Read Online Jade Lee - [Bridal Favors 03] by What the Bride Wore - Free Book Online Page B

needed the cash to buy the land back.”
    “Problem?” Robert asked, his eyebrows raised.
    Grant swallowed then slowly explained the details to Robert.
    “Tough luck,” his friend murmured. “Damn tough luck.”
    “It’s the only luck I seem to have.”
    Ah, quit your whining, interrupted his madness. Good Lord, you’ve gone boring.
    You’d rather I burned down a barn again? He shot back at his madness. Then he took a deep breath, realizing his insanity was getting the better of him. He was here with his friend, and for the first time in a very long time, he had no urgent need to read a mill tally of numbers. So he drank his tea and… he simply drank his tea.
    Robert did the same, and so they remained for a good minute or two. Which was long enough for Grant to notice something close to earth-shattering. Robert was relaxed. Usually an intimidating man, Robert seemed downright casual today. He smiled easily, he wasn’t sitting ramrod straight or silently fuming, and he’d just chuckled at a joke spoken at a nearby table. Robert Percy, Lord Redhill, had chuckled.
    “Good God, man,” Grant said with a bit of awe in his voice. “You’ve found it.”
    “What?”
    “Marital bliss.”
    Robert’s eyes actually sparkled. A slow, lazy smile appeared, and he took a happy sip of his tepid tea. “Yes, it appears I have,” he said. “In fact, I highly recommend it.”
    Grant stared at his friend. The man had all the luck. Sound business sense and now a happy marriage. Sadly, Grant doubted he would be so lucky in his choice of a woman, but he didn’t say that. Instead, he set down his teacup with a click. “Actually, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
    Robert’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Found a woman, have you?” At least he didn’t sound doubtful. More… pensive.
    A widow!
    “It’s not like you think,” Grant said with a sigh. “Lawton’s put my family land into his eldest’s dowry. Her name’s Josephine or Megan. Don’t know which.”
    Robert blinked. “Josephine, I think. Megan’s the younger one.” He leaned forward. “He refused to sell so he could make his daughter an heiress?”
    Grant nodded. “I mean to marry her, but that means courting—balls and the like. So can you invite them to your ball? And me as well?”
    His friend reared back. “Ball? What ball? We just got back in town yesterday.”
    “It’s all the talk. Seems no one’s allowed to attend unless they’ve paid their shot to your wife’s dress shop. Damned clever, if you ask me.”
    “A ball?” Robert huffed. “I was hoping to ease her into the social whirl.”
    “You mean ease you in,” Grant countered.
    Robert didn’t answer except to glower at his tea. Grant chuckled, pleased to see a flash of the old Robert. The one who always knew everything about business, but absolutely nothing about society. Thank God marital bliss didn’t change everything. Meanwhile, he waved to the waiter. “I think Lord Redhill is about to ask for something stronger than tea.”
    Robert grimaced. “A brandy. What about you, Grant?”
    Yes. The finest brandy Robert can afford. It’s been so very long!
    Grant shook his head. He hadn’t touched a drop for five years. He wasn’t about to change that while he still had a campaign to run, so to speak. “So will you talk to your lady wife? Put the Lawtons on your guest list?”
    “And you as well, yes.”
    The widow’s prettier.
    Meanwhile, Robert curled his lip at Grant. “You have to dress the part, you know. You can’t show up at my wife’s first ball looking all shaggy-eared and haggard. And I won’t even dignify whatever that is at your neck. Not a cravat, that’s for sure. You show up like that, and Helaine will wonder what kind of friends I have.”
    Grant chuckled. “Too late for that. She’s married you.”
    “There’s reason to stay in a wife’s good graces,” Robert retorted. “So if you want your name on the guest list, you’ll get a haircut and