Read Online The Demon's Bride by Jo Beverley - Free Book Online Page B

so charming when you glower, my intriguing Puritan. I still want you to marry me.”
    “And I still refuse.”
    “That seems clear enough,” said Rachel’s father, “so we have no further need to discuss the matter just now.”
    “On the contrary,” Morden said, and already the anger was bubbling to the surface. “I was hoping you would make your daughter see sense.”
    “Rachel has an abundance of good sense, my lord, especially in matters of right and wrong. She does not wish to marry against her inclinations. As she is too prudent to run into debt, there is no reason she should.”
    The earl stared at the vicar as if he’d grown horns. “I could have you thrown out of this living for that.”
    Rachel was shivering in her shoes, for she had not thought that her affairs could ruin her father.
    “Perhaps so,” said Rachel’s father calmly, “but I would be a poor sort of fellow to allow you to bully my daughter for such a reason, wouldn’t I?”
    Morden turned to impale Rachel with cold eyes. “You hold yourself damnably high.”
    “Are you saying you hold me low?”
    “Believe it as you may, Miss aptly-named Proudfoot, but there are a great many ladies in this land who would jump at the chance that you toss back in my face.”
    “More fools they!”
    “I will not grovel to you.” It was almost a snarl.
    “I expect no man to grovel to me. Pray tell me, sir, what do you have with which to tempt me? I don’t care a snap for title and riches.”
    He didn’t allow her father’s presence to deter him. “Rapture of the senses,” he said.
    “That’s no reason to marry,” Rachel protested, face burning.
    “It’s an excellent one. Isn’t it, vicar?”
    “It’s an important part of marriage, yes,” said Rachel’s father.
    Rachel stared at him. “Father! But, still ... there has to be more.”
    “Assuredly.”
    Rachel turned back to her arrogant suitor. “What more can you offer, my lord?”
    “Oh, be damned to you for a prude and a stiff-rumped idiot! I’ll not ask you again.” He stalked out of the room.
     
     
    “Good!” Rachel shrieked after him, then sat down and burst into tears.
    Her father patted her back and offered her a dry handkerchief. “It really is better this way,” he said, when her tears had subsided to sniffles.
    “I know. Such a marriage would never work.”
    “That is not certain.”
    “He’s an unrepentant rake.”
    “He is certainly reluctant to change his ways.”
    “He makes me so angry !”
    “He certainly does. See, dinner’s ready. As there is enough for three, we must address it heartily.”
    “I’m not hungry.”
    “You need to keep up your strength for future developments.”
    “What developments? He said he’d never ask me again.”
    Her father urged her into the dining room. “That doesn’t mean that he’ll give up.”
    He seemed in an oddly good mood.
    He was correct, though. The very next day as Rachel was returning from a visit to the new Dilbury baby, she encountered the earl on foot. She was taking a shortcut by the river, and the location was alarmingly isolated.
    “Are you afraid of me at last?” he asked with an unpleasant smile.
    “Why should I fear you?” But she did.
    “I could deprive your father of his living.”
    “That would be below contempt, my lord.”
    She tried to walk past him, but he seized her arm. “Perhaps you could reform me. . . .”
    “Oh, come now, Mr. Lovelace, I am no Clarissa to be taken in by that ploy.”
    He flinched. “You are infuriating.”
    “Only to a spoiled child who must have his way. Release me!”
    “No. I must have my way.”
    Rachel didn’t even resist when he drew her to him. She’d been aware from the first moment of seeing him that he would kiss her, and her blood had been singing with the wanting. If he hadn’t kissed her, she suspected that she would have dragged him in for a kiss herself.
    His lips were clever, but now his hands, too, showed their skill, first at her throat,