Read Online Once Again a Bride by Jane Ashford - Free Book Online

months watching the misery menfolk could bring to your life?
    ***
    Ethan watched the new girl refusing to laugh. He saw a small female with a sharp chin, glossy brown hair, and wary blue eyes. Unless he was mistaken, a very neat figure lurked under her countrified gown. And he wasn’t ever mistaken about that sort of thing. Her gaze shifted from person to person, observing carefully, and clearly not trusting things to be as they seemed, which was interesting. Ethan was a dedicated observer himself. You learned a lot by being quiet and watching, particularly in the place he loved most in all the world—the forest. For him, in fact, observing was the only way to learn. Reading was no good. Little black marks on a page never penetrated his thick skull. Unlike his brother Sam, who loved figuring so much he got the parson to teach him “mathematics.” Now apprenticed to the estate steward, Sam was likely to make a big success of himself. You’d think that would be enough for their dad, but no…
    The point was: Ethan got new skills by watching them done. Watching had taught him all kinds of things that people didn’t even know he knew.
    Agnes said something that made Lucy really smile, and Ethan straightened. She lit up like a Christmas tree when she smiled. Ethan hadn’t thought she was pretty, but when her face filled with life and light, she was something better. She was a dazzler. And he’d bet she didn’t even know it. She didn’t strike him as one of those girls who posed in front of mirrors and tried out their charms.
    It was an irresistible combination. A vastly appealing girl he hadn’t known all his life, who was also nothing like the pert London misses he’d encountered, who put him right off. He tried to catch her eye again, but she wasn’t having any. Hah, a challenge; he purely loved a challenge.
    ***
    When he was in town, Alec read his newspaper over breakfast. Even this year, with his sisters along, he’d had no qualms about maintaining that habit. Anne was the only other early riser in the family, and her illness kept her abed. But he’d barely begun the following morning when their houseguest appeared. She paused in the doorway as if startled. “Good morning…” he began, and stopped. This name business was awkward. He couldn’t use her first name. But he’d been forbidden to call her Mrs. Wylde, which admittedly felt strange on the tongue. Perhaps she felt the same; she murmured something unintelligible, eyes on her feet. “I trust you slept well?”
    “Yes, thank you.”
    Why was she hovering half out of the room? “The tea is still hot, I believe. If you would care to ring for a fresh…”
    “No, no.”
    She practically scuttled into the breakfast room, quickly helped herself from the dishes on the sideboard, and slipped into the chair farthest from him. Alec wondered if something had frightened her in the night.
    “Please continue with your newspaper,” she said. The teapot wavered a little in her hand. “I did not mean to interrupt.”
    It finally occurred to him that his Uncle Henry had been a bear at the breakfast table. He couldn’t imagine anything more likely. She wasn’t accusing him of a wish to be rude. He watched her add milk to her tea. This girl’s association with his irascible relative still seemed like a wild tale that couldn’t be true. Alec ate a bit of ham, spread butter on a piece of toast. When he judged that she’d had time to settle, he said, “I understand you know of a possible remedy for Anne’s cough?”
    Again, she started. “How did you…?”
    “Lizzy told her maid Susan, who mentioned it to the housekeeper, who immediately informed me. If you wish to keep secrets, do not tell my little sister.”
    “It wasn’t a…”
    “Of course.” Was there no way to put this girl at ease? “The remedy?”
    “It is an herbal mixture. A doctor in Bath recommended it when my father was visiting there, and we ordered it at once. It was very helpful to