’t matter. She would have followed Stephen anywhere he wished to live. “I think, perhaps, since I had no notion of when you might return, I put it from my mind.”
    Biting her lip, she realized how that might sound. “I apologize, Stephen. That sounds petulant of me. I didn’t spend my days pining over your absence.” She laughed suddenly. “At least, not after the first half year or so. All of us, your parents and cousins, my parents, we all were quite proud of you for buying your colors.”
    Stephen shifted on the