Read Online When Strangers Marry by Lisa Kleypas - Free Book Online Page A

clothes. “Lysette, be still. Let me take care of you. Sleep. You’re safe, machère .”
    After a while the stroking and the quiet words soothed the girl, and she went limp against him. He took the cup from the bedside and pressed it to her lips. She choked and tried to resist, but he coaxed and urged and insisted until she swallowed some of the medicine.
    Gently Max eased her back to the mattress and covered her with the sheet. He glanced at his mother’s astonished face. “Tell Noeline to bring fresh linens,” he said. “She can help me change the bed.”
    Irénée finally found her voice. “Thank you for your help, Max. I will see to her now.”
    Max picked up a comb from the night table and began to work on the mass of snarls in Lysette’s hair. “You are exhausted, Maman. Go get some rest. I’ll take care of her.”
    Irénée did not know how to reply to such an outrageousstatement. “ What ? What a ridiculous suggestion. Completely out of the bounds of propriety. Besides, men don’t know anything about nursing. It is a woman’s concern. There are duties required—”
    “A woman’s body is hardly a mystery to me. As for nursing the fever, I took care of the twins when they had it. Remember?”
    That silenced Irénée for a few seconds. “Indeed, I had forgotten,” she admitted. “You were very good with the twins when they were ill. But they were your sons, and this an innocent girl….”
    “Do you think I’m going to ravish her?” Max asked with a twisted smile. “Even I am not that degenerate, Maman.”
    “ Mon fils ,” she asked suspiciously, “why do you wish to take this upon yourself?”
    “Why shouldn’t I? I have a vested interest in her welfare. Now go and rest. I’m capable of looking after her for a few hours.”
    She stood up reluctantly. “I will tell Noeline to take your place.”
    However, Max did not allow Noeline or anyone else to replace him. From that moment on, he spent every minute by Lysette’s bed, his shirtsleeves rolled above his elbows as he labored to break the girl’s raging fever. He was inexhaustible and astonishingly patient.
    Irénée had never heard of even a husband doing as much for a wife. It was all too shocking. She was dismayed, but unable to think of a way to intercede. She had no control over Max. Perhaps if his brothers had been home they would have volunteered to coercehim from the sickroom, but day after day went by without their arrival—and Max remained in the girl’s bedchamber as if it were his right.
     
    A wolf prowled through Lysette’s dreams, stalking until she ran and stumbled to the ground. He loomed closer, his teeth gleaming as he crouched over her prone body, and suddenly he was ripping her to pieces. She screamed as she felt herself being savaged and torn apart. Suddenly the wolf was gone, banished by the sound of a low voice. “I’m here…it’s all right. Shhh…I’m here. I’m here.”
    She was surrounded by sweltering heat that scorched her skin and blistered her lungs. Crying out in agony, she fought to escape it. She felt a cool hand stroke her forehead. Restlessly she sought more. “Please,” she gasped, and groaned with relief as the life-giving caress returned, coolness moving over her body, easing the unbearable fire.
    The wolf eyes were watching again, glowing devilishly in the darkness. She whirled away in panic and came up against a man’s hard chest and taut arms. “Please help me—”
    “You’ve been promised to me,” she heard the voice of Etienne Sagesse, and she looked up at his face in horror. Desire flickered bright in his heavy-lidded eyes, and his lips shone with moisture. She twisted away from him and came face-to-face with her stepfather.
    Gaspard’s face was blotched with rage. “You will marry him!” He struck her and raised his hand again.
    “Maman,” she cried, seeing her mother nearby, but Jeanne backed away, shaking her head.
    “Do what your beau-père says. You must obey