Read Online How To Rescue A Rake (Book Club Belles Society 3) by Jayne Fresina - Free Book Online Page B

He winked. “Such an education is invaluable, and no woman has ever had cause to complain that I lack skill.”
    Rebecca snorted. “I’m quite sure you’ve never heard any complaints because you make yourself scarce the next day to escape fathers, husbands, brothers, and other consequences of that nature.”
    “What a thing to say to your own brother.”
    “I can say it to you because you are my brother. And someone has to show you the error of your flirtatious, unguarded ways.”
    He laughed. “I never seduced any fragile maidens, I assure you.”
    She looked skeptical. “I knew plenty of naive little misses who took your flirting seriously and suffered when you forgot them entirely the next day, once you were sober.”
    “I never forgot a single one! I remember them all fondly and always made certain to send them a gift.”
    Sarah dashed back into the room as if she feared missing any part of their conversation, and now he endured two sets of eyes studying him with a great deal of worrisome consideration. He suspected they were already running through a list of potential brides who might take him in hand.
    When his sister once again pried for details about his business, Nathaniel was deliberately vague.
    “I don’t know why you cannot say,” she exclaimed. “Clearly you wish people to know you’ve done well, or you would not be dressed that way.”
    “Of course. But they don’t have to know exactly how well or how I managed it. Let them wonder.”
    “They will assume the worst. That you came by your new wealth by some illicit means.”
    He laughed. “Perhaps I did. But the woman I choose to marry will have to be brave and take me on”—he patted the side of his nose with one finger—“dark secrets and all.”
    “What woman do you think will possibly be induced to take you knowing nothing about your life?”
    “It’s a test, Sister. This way I can be sure she loves me , not merely the accessories that might come along with marriage to me.”
    “An addled woman blinded by love, you mean.”
    He widened his eyes innocently. “Are not all women addled to some extent?”
    While she was still shouting at him for that comment, Luke Wainwright came in, walking with a cane. A short, stout, ugly dog—one that had featured in several of Sarah’s sketches—trundled solidly, with a certain degree of self-importance, at his heels. “Captain Sherringham! We are glad to see you returned after so long. I have you to thank for the acquisition of a wife, you know.”
    “Ah, I did hear something of that matter.” He glanced at his sister, who blushed under her freckles. “A gambling debt, was it not? One of mine probably.”
    Luke grinned broadly. “If not for that debt you once owed me, Sherringham, your sister would never have given an unsightly old sinner like me a kiss on the lips. And if not for that kiss, she’d never have been forced to marry me.” He limped to the window seat where his wife sat and placed a kiss on her forehead, then one on the baby’s soft hair too. “Now that’s a pleasant sight to come home to after a morning in the fields.” With a look back at Nathaniel he added, “You ought to get yourself one, Sherringham. A wife, that is.”
    “Oh, I intend to. I am fully open to the idea of acquiring a wife now and babes at once, many of them.”
    Luke took the child from his wife and carried him under one arm to wash his face in the scullery. The dog, having sniffed Nathaniel’s gleaming boots, flopped down by the fire and rolled leisurely onto his back, presenting a belly for Sarah to scratch in a motion that seemed quite routine.
    “Well, don’t run hastily into marriage,” said Rebecca. “I know how impulsive you can be, Nate. You must make sure she is the right woman for you before you marry. I would hate for you to make a mistake and be unhappy, trapped.”
    “I promise you, Sister”—Nathaniel put on a somber face—“I am far from the fool I once was.”
    She looked