When the Earl Met His Match (Wedded by Scandal #4) - Stacy Reid Page 0,17

You made me tremble…with four little words. Good God, what was this?

Taking a deep, steadying breath, he read the rest of her letter.

I must have shocked you with those words, and I know, because I have alarmed even myself. Upon my honor, I must tell you I have been compromised, and I am considered irrevocably ruined, and only a marriage will render me respectable.

In my darkest moments of despair, my thoughts turned to you, and I’ve been re-reading the letters we exchanged. You are in need of a wife, and I am in need of a husband. This to me now seems like a most suitable match.

I dare to hope that since you’ve not taken a wife as yet, those who have responded to your advert have not appealed to your plans. I dare to hope this because I would like to offer my hand to you in marriage.

I have the distinction of being a lady who has been well schooled in the etiquettes of society. I am nineteen years of age and the daughter of a duke with a dowry of fifty thousand pounds. I cannot own to my complete identity or the full of my situation until a bargain has been struck. If you are amiable to our union, please respond immediately.

A Curious Lady.

Hugh read her letter three times before he made his way over to his desk and withdrew a sheaf of paper. He lowered himself into the wingback chair, picked up the quill, and dipped into the ink.

Dear A Curious Lady,

Hugh glanced through the windows to the garden where his father sat, his face tilted to the skyline as he watched the receding sun. His father suddenly appeared alerted, and he surged to his feet, staring toward the wide gravel line driveway leading to their stately home.

His father would hate for him to take a wife such as A Curious Lady. The very fact she was compromised spoke to the wild, passionate nature his father feared. Was it that she had been caught kissing another? Or had she driven out with a gentleman alone? Was she caught up in gossip not of her own choosing?

A hint of desperation, of sorrow perhaps, had resounded in her words, and instinct warned him it could be more serious. However, given the capricious and fickle nature of the ton, the chit could be ruined for something as simple as a rake asking her to dance.

But you are brave, aren’t you? Instead of caving to their demands, here you are being wilful and intrepid, taking your future into your own keeping. Reckless. Yet powerful. A thing denied to young ladies who were nineteen.

A never-felt hunger crawled through his heart.

What did you do…or what has been done to you?

For his father’s sake…he must deny her. A fierce swell of an intangible feeling swept through Hugh. Everything inside rebelled at the notion, yet he could not dishonour or bring pain to his father in his last days. He dipped the quill once more in the inkwell and set the point onto the paper.

I am truly sorry circumstances have forced you to ask me this question. I must regrettably—

A sharp rap on the door had him pausing. He rang the bell on his desk once, and the sharp tinkling sound pealed through the room. Their butler, a man as old as his father, shuffled inside.

“There is a carriage coming up the driveway, master Hugh.”

He lowered the quill. “At this hour?”

No one called at the castle this late, unless they had been invited to stay overnight. “Is it William?” His brother had been away for almost three years and should return home at any moment to see the old earl.

“I do not recognize the crest. I believe it was deliberately covered.”

Considerably curious, Hugh pushed back his chair and made his way from the study down the prodigious hallway to the front door. He was not surprised to see his father there, leaning on his cane, a scowl on his face.

“If it is that Lady widow, you will turn her away. I’ll not tolerate her antics,” the old earl muttered crossly.

To the old earl’s frustration, the widowed viscountess, a most recent neighbour, seemed to have taken a liking to him. She had paid calls upon them at odd hours and had sent several invitations for them to dine at her manor despite all of them being refused. She had caused his father to mutter most aggrievedly at her lack of propriety and disregard for the rules