his smile—would have her believe, this was a matter of business, pure and simple.
S outhbrook strode through the fog, hardly noting it as it swirled about his legs and clung like cold arms.
He wondered what he thought he was doing.
He was twenty-nine years old and a widower. He’d lived his life very much as he pleased until recently, when he’d began to take seriously his responsibilities to his son and his name. Eustace’s treatment by his nanny had been like a dash of cold water in his face. It was as if he’d woken from a long sleep, and seen so clearly that he must spent more time with his son, that he must put aside his own selfish desires and become a good father. Eustace should have been at school by now, but Mrs. Slater had set him back, and it seemed better to wait another year or two, to employ a tutor instead.
Rufus had also begun to take an interest in his title and his estate, in being a good landlord, in repairing some of the mess his father and his father had left behind. No one had really taken an interest in Southbrook Castle for years, and Rufus decided that he would be the member of the family to turn things around. The reforming earl, that was what he would be known as.
And then fate had come along and, as if to mock at his honorable pretensions, lumbered him with a debt that was likely to crush them all.
Unless the Heiress agreed to marry him.
He shook his head. Averil, not the Heiress. This was a real woman, a beautiful woman, who looked directly into his eyes as if she wasn’t in the least afraid of him. She should be, he knew she should be, and he should warn her away. Or better still, take himself off somewhere and never cross paths with her again.
But he already knew he wouldn’t. He was enjoying being in her company as he hadn’t enjoyed a woman’s company for years. Was it because she had her own secret past that he felt a connection with her? James had told him about Averil’s mother, who’d bolted with a lover and left her daughter behind, and then given birth to another girl and promptly died. Of course, Lord Martindale had managed to avoid scandal by cutting all ties with his wife, and Averil was therefore considered a perfectly respectable member of society.
Unlike him.
He admitted to himself that the idea of finding the sister, of doing what he once did so well, appealed to him. It would certainly take his mind off his troubles, but it was more than that. Rufus always enjoyed his work with The Guardians and was sorry when it ended, although at the time he knew he had had enough of political shenanigans. That was the thing when you were working for the government, somehow politics always reared its head, and he’d found himself on assignments where he didn’t consider his true talents were being used.
Perhaps they could be friends?
Rufus gave a loud crack of laughter. He wasn’t after friendship. He was planning to cold-bloodedly use her secret sister to worm his way into her life, into her heart, and then pounce. He was worse than anything anyone said about him, a creature to be reviled, but it was too late now. He couldn’t go back. Southbrook Castle was depending on him, and Eustace and James, too. They would lose their home. He couldn’t go back.
One way or another Rufus had set his sights on marrying Averil.
A veril wrapped her shawl about her nightgown and made her way a little reluctantly to bed. She had so much to think about and she knew she wouldn’t sleep while these questions were running around in her head.
“Averil? Are you asleep?” Beth, in her lacy nightcap, peered around the door.
“Far from it,” Averil sighed.
Averil smiled as Beth sat next to her on the bed and made herself comfortable. Beth, as well as a friend and companion, had come to take the place of her mother. She had only very vague memories of Anastasia. A scent that was perhaps a little too exotic, a warm embrace that was perhaps a little too tight, a smile that was perhaps
Larry Niven, Nancy Kress, Mercedes Lackey, Ken Liu, Brad R. Torgersen, C. L. Moore, Tina Gower
Daniel J. Fairbanks
Mary Eason
Annie Jocoby
Riley Clifford
My Dearest Valentine
Carol Stephenson
Tammy Andresen
Terry Southern
Tara Sivec