ROMANCE: Romantic Comedy: Love in 30 Days - The Best Plans Don't Always Work! (Plus 19 FREE Books Book 13) (47 page)

“I’ll show up at the theatre in a long cloak and hide in the box under rugs so they can’t tell, if they could anyway, and after I finish pretending to care about the Season they’ll take me home until next year when I’m finally better and able to be sold on the marriage market.”

“Do most young women feel that way?”

She gave him an amused glance. “I’m sure they do. I’m equally sure they’d never say so. So you see, I am not avoiding you Henry. In fact I wish very much to see you but until…well, obviously I cannot. And if you no longer wish to see me I understand.”

He opened his mouth and closed it. He wasn’t sure what to say to her. He mourned for her misfortune and he was glad that weasel Smith had met his untimely end at his post in India such a short time after his arrival there.

But she was with child, and he was expected to marry a virginal woman, one who’d bring honor to his life. He sighed and started to speak but the sound of carriage wheels on the drive stopped him.

Her face wore a crestfallen expression. She said, “Go, please go.”

Then she fled toward the townhouse, her cloak fluttering behind her.

**

Annalise was heartbroken. Henry was so good and kind! He’d not only held her secret he’d let her talk to him and she had seen immediately that he had not judged her the way so many had after it had all happened.

They had blamed her. They’d told her she should have known better. They’d questioned just how much wine she’d had—a bare half-glass!—and they’d been suspicious of her story until he’d broken and confessed.

It didn’t matter really.

No matter how good and kind Henry was no man wanted a ruined woman and she was ruined. If she had to marry, and she would if only to leave the manor where the child would be raised, she’d much rather marry a man who’d ask little of her and not care much about whether or not she was a virgin.

Like Christopher Sneeds.

He was mad about men, and she knew it. She could actually make him a workable proposition and they could marry. They’d be a good match. She wanted nobody but Henry and he wanted someone who’d leave him in peace so he could enjoy his life with his ‘manservant’, a handsome and insolent lad from the outskirts of London.

She’d hoped Henry would kiss her, at least, and tell her he would always be fond of her. She’d hoped for so much, and the arrival of the carriage had interrupted them but she felt certain that even if it hadn’t he would have answered her last words with an apology and a hasty exit.

Lucy came into the room an hour later, her face wearing a disapproving look. She held a thick envelope in her hand and she said, “Lord Wallace brought this himself. He insisted I alone take it and give it to you.”

“Thank you Lucy.” Her back ached and she sat up, wincing slightly as the pain got wider and stronger.

She tore open the envelope then paused. She’d never answered his letters. She’d wanted to but she’d known if she did she would pour her heart out and now she held a missive in her hand that was likely his dismissal in her hands.

The temptation to throw it into the fire was high but she had to read it, she just had to.

She pulled the crisply folded parchment out and began to read.

Dearest Annalise,

I intend to approach your uncle tomorrow and ask for your hand. I fell in love with you, I believe, the moment I saw you climbing that apple tree and laughing down at me.

I know you likely don’t want marriage, and fear it too. I don’t blame you if that is how you feel but at the risk of sounding like a dowager spouting out her charge’s assets, I love you. I think people do better when they have no secrets, no matter how deep those secrets might be or for what reason they are kept and I think we have no secrets now.

I shall cherish you and be patient. I shall never try to hinder you from being yourself, because it is you that I love. Your reading and tendency to talk politics and your love of horses and rescuing kittens all appeal to me more than I can say.

But more than that, I love you for your bravery, your incredible and immense courage in the face of adversity so great.

Please say I might talk to your uncle tomorrow.

Forever yours,

Henry.

Happy tears ran down her face and her back gave off a powerful ache that made her gasp. Lucy, standing nearby said, “It’s nearing time Miss.”

“I know. Quick, fetch me a quill and paper!”

Lucy went to the ask and came back with the little writing box. Annalise pulled a sheet of parchment out and wrote one single word.

Yes.

“Take this to him Lucy,” she said.

Lucy shook her head. “No I must stay.”

Annalise laughed. “I shall be right here when you return. Hurry before the man I love changes his mind!”

Lucy said, “He knows, doesn’t he? And loves you anyway?”

Annalise could barely speak. “Aye he does.”

Lucy took the paper and ran.

*** THE END ***

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Book Fifteen

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LUST FOR THE WRONG LOVER

By Sarah Styler

The day that I met Kennedy had been an exhausting day for me. I was a PR agent and had back to back client sessions that had made me want to pull my hair out. Hollywood stars seemed to be getting more and more needy lately. I was stunned when I first saw him, though.

I was at a stockholder's meeting with a date. A man my mom had set me up with. It was our second date and we hadn't really hit it off at the first.

We met there, while my date was at the bar and I was left alone at a table for four. He sat down, smoothly, and proceeded to put his hand over the chair next to him.

"May I sit?" he asked.

"It looks like you already have."

"Well I would be amiss if I sat somewhere where I was unwanted."

"No, you are not unwanted," I said, eying him up and down. There was an immediate attraction to him. He looked like he was well-built underneath his tuxedo and had a dashingly handsome smile. I loved the look of his hair and beautiful, crisp eyes. He was stunning and I couldn't take my eyes off of him. His eyes did not waver, either. He was looking my tiny frame up and down. Then he settled on my face, or perhaps was looking at my brunette hair.

"I'm Kennedy Miller, a CEO over at Goldman Fischer," he told me. "I live in the city. How about you?"

"I live outside of the city," I said.

"You're a beautiful young woman," he said.

"Well, thank you, but why do you say that?" I asked.

"Because your date is coming back right now," he finished.

Kennedy put his hand forward and shook mine over the tale as he stood a little, saying, "It's nice to meet you."

"The same to you," I said in reply quietly. I wasn't a very shy or quiet person normally, but there was something about him that made me want to be a bit more reserved. He relaxed me, already and I could feel it. I wasn't even concerned over who my date thought this man might be.

My date, Glenn, said, "No, stay a bit. Are you leaving?"

He said, "Not if you don't want me to."

"No, sit," Glenn replied.

"Oh, alright," he said, sitting fully and easing back into his chair as he did.

"I'm Glen and this is Corinne. She works as a PR agent and I'm a stockholder here."

Kennedy said, with a nod, "That's something else."

"Now, where are you from?" Glenn asked.

"Me?" he asked, looking directly at me, now. He then looked away and said, "Norway, then I came here."

"At what age?"

"Six," he said.

"That's why you don't have an accent," Glenn said.

Kennedy nodded.

"Do you ave fond memories of Norway?" I asked.

"I hate the snow, that's for sure."

Glenn laughed and I smiled, then said, "Then you're never going back?"

"Never going back," he said.

"That's too bad, I heard it's nice once you're a grown-up," I said.

"I heard it'll be worse," he said with a bright smile on his face.

"Where did you grow up?" Kennedy asked me.

"I grew up here my entire life," I said.

"I moved here and haven't lived anywhere else," he said.

"I like asking funny questions, are you okay with that?"

"I am."

I said, "Let's start with a normal one."

"Go ahead and ask me a normal one," he said with a nod.

"Okay, then what's your favorite animal?" I asked.

"I would have to say, the otter."

"The otter, huh?"

"Uh-huh," he said. "Yours?"

"I like the wombat," I said.

"A nice animal from down-under."

"So, what's your least favorite animal?"

"You like funny questions, don't you?" he said. After a moment's pause, he said, "The wombat."

"What about you, Glenn?" I asked my date.

Glenn looked at me, then back at his phone.

He said, after a moment's hesitation, "I have to go, Corinne. I fee so bad. But something's come up."

"That's fine," I said. "That's fine."

"I'm so sorry I have to go, I am. I really liked our date."

"It's fine," I repeated.

"Would you like a ride back?"

"That won't be necessary, I'll see my own way out."

Kennedy said, "If I may--would you like me to keep you company for the rest of the party?"

Glenn looked dejected, but I was ready to take Kennedy up on the offer.

"Sure!" I said.

"Then, I'll be seeing you," Glenn said and I got up and gave him a stiff, awkward hug. Soon, he was gone and I was sitting across from Kennedy.

"So, more questions for me?" he asked.

"I wish, Glen was the good one at questions."

"Oh, Glen, I miss him already," he said with a tone of whimsy to his voice.

"Oh, Glen."

"Did you know him well?"

"Second date," I said.

"And yet you stayed with me to spend the evening with. I am flattered. Glen was a standup guy but you make me feel like even more of one. Thank you."

I said, "Well, then you are welcome, though I didn't know that was what I was doing when I did it."

"It was thoughtful, nonetheless."

"It was," I agreed. "I'm happy to be of service."

He chuckled and I moved my hands on the table, looking down at him. I looked back up at him to see a handsome man that I had a strong attraction to.

"What does Goldman Fischer, where you work, do?"

"A conglomerate of a few name brands. Not very interesting work, really. It's a lot of moving money around. What is it about being a PR agent that you like?"

"Moving people around, I guess. I have to make sure they're going to their events and usually get to go to them myself. I like that about it."

"Is it that you like the glamor?"

"There isn't much glamor to it. Oh, okay, I see. There is some. I see where you would get that. It is a bit glamorous, yes, and I suppose I like it."

"I like big events like this one. I like people watching them."

"Like that couple over there, not getting along well."

"And those behind you, look," I did and he said, "they guys are closing a deal and their spouses are bored next to them. It's quite funny."

"You can gain a lot from watching other people."

"It tells you about yourself."

"Exactly, exactly," he said.

"What would you tell me about yourself right now if you had the chance?" I said to him with a soft, encouraging tone to my voice.