Read Online Joan Wolf by The Scottish Lord - Free Book Online Page B

comforting. He was on her side, Frances thought confusedly. And because she was frightened and didn’t know what to do, she told him. “I’m going to have a baby.”
    He felt as if someone had hit him across the face without provocation or warning. “My God!” he said, and she bowed her head again.          “Macdonald’s?” he asked shortly, and the golden head nodded.
     Lord Robert’s blue eyes were black with anger. “And he left you?” he asked incredulously.
    “He didn’t know,” her voice was muffled. She went on, automatically coming to Ian’s defense, “He asked me. I said I was all right.”
    “But why?”
    She couldn’t tell him the real reason. “I was angry,” she said. She was as still now as she had been restless before. She raised her beautiful eyes to his and said, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
    He stared down at her, and there was a white line around his mouth. “I said once there was nothing I wouldn’t do for you,” he said at last. “I meant it. Marry me.”
    She looked pale as a waxen saint. “I can’t do that.”
    His mouth twisted. “Do you find me so repulsive?”
    “No!” There was distress in her voice. “Of course not. Only there is more involved here than just the two of us. You are a man of great position. You cannot accept another man’s son as your heir.”
    “The child may be a girl,” he said steadily. “I’ll take the chance.” He smiled somewhat crookedly. “Don’t think me a hero, Frances. I thought I had lost you. If this is the only way I can get you, I’ll take it. If we are married immediately no one will ever know the child isn’t mine.”
    She looked searchingly into his face. What she saw there seemed to reassure her. “Are you certain?” she said hesitantly.
    He had not yet touched her. He put his hands on her shoulders now and felt her stiffen slightly. A sudden fear struck him. His love for Frances was not at all brotherly. With sudden decision he pulled her closer, bending his head to find her lips.
    His mouth was warm and hard and insistent on hers and Frances instinctively resisted him. But then she opened her eyes and saw his face, the bright hair falling forward over his forehead.
    He was not at all like Ian. Slowly her heart quieted and she leaned against him, comforted by his strong arms and slow-moving kisses. When he finally raised his head his blue eyes looked relieved. “It’s going to be all right,” he said in a rich, deep voice.
    “Yes,” she replied on a note of wonder. “I think it is.”
       They were married a week later and Robert took her first to the lakes and then home to Aysgarth. His father and mother were pleased to learn that their son had carried off the girl who was being called the beauty of the century, and soon they came to appreciate Frances for her own sake. They were gentle and kind, reasonable and satisfied. The house itself was very lovely, with huge rooms furnished with sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century furniture. It was the sort of house that had grown gradually, under centuries of Sedburgh guardianship. Frances, who was used to Scottish country houses, products of colder winters and families with considerably less money than the Sedburghs, was very impressed. The first time she had seen it it had seemed enormous and powerful and intimidating, but it was the kind of household that was still rooted in its neighborhood, and she soon found that while the scale of life was different from what she was used to, the substance was not.
    Robert’s three younger brothers were at school, so the Earl and Countess of Aysgarth were the only other inhabitants of the house for most of the time. When it became obvious that Frances was going to have a child they were delighted. Lady Aysgarth spent hours telling Frances about the history of the Sedburgh family, which had acquired its earldom under Elizabeth.
       Frances was wretched. She had lied to everyone about the