Read Online The Gilded Web by Mary Balogh - Free Book Online Page A

yesterday. And why did you not drink the chocolate I had smuggled up to you last night?”
    Alexandra met her old nurse’s eyes in the mirror and smiled. “You knew I would not, Nanny,” she said. “Indeed, you would have been shocked had I done so. You sent it only as a token of love, and for that I thank you. But you know that I will not knowingly disobey Papa.”
    â€œOn your way, then,” the nurse said, clapping her hands. “You don’t want another day on bread and water, lovey.”
    Alexandra had a confused feeling of going back in time as a footman opened the doors into the salon and she stepped inside. Her father stood before the fireplace as he had the day before, the visitor before the windows, his hands behind his back. Only it was not the same visitor. This man was younger, taller, more slender in build, fairer of hair. But he was quite as fashionable as his brother. And his face looked as good-humored. He must be the Earl of Amberley’s brother. There was a very definite family resemblance.
    Alexandra folded her hands in front of her and lifted her chin. She looked at her father.
    â€œMay I present Lord Eden to you, Alexandra?” Lord Beckworth said.
    She turned her eyes on the baron and inclined her head. He bowed.
    â€œMiss Purnell,” he said.
    â€œLord Eden has requested a private word with you, Alexandra,” her father continued. “I have granted him ten minutes. I trust you will listen carefully and do what is right. You will retire to your mother’s sitting room at the end of the ten minutes.”
    â€œYes, Papa,” she said.
    But this was not to be an exact repetition of the day before, Alexandra found after her father had closed the doors behind him. Lord Eden did not stay by the windows, his hands behind his back, as his brother had done. He came hurrying across the room to her, his handsome face alive with concern.
    â€œMiss Purnell,” he said, “how you must hate me. How you must wish you could put a bullet between my eyes. I am most dreadfully sorry, you know. But I do not know even how to begin to beg your pardon. To say I am sorry is quite insufficient, but I can think of no words that are adequate.”
    She looked at him, at his eager, boyish face. He could not be any older than she, this ogre of sin and vice she had pictured to herself through one night of terror and another of tedious punishment. “You need not trouble yourself any further, my lord,” she said. “I have already forgiven you. Did Lord Amberley not tell you that?”
    â€œHe did say that you were remarkably decent about the whole matter,” he said. “But I find it hard to believe that you can have forgiven me, Miss Purnell. I can scarce think of anything more unpardonable that I might have done.”
    â€œWe are all in need of forgiveness,” she said. “How can we expect to receive it if we are not also prepared to give it?”
    He looked somewhat taken aback. “You are more kind than I deserve,” he said. “I have come to make things right if I can. I know that you cannot possibly wish to marry me. You must wish me at the bottom of the deepest ocean. I have heard that you have had an understanding with the Duke of Peterleigh. I cannot begin to compete with him in consequence. And you must have rather a poor opinion of the stability of my character. But you may be assured that as your husband I would spend the rest of my life trying to make up to you what I have taken from you.”
    Alexandra’s eyes had widened. “Oh,” she said, “you have come to offer for me too? It is quite unnecessary, my lord, as I told Lord Amberley yesterday. I am grateful that you have come to apologize, even though I had already forgiven you. But really you need do no more.”
    He looked with boyish earnestness into her eyes. “But you must marry me, Miss Purnell,” he said. “I have severely