Read Online Love's Reward by Jean R. Ewing - Free Book Online

inherit Evenham Abbey. I will do it, but you may have my oath upon it that there will be no joy in it for you and Lady Evenham.”
    “I will see you wed, sir.” Lord Evenham closed the lid of his snuffbox with a snap. “And if force is what it takes, so be it. You have a duty to your house and to your blood. Your Spanish bride has been dead for two years. As the next earl of Evenham, it is incumbent upon you to take another wife. Lord Acton and I have agreed to the settlements. But do not think for a moment that Lord Acton is bluffing about Quentin, or that I will intervene. If you refuse, you will see your brother hang.”
    “And which do you think is more trying to my tender sensibilities?” The subtle voice betrayed depths of sarcastic awareness. “A hanging or a wedding?”
    Joanna was shaking. “Whose wedding?”
    Tarrant turned to her and grinned. He looked wild, dangerous.
    “Why, yours and mine, my dear,” he said gaily. “Our fathers have agreed without consulting either of us. Your father will overlook my family’s stain to your honor, if I redeem your reputation by marrying you. Otherwise he will have his revenge on that poor clay.”
    He indicated the still flaccid figure of his brother, breathing more noisily now on the couch. Quentin groaned and turned over.
    “But how?” she said.
    Tarrant held up the two sheets of paper that Richard had handed him with the letter.
    “This is a legal complaint drawn out against Quentin Mountfitchet for the kidnapping and rape of Lady Joanna Acton. And this is a special license for the marriage of that same lady to Fitzroy Monteith Mountfitchet, Viscount Tarrant. It is up to us which one is acted upon.”
    “What?” Joanna exclaimed. “This is absurd. I won’t marry you.”
    “Oh, no, my dear, on reflection I think that you will, though it is as far from my inclination as it is from yours. Sadly, I am quite a catch, however black my character.”
    Suddenly hating the hostility he saw in her face, Fitzroy turned to Richard.
    “Unless you think that when you tell Lord Acton what kind of man he is forcing is daughter to wed, he will change his mind?”
    Joanna caught at her brother’s sleeve. “You can stop Father from doing this, surely?”
    “He won’t care,” Richard said, gently touching her cheek. His eyes were bleak with devastation. “Unfortunately Tarrant doesn’t make a false claim about his value on the marriage mart, Joanna. As heir to Evenham, he’s a fine catch.”
    Lord Evenham laughed. “If my son had murdered and ravished his way across Europe and back again, Lady Joanna, your father wouldn’t mind.”
    “But you will always have the backing of your brothers, sister mine,” Richard said quietly. “Either Harry or I will happily cripple or dispatch him for you, if you ever say the word.”
    “And if I still refuse to marry him?”
    Richard’s distress was clear in every feature. “Then Father will press charges against Quentin and see him hanged, and you will live out your days confined to King’s Acton, publicly disgraced. There will be no reprieve and certainly no painting. He means it, Joanna. Quentin may deserve death, but only you can decide what to do. I hope that it will be to tell all the Mountfitchets to go hang.”
    “Lord Lenwood!” Fitzroy said, mocking. “When did you ever suggest that an innocent man should meet such a fate? I am as much a victim of my brother’s indiscretion as your sister, am I not?”
    Richard met his derisive gaze. “For God’s sake, Tarrant, show her the letter!”
    With an elegant bow, Fitzroy gave Joanna her father’s letter.
    Rage sputtered from the page, echoed in the ink splattered across the paper by a pen breaking under too forceful a fist. Lord Acton had learned from Lord Evenham that Quentin was already married. The two earls had agreed to the only solution: Joanna must marry Quentin’s brother, Fitzroy, or they would both suffer the consequences.
    She closed her eyes for a