Read Online To Tame A Countess (Properly Spanked Book 2) by Annabel Joseph - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Annabel Joseph
Tags: Romance
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things about her that weren’t true.
“Lord Baxter, you must believe that nothing untoward has happened, nothing at all to require a marriage,” she pleaded. “This really isn’t necessary.”
“I have been patient with you, my dear, but this is not a negotiable thing.”
“But I would not have you think badly of me.” Her voice cracked on the last words. Not only because she had taken the horrid spanking for nothing, but because she’d die if Lord Baxter despised her. “Nothing happened.” She turned to Lord Warren. “Won’t you tell him? Won’t you explain?”
Something glinted in his deep blue eyes. “Do you really wish me to explain? To tell him all? I said I wouldn’t, but I will, if you wish it.” He said these words very slowly and deliberately, so she understood exactly what he meant.
She scowled at him and turned back to Lord Baxter. Perhaps she ought to be perfectly honest. Perhaps it was pointless. Lord Warren seemed to think so. He had already given up, given in. He hadn’t protested any of this in the slightest.
Lord Baxter came to her and touched her cheek, and gave her a tired smile. “I love you, my dear, and I always will, no matter your mistakes and your stubborn reluctance to marry. In time, you’ll see it’s not such a bad thing. I only wish you to be protected and taken care of. You’ll be a countess now, as well as a baroness by right.”
“But…” Her voice trembled as her fate closed around her like a vise. “I don’t care about being a countess. I do not wish to marry Lord Warren or anyone else.”
The man in question let go of her hand and looked down at her with a daunting expression. His lips were pursed in a very tight line.
*** *** ***
Warren married the Baroness Maitland the next day at the small church in Chapley, with only Minette and the Baxters in attendance. His bride wore her second best black gown because she had no other color gown to put on, and because her first best black gown had got hopelessly wrinkled and dusty in the woods the day before.
He brooded over the black, and thought that she deserved a grander wedding, but Baxter had wanted it done quickly, before the lady could launch some further revolt. Thanks to the gossip going around the parlors of Lord Baxter’s manor, no one was very surprised at the sudden nuptials. Well, Warren was a bit surprised. By some bizarre cycle of events, the strange woman he’d seen peeking out from a wall of house plants a few days ago was now his wife. In some backward and iniquitous way, he had played the hero after all and rescued her from Stafford.
He wasn’t sure whether he ought to be proud.
After the wedding ceremony, Josephine asked for a moment alone in the church, “to pray,” she said, but Warren knew she was crying. He sat on a churchyard bench outside with Minette, and looked up at an overcast sky.
“I believe it was a very charming wedding,” his sister said in her bright and brisk way. He thought he might hug her for it, or go into the church and start crying along with Josephine. “I mean, some people might think it hurried, or inelegant, or some such thing,” she went on, “but all that matters is that the two of you are joined together in affection and love. Stafford put about the worst rumors as soon as he heard the news, but no one thinks him of any account, anyway. They knew he felt jealous that you won her instead of him, and so what else would he say, but that the two of you behaved badly? But I told everyone that was absolutely untrue.”
“Thank you, Minette.”
“Josephine did want to marry you, didn’t she?” Her lips turned down in a frown. “I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t want to. I think it’s ridiculous when people say weddings are forced. She stood up there and said her vows as clear as day.”
Minette had not been able to see the tears in Josephine’s eyes. Or perhaps she had, and preferred not to let that fact sully her happy view of the world.
“Lord Baxter, you must believe that nothing untoward has happened, nothing at all to require a marriage,” she pleaded. “This really isn’t necessary.”
“I have been patient with you, my dear, but this is not a negotiable thing.”
“But I would not have you think badly of me.” Her voice cracked on the last words. Not only because she had taken the horrid spanking for nothing, but because she’d die if Lord Baxter despised her. “Nothing happened.” She turned to Lord Warren. “Won’t you tell him? Won’t you explain?”
Something glinted in his deep blue eyes. “Do you really wish me to explain? To tell him all? I said I wouldn’t, but I will, if you wish it.” He said these words very slowly and deliberately, so she understood exactly what he meant.
She scowled at him and turned back to Lord Baxter. Perhaps she ought to be perfectly honest. Perhaps it was pointless. Lord Warren seemed to think so. He had already given up, given in. He hadn’t protested any of this in the slightest.
Lord Baxter came to her and touched her cheek, and gave her a tired smile. “I love you, my dear, and I always will, no matter your mistakes and your stubborn reluctance to marry. In time, you’ll see it’s not such a bad thing. I only wish you to be protected and taken care of. You’ll be a countess now, as well as a baroness by right.”
“But…” Her voice trembled as her fate closed around her like a vise. “I don’t care about being a countess. I do not wish to marry Lord Warren or anyone else.”
The man in question let go of her hand and looked down at her with a daunting expression. His lips were pursed in a very tight line.
*** *** ***
Warren married the Baroness Maitland the next day at the small church in Chapley, with only Minette and the Baxters in attendance. His bride wore her second best black gown because she had no other color gown to put on, and because her first best black gown had got hopelessly wrinkled and dusty in the woods the day before.
He brooded over the black, and thought that she deserved a grander wedding, but Baxter had wanted it done quickly, before the lady could launch some further revolt. Thanks to the gossip going around the parlors of Lord Baxter’s manor, no one was very surprised at the sudden nuptials. Well, Warren was a bit surprised. By some bizarre cycle of events, the strange woman he’d seen peeking out from a wall of house plants a few days ago was now his wife. In some backward and iniquitous way, he had played the hero after all and rescued her from Stafford.
He wasn’t sure whether he ought to be proud.
After the wedding ceremony, Josephine asked for a moment alone in the church, “to pray,” she said, but Warren knew she was crying. He sat on a churchyard bench outside with Minette, and looked up at an overcast sky.
“I believe it was a very charming wedding,” his sister said in her bright and brisk way. He thought he might hug her for it, or go into the church and start crying along with Josephine. “I mean, some people might think it hurried, or inelegant, or some such thing,” she went on, “but all that matters is that the two of you are joined together in affection and love. Stafford put about the worst rumors as soon as he heard the news, but no one thinks him of any account, anyway. They knew he felt jealous that you won her instead of him, and so what else would he say, but that the two of you behaved badly? But I told everyone that was absolutely untrue.”
“Thank you, Minette.”
“Josephine did want to marry you, didn’t she?” Her lips turned down in a frown. “I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t want to. I think it’s ridiculous when people say weddings are forced. She stood up there and said her vows as clear as day.”
Minette had not been able to see the tears in Josephine’s eyes. Or perhaps she had, and preferred not to let that fact sully her happy view of the world.
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